The Day We Put the Engine in

We have been anxiously awaiting the moment we got to put the engine and transmission back on the car. After bleeding the brakes took much longer than we anticipated, (cough, one and a half weeks instead of the one day we had planned for) we were so ready. Anytime we touch the engine everyone is a little on edge. These are high stakes people! No one wants to be the one that drops the $5,000 piece of equipment.

Prep before you can put the engine on the frame:

• Secure the engine to the cherry picker aka engine hoist.
• Remove the engine stands and replace with engine mounts.
• Stabilize the frame (that ish is heavy!).

Stabilizing the frame was a bit more complicated than we thought -What else is new? When we tried to wheel the hoist under the frame, we soon realized there wasn’t enough clearance under the front end and needed to jack it up. Unfortunately there was no place to put the jacks! After discussing our options, all of the obvious ones weren’t working. #bucketbetty had the wild idea to put the rear tires on the front and the crazy thing is, IT WORKED!

Enough stalling, it was time. #bucketbetty assumed the position as the “lowerer” and everyone else gathered around the sides of the engine. Lining the engine mounts to the brackets on the frame took a little bit of communication. “A little to the back, okay now left, no back, a tiny bit towards me.” Finally both sides were lined up. With everyone holding their breath, #bucketbetty slowly turned the release on the cherry picker. We lowered the engine at what seemed like millimeters at a time. When the mount lined up with the bracket, #cuteasabucket and I shoved the bolt in on each side and secured the engine. The bolts under the transmission were a struggle, but eventually we got those in too. #winning

With the engine securely fastened to the frame, we added a few more parts and attached the ignition coil and headers back on the engine. The driveline shaft was locked back in place between the transmission and the third member.

We attempted to add the exhaust in too, but struggled with the brackets. Turns out, they were too short and the exhaust kept hitting the rearend. Ehh, something for another day.