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Engine Removal

5-7-2009 to 5-9-2009

The first step is to remove the hood.  Just about everything here has to come out.
Here is what the battery tray looks like.  We will take care of this rust.

Radiator is out.  There is a little surface rust on the sheet metal in places where the car has never been painted.  Something else to take care of.
When I took the exhaust pipe loose from the exhaust manifold I found this damage to one of the brass nuts.  The stud in the manifold rusted enough that the nut came loose then the hot exhaust gasses did this damage. 

There are no existing hoist mounts on the engine but the VERY sturdy oil filter mount will do just fine on the front of the engine.  I drilled a chunk of angle iron to make the rear hoist mount.  I had to remove the coil, dipstick, and heater hose to make room.
Showtime!  The driveshaft is out, all the wiring disconnected, the starter is out, and it is about time to lift.  I hooked up the hoist,  took the engine weight on the hoist, then removed the rear motor mount and transmission.
Here is the front motor mount.  Did you notice the ground strap next to it?  I sure did not.  More on that later.  You can also see the disconnected fuel line.
I had the whole family helping.  Some had more confidence in me than others.  The load leveler on the hoist was a really big help because the engine had to tilt a lot to get it out.
Tilt the engine, wiggle it back, jack it up, repeat.  For some reason one of the front motor mounts seemed to get hung up.  I wonder why?
Engine out!  No major damage.  Now I need to figure out how to hang it on the engine stand.  I probably should have pulled the bell housing off but I would really rather not do that.  I ended up being able to only use two bolts to hang the engine.  That makes me a little nervous but they are really strong bolts.
So THAT is why the engine hung up.  I guess if this is the biggest mistake I make on this project I am doing OK.  Lucky for me the fine boys at Studebaker simply tinned the end of the ground strap and drilled a hole for the bolt.  It pulled out cleanly and I think I can fix it by just soldering the end back together.
Quite a large hole has been left behind.  You can see the shift linkage hanging down, the throttle linkage bolted to the firewall, some rust, the steering box, and the front frame cross member.  The first of many piles of dirt off the car is laying on the pavement.