I've only pulled an engine out of an F-body once before and we just detatched it from the transmission and pulled it up. I have seen several pics of people who pull the transmission out with the engine. Is this easier or better? With the TPI intake its not that easy to get to the bellhousing bolts, so I was thinking just pull the tranny with it. If I do, where should I put the chains around? I have a balancer that attaches where the intake normally does, but I was really hoping to pull it out as close to "in one peice" as possible.

 

ive pulled several engines out of camaros, mostly second gens, but im workin on rebuilding my thirdgen completely not just the engine, everything. and its a lot less hassle to do it with the trans, just takes more people to keep it steady, but its definately less of a pita. just wrap one around the bellhousing and youll be fine, so long as the others are secured well

 

do it with trans.. all thats differnt is you detach the flywheel bolts and things like shifter cable and speedo, drain it before also, its a helluva mess if you dont just have one person underneath to push the tailshaft down when pulling it out so it doesnt catch anything

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83 Z28--not a pretty site, sold thank goodness

74 Z28-- 383/400, green on black. pretty clean. FOR SALE!!!

 

Ive done it both ways, cant really say one way is better than the other. If you leave the trans in, you have to support it. If you pull the trans with it, no problems with that then but more stuff to deal with.

 

When I'm doing a trans and engine overhaul, I always pull the trans first, then the engine.

I hate fighting with them both together.

But then I'm doin all this with a rack, tranny jacks, and all the other cool tools that make a job like this easier.

If I were doing this in my driveway and the trans worked fine and didn't need any work, I would leave it in the car.

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ASE Mechanic/Machinist/Smog Tech

1999 NBM Trans Am
1986 Chevy 3/4 ton pick up
1981 corvette
1995 Kawi ZX6R
and 2 POS commuters...

R.I.P. #3
"He can see air"

 

I just pulled the engine in my camaro and it seems like it would be a PITA to pull it with the trany. IMO it would be in your best intrest to take of the intake or at least everything except the intake manifold so you can get a hoist on it. Just unbolt the trany and pull forward about 4-5 in. and lift up. Engines out. Once everything was off the engine it only took like 30 min. Most of that was trying to find misc. connectors that we had left attached.

just my .02 cents.

 

What about U-joints, is there anything special I should know about re-attaching the transmission to the shaft? Im still not sure which way I'm going to do it.

 

I gotta agree with engineboy... do them separate. But then I'm not enginetransboy, maybe somebody like that would feel differently. Doing them together is more weight on the cherry picker or whatever, you end up needing more clearance to get it all over the core support, the trans is usually dripping out the tailshaft no matter what you do, you have to have more room in front of the car to roll this longer thing out of there, etc.

It'll work either way, I suppose under the right circumstances doing them together might not be so bad, but it just seems a whole lot easier to pull them separately to me. And it's really a whole lot easier to install them separately, no matter what I've ever done it with.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

 

I have only done one engine swap on a thirdgen, it was an 89 iroc. We were forced to pull them both out together because the engine was seized and we couldnt separate them. When we were trying to put it back in, we put the tranny back in first, then the engine. It was nearly impossible to get them lined up though. We just pulled them both back out, put them together and put them back in. We had such a bad experience trying to get them bolted in separate, that on our current swap, we just pulled them toghether. If you have one of those engine load levelers, it is really not that hard to pull them together, as long as you have a good engine crane.

 

I just got done installing a freshened 5.7 in my '86.I separated the engine from the trans simply because i was working alone and it seemed to be less cumbersome.Space in the garage was a little tight and i had all i could do to swing the thing around.I just made sure i supported the trans before i pulled the engine off the dowel pins.The only problem i had was getting the new engine on the dowelpins while getting the motor mounts to line up right,had to walk away from it a couple times before i got it finally..Fyi,my car is non-computed,so maybe theres more to consider for you tbi-tpi guys.

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86'Camaro Berlinetta SC,former 2.8,now 350 cid,4 bolt main.94'TPI 350 heads(pocket ported),420-442 lift summit cam,cloyes double roller timing set,Modified q-jet carb(e hanger,ch rods)700-r trans(rebuilt)3:42 gears,t-tops,b&m megashifter,grant wheel,fresh headliner,Macewen white face gauges,American racing wheels..Dedicated to those who enjoy scrounging through junkyards more than throwing money for new stuff...

 

When I pulled the used 350 TPI out of a parts car to use for my rebuild, we just yanked the engine and tranny at once. And yes it made one hell of a mess, and yes it was a PITA to keep the tranny from hitting the firewall and the core support. When it comes to pulling the engine on my own baby, I definitely have to agree with Engineboy. Do them separately, and it's a lot less cumbersome, and there's a lot less chance of damaging something in your engine compartment. When I pulled the engine and trans together out of that junk car, it wasn't in my shop, so I really didn't care how much of a mess it made, or how much damage the car sustained during the process! As far as not being able to line the two back up, if it's an automatic and you can't get the two back together, you need to consider another profession besides auto mechanics!

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89RS w/350 TPI; 69RS/SS w/450 HP 350/Muncie 4-Speed "Too weird to live, too rare to die."