Engine Installation

The first thing to acquire before starting the engine install procedure is a suitable hydraulic hoist and sling. I managed to get hold of a Sealey PH10 crane and 1 tonne / 2 metre sling, and this worked out perfectly.

The engine install is definitely a 2-person job (minimum!), and I was ably assisted in this task by my mate Bob. First thing we did was to lift up the engine to the appropriate height and offer it up to the front of the car. It immediately became apparent that the legs of the crane would foul the axle stands supporting the chassis, so we decided to simply put on the two front wheels and raise them up on wheel ramps. This gave ample space for the crane.

My assistant Beaker (sorry Bob)

Manoeuvring the engine into place and dropping it down into the bay was actually a lot easier than we had expected - the most difficult part was making sure the tail end of the gearbox fitted in above its support bracket on the chassis. We used the trolley jack underneath the car, to support the back end of the gearbox at the correct height as we dropped the front of the engine down. Almost no fouling of parts occurred: only the washer bottle had to be taken off, plus an alternator bolt that I had mistakenly left in situ.

It's in!

The most difficult part of the whole operation turned out to be the fitting of the various engine mounting bolts. Taking the weight of the engine on the crane, we first loosely bolted on the two main engine mounting struts and checked alignment with the rubber chassis bushes. It looked OK, so I tried to put in the right-hand-side long mounting bolt. This promptly cross-threaded, because the engine was actually canted over slightly. It was very tricky to get the engine at the correct angle with the bolt also lined up on the bush, so what we ended up doing was removing both the mounting strut and the rubber bush from the chassis, bolting them together off the car, and installing them as a pair using the slack in their own long bolts to line it up. This was a lot easier. The rear two bolts on the gearbox mount went in fairly readily, and we lined up the gearbox by eye centrally in the transmission tunnel before tightening up.

Total time for the engine install was a shade over two hours - very pleased with that. Off to the pub for a pie and a pint (or a burger and several pints, to be more exact).