My dad and his engine specialist just finished my 355! Only one problem now.. WE CANT GET IT IN! We cant seem to get it to line up with anything and we cant get it past the motor mounts to drop it in. The back of the block seems to push against the Tranny and we cant get it back far enough to drop it down on the motor mounts. Has anyone else had this problem? Anyone know what we have to do? Do i need to unhook and drop the transmission, bolt the engine up and then put the tranny back in? HELP!!

 

Why not just put a jack under the trasmission, unbolt the crossmember and the torque arm, and move the transmission back about 6 inchs?

that should give you the clearance you need

 

Do you have the trans tipped upward at the front? It should almost drop right back in if it is; it should 'mate' up to the trans first, then settle into the mounts.
Or maybe somehow the trans got moved forward?

 

I would definitely push the trans back. My motor was a bear to get in. I thought it wasnt' going to go,, and all of a sudden it just went in. These things are tight, make sure the dist cap is off, I had to take my valve covers off.. And, my biggest headache, on the passenger side, one of the air tubes was hitting the heater box, and pinching the wire harness.. Good luck!

 

When I did mine, I had to tilt the front of the engine upwards quite a bit to get everything to clear. It will take some finese, but it can be done. I never had to unbolt my trans crossmember, but it may make life easier.
After it was lined up in the back, I had to actually use a pry bar to get the engine up over the mounts, and then it just literally fell into place
Yup, on my other car, I busted a hole in the evaporater doing the install. But with this other f-body, I was very careful to not touch the evaporater.

 

Well, we figured out the problem
Hehe..
Transmission mount is busted and the transmission was a few inches too far... So i went down to the parts store, picked one up ($4.10) and am going to get to work. I'll post some picks on a different thread after its all hooked up.. Thanx a lot guys, sorry about wasting ur time.

*** i feel like an idiot.. lol

 

should have got energy suspension mount.. that one u got is just gonna break in a few months again.

 

The stock one will last more than 4 months. My last one lasted about 14 years.

 

I broke a stock mount in my car one time the very first time I let out the clutch after backing down the driveway after replacing the mount. And that was with the almost stock L69 305. Now granted, I was trying to break it, just to test it, so to speak; I didn't really expect it to break, but it broke just the same. I was unhappy. I put a non-stock mount in it. I don't remember what mount I used, this was near 20 years ago; but that one lasted several years, and even a little while after I put a 400 in the car. After that, I went through ALOT of mounts, even when I wasn't trying to break them.

Moral of the story: the stock mount is fragile.

 

Engine and Tranny are bolted up. TC and all the other hooking up will go on in the morning and then we will fire her up. I am itching for it.

 

Glad to hear it's back together. I would have definitely gotten an Energy Suspension mount. I don't think the stocker is going to last very long.

 

It doesn't take much to change it tho, so if it breaks here in the near future i'll get that one.

 

Hey... My trans has a small dent in the lower pan. Not really a dent, it just is pushed in (very very little, barely noticeable) from the jack being under it holding it up for about 6 weeks. Do i have to take the pan off and fix it before i start it up or should it be fine? Again, barely in at all, u have to feel it really lightly to notice it.

 

Don't bother; it sounds very minor and won't affect anything. Just save up for the T56 swap. :thumbup:

 

wow i had this same problem wen i put mine in. weird. and i have a dent in my tranny pan.:lala: :lala:

 

climb under any car thats had an enging swap with a auto in it and most of the time you will see that dent your talking about ...lol..its just going to happen because people dont support the pan good enough with even a peice of plywood the size of the pan most people just slap a jack under it and jack it up thats a no no ...you should always put something between the jack and tranny but that small little ding of a dent doesnt hurt at all ....:lala:

 

Thanx
And for the record, i had plywood on it that was bigger than the pan.. but after 6 weeks on there, the wood warped the tiny dent occured. Thanx again, i really didn't feel like pulling it off.

 

Guilty as charged..