Engine Swap Questions

-
J

jeeper

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2005
Messages
1,076
Reaction score
32
Location
Klamath County, Oregon
Hello,

I am working hard at my own BB project car. It is a 74 Dart Sport and It has the whole Schumacher kit in the car with a 440. I have a normal kickdown set up etc.

The car is together with a 440 and I am swapping in another 440. At this point the car is complete and running so it isn't a first time swap.

Would you remove the engine and transmission together, or would you remove just the engine?

My working conditions are not great but I have what I need to remove it.

I will say that the kit was so neat that I was able to put the engine in the first time with a one (1) armed freshmen, an 8th grader and myself.

It literally fell in there.

My working conditions have changed and are not as nice now that summer is here. Would you pull both of them? Or would you leave the tranny in it?

Thoughts?

Thank you, ROB

SAM_0636.jpg
 
I always liked pulling the engine seperate. Yeah it might be a little bit ore work but way less chance of carnage. That 727 is a real be-otch to clear every thing when it is attached to the engine and you are pulling both of them out. The cherry picker lift arm is waaay up there when you try to do this and all that that weight that high up makes it plenty unstable. Not to mention the height of the car when you attemp to do this. [it needs to be fairly high off the ground. the big hurdle is the rad-support top center.
.........now if you wanted to cut the core support.........nah, dont do that.
 
Personally, I like doing engine work on a Mopar like the factory did. From the bottom. Although there's more stuff to remove and replace, it's actually easier. If you have some large tall jack stands I recommend it.
 
OK. I will go and look it over myself today. My only concern about pulling only the engine is this: Will I be able to get the tranny up high enough in the tunnel to get the engine mounts up so I can pull it forward?

It wasn't that big of a deal to put it in whole. I will chew on it. I have about 4-5 days until I am ready.

Thank you.

ROB
 
I have pulled just the engine, but on a four speed car, and I unbolted the trans from the bellhousing. The hardest thing to access will be the tranmission to block bolts. That may be the deciding factor.
 
Hello Jim,

You have provided me with insight on this project since the start.........about 4 years ago. Thank you for that.

After looking at it, I think I will pull the engine and trans together. It will take a bit longer in some ways, but I think I have a plan.

If I work at home, I have to work in the dirt and gravel by myself. But it is at home.

If I tow it to work, I can use the cement and their are some buddies there that can give me a hand. But I don't the convenience of working at home.

The plan is this I think. I'll pull everything I can at home, and then load my long block on my truck and take it to work.

Cement is nice and help is appreciated.

The BH bolts and all that are nasty tight. The rest of the engine is ok, but the firewall area is real tight.

Maybe I should start a thread on this car. I have taken to calling the car, "I can't". As in I can't sell it, drive it, or do much with it. The engine is bad-suspected flat cam. So I am checking over a 440 I got this spring and basically swapping in a cammed stocker. I want to drive this car......and make it into the "I can" Dart. I can make my nieces scream when I give it the throttle. I can drive it to work a few days a week etc.

Enough of that. The engine is calling me.

I love this place.

Thank you, ROB
 
If you are not going to transmission work there is no need to remove it.

The trick to engine install is to not install the engine mounts till you have the engine trans bolted together.

This way you can move the trans down to get to the top bell housing bolts.

If you have left the 2 outside studs on your heads you can hang the headers on them when you are bolting up the bell housing.

This also gives you more room to install the starter.

After engine and trans are connected you can install the engine mounts.

I hopes this helps you and others on the board.

This also works with other headers besides Schumachers.
 
If anyone ought to know, you should. I believe we met at Woodburn a few years ago. I think it was you. I was buying a 4.10 geared 8.25 and you made a comment about it having run 11.50's and hanging together or something. It was a good buy and is in my car now.

If it wasn't you, I am sorry for looking goofy! But hey, I am a teacher and I am used to it. People with big ego's don't teach happily for long......

I'll do some more looking at it this afternoon when I get to it.

Thank you, ROB
 
Jeepers,
I was there,not the seller.
Mine is still in the car,and still doing 11.59's the best,in this car.

Son Jon
IMGP1283.jpg


IMGP1289.jpg


IMGP1285.jpg


8-1 comp engine
 
Jon looks all bidness in the driver's seat!
 
