Engine installation

On an A body can the engine (360) and tranny (904) be bolted together first than slipped right in? Normally I install them seperately which normally takes my brother and I about 30 minutes or so, but than we spend about 2 hours it seems putting all the bolts and starter in.

I was taking some measurements and it looks like its going to be close. I think if I slip it in on a very steep angle it just may work. Does this sound about right?

I pulled my small block and tranny out together, with out too much trouble.
But you can save yourself the headache and get a load leveler for your engine hoist. Mancini has them for $29.95 http://store.yahoo.com/chucker54/mreshoptools.html
I used one when I stuck my 383 big block and 727 tranny in my 70 Duster. That thing just made it so much easier, Ya may need to put your front end up on jackstands though.

Good Luck

Ok sounds good! :thumleft:

I pulled and installed mine together with the hood still on my car. If you try it make sure you pull the distributor. My car no has a new one. :oops:

goo advice about the distr

We pulled my 340 and 833 out together and left the dist. on but took off the cap, this on a 69 Swinger. Hood off. No leveler.
I dunno about putting it back in...its tight.

Oh yeah....we blocked up the front wheels about 8 inches and jack stands at the rear for easier crossmember and driveshaft connection. When i'm on a creeper I need a bit O clearance (260lbs) :shock:

On my 72 demon using the leveler, it all went in even with the hood still on.
I also had the front tires on a set of ramps. Kept the rears on the ground.
Too afraid of the car flattening my already tooo thin body some more! Also pulled entire dist, just out of fear of breaking that too.

I did it and it fit perfect. The hood was allready off and I didn't need to jack it up at all. That was the quickest i ever put an engine into that car. Normally I spend hours trying to get the bolts in and the starter. The only part that was kind of a pain was to get both headers and engine to slip into their places.

So you leave the starter in when installing and removing....????????

This was the first time I tried it and it seemed to work. Hell of a lot easier than trying to push it up between the headers.

Okay....maybe dementia is setting on me...i suspected it awhile ago...
Your leaving headers and starter on when installing....on an A body???

No the headers are not on but the start was on.

Trying to do same on 68 cuda with automatic.
If i put starter and headers on will it slip in.
It came out fairly easy but i dont know about putting
it back in.

Set the headers in the engine compartment wired to the side and drop the engine in. Depending on the type of headers you have, the center link goes thru the headers.

When I put the 400 in my swinger I had to have the headers on the motor.
it was very very tight fit.

realy difficult to do this with a deepsump oilpan if you cant jack up the car about 10" but otherways its totaly ok!

Yup your right. We covered that in another thread somewhere! I remember I told someone how to do it and they told me I was crazy and it turns out they had a deep sump and thats why it didn't work for them. But that is also the key with which ever pan you have get is as high as you can but still keep it low enough so you can work on it easy.

Guys guys guys just drop the k member and slide the engine under with the k attached and lift her up. That is what i am going to do.

sure its easy to forget how easy it is when you dont have one of those deepsumps;) wish i hade a stock sump to make life a little eaiser but its always good to be able to get diferent advices here!

BTW my K frame is welded to the framerails since the early 80´s when my car had a realy bad crash during streetracing...

My son and I put a slant six / 904 in as one unit into his Dart Sport. The combination is almost six feet long. We were very glad I borrowed a load leveler, because it took a fairly steep angle to clear the radiator support with the oil pan, while clearing the center link with the tranny. We also had to fight the offset center of gravity to get it into the motor mounts. You should have no problems.

Jerry

Guys guys guys just drop the k member and slide the engine under with the k attached and lift her up. That is what i am going to do.

Hey TheCrazyCheesehead, nice to see another Wisconsin guy on here. There is maybe only a hand full of us that I know about. What do you have for an A-body? Shoot me a message and sometime, allways looking for other Mopar guys around here.

Dropping the K frame is a good way of doing it if you have to rebuild the front suspension or change the K frame anyways. Other wise its kind of a pain to pull the torsion bars out. But anyways this thread is almost a year old engine has been in and doing good for a long time. I ended up coming up with my own system of putting them both in at the same time and it goes so much faster and easier than it ever has I probably won't change the way I do it the next time I have too.

Dropping the K frame isnt to hard. Buy a torsion bar tool. pull the bars, front brake lines, split the upp ball joints and 4 bolts fro the K frame.

If you have headers your pulling the suspension a part anyways.