NA5KAR
07-24-2020, 11:14 PM
Hello All. This post is about me giving back. Although I don’t have much to teach yet, I thought that my Engine Install Day experience was something that might benefit another Newbie like me. For the record, I had a great day. I’ve never installed an engine before, but after lots of study on this forum, and some great advice from Johnny at Blueprint, It was a pretty easy task.
I bought the 302 with T5 and a Holly Sniper from Blueprint Engines. I found a Harbor Freight 1 ton engine hoist on Craigslist. It was like brand new. I thought I hit the jackpot. So, last weekend, my sons and I started planning the engine install. We positioned the 1 ton in front of the chassis and extended the boom to the ½ ton position. Johnny told me that my engine weighed 676 pounds. The hook at the end of the boom would not have positioned the engine far enough back in the engine bay. I realized that I needed the 2 ton hoist. First piece of advice …. Get the 2 ton hoist. Fortunately, Harbor Freight exchanged my 1 ton for a 2 ton. Yes, I was completely honest about where I got it.
With my new 2 ton hoist set up, we were ready to install the engine today. It was me, my two sons (20 and 22), and my good friend. After we finished, I learned that a perfect amount of people to install this engine was four. One pushing the hoist, one lowering and raising the hoist, one standing in the cockpit, leaning into the engine bay and pushing the transmission down, and one under the car guiding the transmission into position.
The next thing I learned was thanks to Papa (Dave) and his build thread. I’m sure that many of you did this, but Papa’s thread was where I saw it. The front tires need to be about 4 inches off the ground and the rear tires need to be 10 to 12 inches off the ground. I didn’t have a load leveler on my hoist, and the only way to get the tail of the transmission into the tunnel is to have the car angled with the rear much higher than the front. The 4 inches for the front tires is so the hoist can be wheeled under the car.
Once we lifted the engine from the crate, we installed the motor and transmission mounts. I learned a few things here too. The way that Blueprint attaches the motor to the crate is with steel bars bolted to the motor mount threaded holes on the block. For my motor, Blueprint used grade 8 one inch long bolts. I’ve come to learn that grade 8 bolts are much stronger than grade 5 bolts. Grade 8 can be identified by 6 lines on the head of the bolt and the grade 5 bolts have 3 lines. Inside the box with the FFR supplied motor mounts was a bag with 6 bolts. All of them were grade 5. I called the motor mount company for bolt info, and they said that FFR puts the bolts into their box. Good to know. I used the Blueprint supplied bolts.
The one thing that I learned after we had installed the engine is that we should have put the dip stick tube into the block before installing the engine. Now I have to figure out how to get it pressed into the opening, without much space or leverage.
I wanted to mention that I found a bag with 14 feet of 3/8” logging chain at HD for $34. It worked great to lift the engine with the hoist. Once the engine was hanging from the hoist, and the chassis was all set to receive the drive train, it was very easy to move the hoist into position and lower the drive train into the engine bay. We all communicated well and moved very slowly. One thing I would recommend is to use a very light touch when opening the hydraulic valve to lower the hoist. You don’t want to let the engine drop too suddenly. Super slow is best.
We were very fortunate that everything lined up perfectly. Once we had the drive train in place, we lightly attached the nuts to the motor mounts and the bolts to the transmission mount. It was easy at that point to install the driveshaft. Finally, we tightened all the nuts and bolts.
We had a great day and I hope that some of this helps somebody else.
Dan
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I bought the 302 with T5 and a Holly Sniper from Blueprint Engines. I found a Harbor Freight 1 ton engine hoist on Craigslist. It was like brand new. I thought I hit the jackpot. So, last weekend, my sons and I started planning the engine install. We positioned the 1 ton in front of the chassis and extended the boom to the ½ ton position. Johnny told me that my engine weighed 676 pounds. The hook at the end of the boom would not have positioned the engine far enough back in the engine bay. I realized that I needed the 2 ton hoist. First piece of advice …. Get the 2 ton hoist. Fortunately, Harbor Freight exchanged my 1 ton for a 2 ton. Yes, I was completely honest about where I got it.
With my new 2 ton hoist set up, we were ready to install the engine today. It was me, my two sons (20 and 22), and my good friend. After we finished, I learned that a perfect amount of people to install this engine was four. One pushing the hoist, one lowering and raising the hoist, one standing in the cockpit, leaning into the engine bay and pushing the transmission down, and one under the car guiding the transmission into position.
The next thing I learned was thanks to Papa (Dave) and his build thread. I’m sure that many of you did this, but Papa’s thread was where I saw it. The front tires need to be about 4 inches off the ground and the rear tires need to be 10 to 12 inches off the ground. I didn’t have a load leveler on my hoist, and the only way to get the tail of the transmission into the tunnel is to have the car angled with the rear much higher than the front. The 4 inches for the front tires is so the hoist can be wheeled under the car.
Once we lifted the engine from the crate, we installed the motor and transmission mounts. I learned a few things here too. The way that Blueprint attaches the motor to the crate is with steel bars bolted to the motor mount threaded holes on the block. For my motor, Blueprint used grade 8 one inch long bolts. I’ve come to learn that grade 8 bolts are much stronger than grade 5 bolts. Grade 8 can be identified by 6 lines on the head of the bolt and the grade 5 bolts have 3 lines. Inside the box with the FFR supplied motor mounts was a bag with 6 bolts. All of them were grade 5. I called the motor mount company for bolt info, and they said that FFR puts the bolts into their box. Good to know. I used the Blueprint supplied bolts.
The one thing that I learned after we had installed the engine is that we should have put the dip stick tube into the block before installing the engine. Now I have to figure out how to get it pressed into the opening, without much space or leverage.
I wanted to mention that I found a bag with 14 feet of 3/8” logging chain at HD for $34. It worked great to lift the engine with the hoist. Once the engine was hanging from the hoist, and the chassis was all set to receive the drive train, it was very easy to move the hoist into position and lower the drive train into the engine bay. We all communicated well and moved very slowly. One thing I would recommend is to use a very light touch when opening the hydraulic valve to lower the hoist. You don’t want to let the engine drop too suddenly. Super slow is best.
We were very fortunate that everything lined up perfectly. Once we had the drive train in place, we lightly attached the nuts to the motor mounts and the bolts to the transmission mount. It was easy at that point to install the driveshaft. Finally, we tightened all the nuts and bolts.
We had a great day and I hope that some of this helps somebody else.
Dan
132405132406132407132408132409