Jeepers,
I did talk to you.
I looked at the rear end but you had the cash out as I walked down the row and thought about it to long.

StrokerScamp,
Jon has the best time in the car off the juice.
 
I have pulled mine about 4 times by myself and installed it 3 times by myself....motor by it's self...to save you some trouble you can leave the driver's side header still bolted up to the exhaust and remove and install the motor...I do it in a garage with tall jackstands....a piece of plywood and floor jack under the tranny to support it....I tell my wife to stay away when I do it because she is afraid that I am going to kill myself...true but LOL
 
I have been logging about 5-6 hours a day on it since my first post. After looking at it I just went ahead and pulled the engine alone. It went pretty well actually.

My car has a column shift 727, Schumacher headers, and a torque strap. It was a busy time, but I think it probably took me 3-4 hours working casually to remove it. It really was not that hard somewhat but tedious at times.

When I swapped it in, It took a month of a little time here and there with my students doing much of the work under my supervision.

I have spent the last day or so cleaning parts and swapping them from one engine to the other. I am going for a clean driver look. Not scrubbing and detailing each bracket for two hours, but not nasty work either. Keep in mind that I drive 4 miles a day down a road that has spots of dust 6-10"deep. You can avoid them, but you cannot avoid a dirty car no matter how slow you drive. It will look good, but it needs to be useable.

More information tomorrow. Barring unforseen circumstances, it will go in to the car tomorrow.

Thank you all for the help.

And Bremereric, I have read your story here. Wow, somewhat painful to watch at times, but it is quite the car you have there.

More to come.

ROB
 
jeeper said:
I have been logging about 5-6 hours a day on it since my first post. After looking at it I just went ahead and pulled the engine alone. It went pretty well actually.

My car has a column shift 727, Schumacher headers, and a torque strap. It was a busy time, but I think it probably took me 3-4 hours working casually to remove it. It really was not that hard somewhat but tedious at times.

When I swapped it in, It took a month of a little time here and there with my students doing much of the work under my supervision.

I have spent the last day or so cleaning parts and swapping them from one engine to the other. I am going for a clean driver look. Not scrubbing and detailing each bracket for two hours, but not nasty work either. Keep in mind that I drive 4 miles a day down a road that has spots of dust 6-10"deep. You can avoid them, but you cannot avoid a dirty car no matter how slow you drive. It will look good, but it needs to be useable.

More information tomorrow. Barring unforseen circumstances, it will go in to the car tomorrow.

Thank you all for the help.

And Bremereric, I have read your story here. Wow, somewhat painful to watch at times, but it is quite the car you have there.

More to come.

ROB
Click to expand...
Thanks it's Eric to my friends and anything else that someone else wants to call me...I have thick aligator skin...
 
Bremeric.....I didn't mean anything bad at all. These cars can be frustrating and expensive / time consuming. They are alot different than an old 4x4 for sure. Not much room in there.

Anyways..............

I got it in. Prelubed the engine, and did get it installed. Lots of work, but it is loosely bolted in. It took me about 5-6 hours just to get the engine wrapped up.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get it started. Just ran out of time / steam today. It took awhile for sure.

Getting closer.............maybe the roar will be tomorrow.

Let's hope so.

Rob
 
jeeper said:
Bremeric.....I didn't mean anything bad at all. These cars can be frustrating and expensive / time consuming. They are alot different than an old 4x4 for sure. Not much room in there.

Anyways..............

I got it in. Prelubed the engine, and did get it installed. Lots of work, but it is loosely bolted in. It took me about 5-6 hours just to get the engine wrapped up.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get it started. Just ran out of time / steam today. It took awhile for sure.

Getting closer.............maybe the roar will be tomorrow.

Let's hope so.

Rob
Click to expand...
Nope you took it the wrong way...you can call me Eric because I consider you my friend...in other words I mean anyone can call me anything they want to and it won't hurt my feelings...on another note glad you getting closer and good luck with the startup...
 
I got busy doing family things today so I haven't touched it.

I am sneaking out there to work on it here in a few. I was really hoping to drive it today, but things did not work out that way.

Maybe this weekend.....

It is way closer to being driven than before.

ROB
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top