Do you remember the first time you tried to set a engine back where it belongs?

It wasn't so much removing the engine and setting it back where it belongs, but removing the car from the engine and putting a van back in it's place...

I had only a vauge idea of what I was getting into when I decided to body-swap the Challenge van/car (APV / GTP). It was a ton of work, and I'd do it differently if I did it again. But I always get a "are you crazy?", "you built this in your garage?", "you must really know what you are doing" kind of reaction from people when I tell them about it. And I really just made it up, made mistakes, and learned as I went along.

Swapping the engine in my '77 Jeep Cherokee Chief in the parking lot of a friend's junk yard using his wrecker as a hoist.

Swapping out the cast iron 3 speed some idiot installed in a Boss 429 Mustang while the car was on 2 jack stands and was straddling the curb.

Changing the AC evaporator in a 3 year old '89 Jetta because I lived in Florida and couldn't afford the $2300 in labor the shop wanted to do the job.

Swapping the rear suspension and cradle from a '99 Miata into a '90 in my garage by myself.

I freely admit, for some reason, small 2 strokes are completely hit and miss with me. Sometimes I can fix them and sometimes they never run again.

The exact order of the following events may be jumbled in my mind, but they did happen:

35 years ago, my brother bought a '67 Mustang 3 speed, 6 cylinder. The engine was blown in short order. A junkyard 351W was procured.We had no idea what a horrible mess we were bringing down upon our own heads.

We had to rent/ borrow a hoist, so there was always an urgency. One engine was chained too long, and instead of dropping it, shortening the chain, and all that, my brother pushed the engine up, pendulum style, while I (and another guy, I believe), pushed the car back. It barely cleared at its highest point.

To take the core block back to the junkyard, I called an old friend's dad, who was good enough to come out in his truck. We plopped it in the back of the truck, and upon my question about tying it down, my buddy's dad exclaimed "That ain't goin' nowhere.", and we headed out. Well, sure enough, we dropped it out of the back of the truck right in the middle of an intersection.We had to pick that piece of E36M3 up, and cram it back in the truck. Meanwhile, my brother was returning the hoist. I can't remember if we had engine mounts in, or not, but I do remember, we didn't have the correct clutch/flywheel/bellhousing combo, so we had to bench press that in later.

Those straight sixes and iron case 3 speeds are heavy. Later, we lacked the right tools to fill the transmission, so a hose and funnel were employed. I was to hold the hose in the transmission from below, while big brother poured from the top. I was literally a greaser for weeks. Gear oil doesn't come out of your hair so easily.

Wait, you're saying it gets faster? After how many iterations? 20 times?

I had to swap the brake pads on my sports sedan at least 20 times before I could get the anti-rattle clips off and back on without going back to my DIY guide.

In reply to Huckleberry:

The reason I built an E36 track toy instead of an E30, was so I never have to unbolt that transmission for a clutch change. Satan designed that setup, I swear.

carter afb rebuild and tune was the first thing I got in over my head. Needed some help to figure out where everything went back together. Setting up a rear differential was the next one that really had me wondering if I was doing anything right.

parker wrote: I remember spending hours and hours covered in sweat trying to get the transmission back in my 240Z. I couldn't get the input shaft to line up with the clutch. Finally gave up at about midnight. Next day it popped right in on the first try.

The first time I replaced a clutch in a 3000GT VR4, I was having a nightmare of a time trying to get it in the last half inch. Thisaway, thataway, rotating here, rotating there, etc. After about an hour (an eternity in professional land), my co-worker and I took a break because we were physically and mentally spent. He leaned on the trans slightly and it fell into place. I jumped and threw two bolts in before whatever magic just happened undid itself.

The second time we had that trans out (it was a whole ago, the owner didn't like the clutch action or something) it did the same damn thing. Refused to go in, until that Marty McFly moment where we gave up and hit our metaphorical head on the steering wheel. And then it falls into place.

icaneat50eggs wrote: I reread the thread title and realized that is definitely NOT an example of putting an engine back where it belongs.

There was the time I took a running 307 Chevy out of a Chevelle and put it in a scrap pile.

I have no hatred for the 307, it's just a stroker 283, the kind of thing hotrodders might have built before the 327 existed (which, ironically, has the 307's stroke, and you can make a large journal 327 with a 350 block and 307 crank) but I do have a disdain for all things Chevy and I felt good in an evil way about putting a SBC on the scrap pallet.

Downside: I dropped a 383 in its place. Not the good kind of 383, but a Chevy 350 with a .030" overbore and a 3.75" crank...

First, my brother and I put the walk-off from a '73 Ford LTD onto a '77 LTD. That almost fit.

Then, we put a 351 Windsor from a '77 T-Bird in a '70 F-100. My brother smashed his finger pretty badly on that, and when it was all said and done, we couldn't get it to charge. Dad wasn't helpful, and the truck got junked.

Then we put an FMX (cast iron) automatic transmission in a '78 T-bird. We spent hours getting that trans to line up the last half inch, then (the angels sing) it fell into place. We found out later that, unlike a clutch, you take the torque converter off the flex plate to line it up, then put the whole damn show up into place.

Good times.

Where it belongs, like in front of the rear wheels?