The engine is out.
The last two weekends have seen two big milestones being reached. Last weekend we sprayed her with a coat of undercoat. This weekend, we got the engine out.
We’ve decided to move onto the mechanics now and the first task was to get the engine out. Well actually, the first task was to clean up the garage so that we had somewhere to put the engine once we had taken it out. The bonnet was taken off, wrapped in a sheet and place under the house with all of the other parts from the car. We removed the wiring loom (along with the patch jobs that some one had done in the past, which won’t be going back in).
With the loom out of the car, we started to remove all of the other little things in the engine bay that might get in the way of taking out the engine. This was included relays, the coil, air filter housing, choke cables and accelerator linkage. We also removed the sump guard and a few other bits and pieces.
We got the car onto car stands and removed the tail shaft replacing the yoke in the gearbox with one that dad used to use back in the day that he used to rebuild 1600’s. We then took off the clutch slave cylinder, gear lever and speedo cable. With all this done, the only thing left to do was to undo the mounts and lift the engine out.
We placed the car jack on the gearbox to take the weight off the mount. We then took the mount off and using a piece of rope and wood, supported the gearbox from inside the car. We removed the jack from the gear box and then lowered the car back onto it’s wheels. When my brother and I got our cars (and started needing engines to be rebuilt), Dad built a mobile frame for the block-and-tackle (that we call a gantry) to make getting the engines in and out a lot easier. We moved the gantry into position and chained up the engine to the block-and-tackle and took a little of the weight of the engine.
The engine mounts were undone and it was time to start lifting. Dad slowly started to raise the engine. It came off the engine mounts nicely and was coming out nice and easy. Once we got her up a bit, I jumped in the car and slowly removed the rope that was holding up the gearbox. As the gear box lowered, the engine tilted, lining itself up for a smooth escape from the engine bay. Penny (my wife) was called down to take a few photos, as my hands were in no state to be handling the camera.
Dad started to raise the engine out and I pushed the gearbox down to get the right angle. We pushed the car a little out of the way and pulled the gantry forward and the engine was out. This is the first Z engine that I have seen out of the car and was amazed to see how long it is (with the gearbox intact). I’ve only worked on 1600 and 200B engines before.
With the engine out, we will be able to remove the rest of the pieces in the engine bay and get it cleaned up ready for some paint.
NOTE: A first for the blog. This is entry contains the first photo with my Dad and I in it. I’m usually the one behind the camera.
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- The engine on it’s way out.
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- The engine out of the car.
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- Its a bit oily. We’ll have to find those leaks!
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- A very empty looking engine bay.