Engine removal

[CarGuy427]

For those of you that have pulled an FE out of an ERA, once the Tremec is pulled back, can the engine be lifted out with the bellhousing still bolted on? Or does the bellhousing have to also be removed first to pull the engine? I’d appreciate member’s experience here with how you have done it. Thanks in advance.

[mrmustang]

Originally Posted by CarGuy427

For those of you that have pulled an FE out of an ERA, once the Tremec is pulled back, can the engine be lifted out with the bellhousing still bolted on? Or does the bellhousing have to also be removed first to pull the engine? I’d appreciate member’s experience here with how you have done it. Thanks in advance.

Are you planning to use just an engine hoist, or an engine hoist with a hoist leveler attached?

using just a hoist, it can be done with the bellhousing attached, but will be tight and require a few friends to assist

If using a hoist leveler attached to the engine hoist itself, it can easily be done with the bellhousing left on the engine with little to no additional assistance needed. Although I almost always had an additional set of hands to assist in the mindset of "better safe than sorry" after hearing of someone who's less expensive engine hoist tilted and the FE fell on the nose of the car (I was the shop to make the repairs).

Bill S.

[DanEC]

I’m not entirely sure. When I dropped mine in I had the pressure plate/ flywheel bolted in place but left the bell housing off. Especially if you have one of the big, bulky Lakewood explosion proof bell housing I would pull it just to lessen the chance of dragging it against something in removal, although the type of bell housing doesn’t affect overall length any.

Related to Bill’s response I did not have any help so I was conservative.

[CarGuy427]

Thanks for the reply. I have a portable cherry picker and also one of the adjustable engine tilter‘s so I can crank the handle and tilt the engine. Sounds like if I tilt the engine with the bell housing down enough I should be able to clear and install with the bell housing on. Does that sound right? Thanks.

[incoming]

I'd pull the tranny, lower the car to the floor, raise the engine slowly and roll the car out from under the engine.

[bkozlow]

This may not be for everyone but I like raising the front of the car 12-18 inches after blocking the rear wheels, assuming you are removing the hood. You can now tilt the engine pull it out near vertically. Another, thing I would do if your transmission has been working fine is weld a washer at each indexing pin to the bell-housing so you don't have to re-index it when reinstalling it.

Bill K

[eschaider]

There was a bunch of guys back in the 60's, not too far from LAX, who did a lot of Cobras with the transmission already installed on the engine.

[Lulworth]

As above in the Shelby shop, on my Contemporary CCX 3 Series, that’s how I pulled my 427 FE with Nash/Richmond 5 Speed attached in one unit . I do have the optional removable trans cross member though. Not sure you could do it otherwise?

[DanEC]

You’ll need to see if you have enough boom length and capacity to reach the engine position from the front - or have to go in from the side - in determining your approach. With the hoist I had available, I had to go in from the side which meant pulling the right, front wheel. An engine tilted did help me though.

[Grubby]

I pulled the FE from 755 with the bell removed. It looks like it might have cleared with the bell on, but why risk scratching something?

John

[patrickt]

Yeah, yeah, yeah but I'm the only one that posts a pic to prove it. So here you go, straight in, bellhousing on, and to prove it here's a pic of a friend's ERA having it dropped in with a Kubota.

[ERA174]

I went the same route as DanEC and will elaborate further. If your cherry picker is a 1 ton unit, you probably will not be able to position the picker in front of your car to remove/install the engine. If your picker has a long enough boom to go in from the front of the car without overloading it, it’s easier from the front. I wasn’t able to go in from the front with my 1 ton picker without fully extending the boom and then I was on the precipice of it toppling without counter-balancing the picker, not a recipe for success. I retracted the boom to the ½ ton location and positioned the picker on the driver side facing the engine bay. The front of my ERA was on jack stands with the rear wheels chocked front and back, e-brake on and left front wheel removed to allow clearance for the picker. If you go in from the front you may need to raise the front of the car a little to keep the picker from hanging up on obstacles under the car. I didn’t have any issues with the transmission removed and bell housing installed on the engine, I did use a leveling unit between the picker and engine. If you raise the front of the car and secure it with jack stands, be careful where and how you position them, it’s easy to push the vehicle off the jack stands, especially after the weight of the engine is being supported by the picker. Realize that if you do position the picker at the side of the engine bay, you have little or no front to back movement like you do when you go in from the front of the vehicle. When positioning the picker on the side of the vehicle, it must be more or less over the center of mass of the engine with the leveler centered, then use the leveler to drop the back of the engine to gain the clearance needed to then lift the engine with the picker. It takes a little back and forth with the cherry picker and leveler to keep the engine going in the right direction so it doesn’t slam into something you’d rather it didn’t. I did it with the cherry picker facing the engine bay from the side of the vehicle without any help and had no problems, now I’m not saying it’s the best way, it’s just my way, good luck with whatever path you choose.

[eschaider]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Yeah, yeah, yeah but I'm the only one that posts a pic to prove it. So here you go, straight in, bellhousing on, and to prove it here's a pic of a friend's ERA having it dropped in with a Kubota.

Is that Kubota SFI approved.

[CarGuy427]

Thanks for all the great advice. Nice to have options for pulling the engine, front or side. Will see what works best for me with my portable cherry picker.
Impressed with the use of that front loader!

[6TNCRZY]

Much easier with the bell housing removed, and not that hard to bolt up after engine is in place. Why make it harder than you have to?