Engine Install Woes

I'd like to preface this by saying that even though my Dad and I have a a lot of experience working on old cars, they've mostly been GM and FoMoCo stuff, with very little time working on old Mopars.

So, I pulled the tired 225 out of my '66 Valiant last month to rebuild it. Yesterday, my Dad and I started to drop it in the car. I should mention that I left the 904 in the car when I removed the Leaning Tower of Power. We struggled for hours just to get the motor mounts and their brackets lined up. We were able to get them all assembled loosely, but could not get the engine to lean towards the passenger side as it should. Is there some Mopar VooDoo we don't know about? Was my mistake leaving the trans in place? We used a load leveler on the cherry picker in several different configurations to no avail. The engine is just sitting there almost vertical and won't lay over. What the hell did we do wrong? Help us A-Bodies Only, you're our only hope.

Are you sayin it's disconnected from the hoist or the hoist is loose? I don't know you you could have gotten the trans and mounts in place as you describe................

"My take" is that slants are a PITA witout carefully attaching the hoist so it hangs "level" left to right. How to tell? Go look at the rear of the bell pattern

You can get an idea of what level "is"

There are 2 holes on the top of the head beside the valve cover. Use only ONE of the holes. The one further forward will balance just the engine about right. Put there just for this purpose.
The rearmost one will balance the engine and trans together.

This is how it's currently sitting while I try to figure out the problem. There's a block of wood under the trans pan holding it up. @KosmicKuda so you're saying if I hook my hoist up to just that one hole, it ought to balance out?

I would lift it back out of there and get the engine hanging with the correct orientation, then try again. I’ve pulled and installed many slants.... you have to get the right angle of the dangle

This is how the factory did it (in Aus at least), front hole for engine only, rear hole for motor and trans.
This bracket has recently been recreated for sale by a local here in Australia

Your passenger side engine mount bracket is upside down. Flip it over and you should be golden.

bob_o said:

@KosmicKuda so you're saying if I hook my hoist up to just that one hole, it ought to balance out?

Click to expand...

Yes, try it if you want but...Badvert is right.
Lift the engine enough to invert the mount and it will fall right in there.
Oops, Stuff happens.

Dang. Well, at least it was something simple. Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the help.