Hot Rods 1 man engine swap on slopes drwy 63 Impala

I'm a proponent of people doing things they aren't sure how to do because they can/will learn a lot and gain confidence that they can solve problems and develop confidence............most things are just a matter of screwing up some parts if you get it wrong. Then you learn that "getting it wrong" happens a lot and don't get dejected when you do mess up. Its just part of learning to do new things, and you can always buy or make another part.

I too have pulled engines in the mud and in gravel and in the dirt. Used tree limbs to hold the hoist, or a board across some rafters, a tractor with a chain, and even removing sheetmetal to get one out. I've crawled under cars that weren't well supported or even very stable..........and I'm still here and have most of my working parts intact. So I'm not saying that people shouldn't plow ahead and learn new things. Experience is the best teacher. But experience also taught me to look before I leap in.

Experience taught me that sometimes I need to find a better way to do the task than to take too big a risk . There is a difference in s****ing a part because you screw up, and getting hurt or killed because you took too big a chance.

I remember me and some friends deciding that since we were all good swimmers (former lifeguard) that we could swim all the way across the Ohio river............so we jumped in and swam off.

About halfway we realized we had made a bad decision.

Luckily.........a boat was coming by and we got their attention.

I learned that when you make a decision to "jump in and go", weigh the consequences if things don't work out as planned. Are you just gonna s**** a part or possibly screw your life up.

Again, pulling an engine in gravel, mud, dirt, with a rafter or tree limb can be worked thru and I've done all of them.........but jacking up a car on an angled driveway is something I won't do. It only takes one mistake and things go bad very quickly.



Edit: You are probably going to end up with a big oil spot on your driveway at the very least.......

 

Who's '60 is that in the garage? Somebody around you knows something about cars and should be able to give you a hand.

 

@Eth727 good luck with the swap.Hope things go well and be safe.

 

Obstacles (if you do swap an engine later) can be easily overcome by going to the lumber yard and buying a couple sheets of 3/4" plywood to lay down over the rough surfaces and humps. Even on gravel driveways I've done this before I had a garage so I could move the cherry picker around. I also bought some nailer strips at the lumber yard so I could run screws through them to keep the two sheets of plywood from separating or moving as I worked
The slope is not a big deal, and can be used to actually help you at points. Just get the car as far forwards as possible, then allow it to roll backwards once the engine is up out of the car. You must have at least one friend or family who could ***ist at times when you might need a second person just to pull or push?
But I'm wondering why you wouldn't just move that newer car out of the other bay and put your car there for a couple days when or if you do an engine swap?

 

You’re going to need 3+ people to push it up the driveway without an engine if you roll it back . Can’t leave it blocking the sidewalk for long, bylaw would ticket it sooner than later.

 

Not to mention that in a lot of places you can't have inoperable vehicles in the street, in some you can't even have them in the driveway.

 

I'm sure anything can be done but for me I'd be looking for another location or clean out the garage so I could work in there!

 

He will definitely have an oil spot!

Last night after work I decided I would try to bring my Model A in the garage with my tractor by myself. I had a plan and it would have worked had the weight of the Model A front end not caused the rear of the tractor to lose traction and slide instead of going in the intended direction. I could have kept going and possibly screwed something up, but I pushed it back into the quonset to regroup before things went sideways.

Like you say, weigh the consequences if things don't go as planned and don't be afraid to slow down and regroup. I had to learn that on my own, because my old man leans more to the side of pushing forward at all costs.

 

Dang. Would have loved to have had a spot that nice to work on growing up

 

Another thing you could do is turn the car around so it’s facing the street. Pull the engine using a plywood base. Shouldn’t be too much weight to control, plus you won’t have to lift the engine as high. That way you won’t have to deal pushing the car back up the driveway.

 

@lumpy 63 to the courtesy phone please...

 

Then you just have the engine stuck on the street.

 

Tbh I’m lazy, so I’d be looking at doing as much as I could with the block still in the car.

get the carb working right, set all your baselines right and see how she is. Then go for a top end rebuild from there.

worst case you do gotta pull the lot but at least you’d have fresh heads that can be pulled and stored worry free.

 

If you have to pull the engine in the future it's fine. But one of the other cars is going to have to be outside for a few days. I would get another engine, have it rebuilt and waiting. Engine hoist in the garage, hood off the car, drive in 1/2 way. Did it this way on my '41 at my moms house, did a rear end repair in my more slanted driveway here (I used a tow strap to the pole in front of the dryer). Your main problem is the fake concrete pavers might crack with the metal wheel of a hoist or jack. You need to put plywood down first if you plan to work in the driveway.

 

If you know what you're doing, you can be crafty and resourceful with the equipment and cir***stances you have. It's when you don't know what you're doing, AND you have no tools or equipment, that you can really get into trouble,



FWIW, here is a picture of a much younger me (full of life and a great head of hair) building a 355 SBC in my mom's garage. This was a 2 car garage in South Plainfield, NJ, that had 2 incandescent light bulbs and one 2-prong outlet. I had some basic hand tools that were p***ed down from deceased relatives, an oilless 15 gallon Craftsman air compressor, a grinder, a drill, a Chinese engine hoist, and a Lincoln flux-core MIG welder from Home Depot. Any time I had to weld something, I had to run an extension cord from the kitchen in the house out to the garage under the door. There was no heat or insulation, and I bought a bullet heater for the winter that would make it plenty warm to work, but also required me to open the door for oxygen every now and again.

This car got built in that garage in those cir***stances.



Again, the concern for this scenario is less the garage and more for the individual. Frankly, there is no guarantee this engine even needs to come out of the car. I'm of the camp that says "go for it" as well, but that's within reason. Sometimes you need to take a step back and reevaluate before you go just pulling everything apart

 

I've used a comealong hooked to an overhead beam to hoist an engine, and later with the aid of my tractor. Years ago my uncle rented an upstairs apartment, and got the use of an attached barn to park his Camaro. He made a trapdoor in the loft floor and hoisted the engine out of the engine bay and up into the loft to rebuild.

No matter how you look at it, pulling the engine out will be a major undertaking; not hard, just messy and time-consuming. Figuring out exactly what needs to be done to the engine could save you a lot of unnecessary work.

 

It’s an sbc…throw it in a wheelbarrow.

 

Man that’s going to be one fast wheelbarrow
Dan

 

Would all the guys telling him he will be just fine pulling the engine on an angled driveway post some pictures showing themselves pulling engines on an unlevel driveway or street? Not some picture on the inter net, but actual pictures of themselves . I realize that a yard is often unlevel and people have to make adjustments, been there....done that. I'm talking about an actual angle that can cause a car to roll.
Lets see some of YOUR old pictures ................of you defying the laws of physics.

Watch the Jack in the video below.......


https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wDStYxFbk6Q


Now watch the same video only a few seconds longer and notice that the guys legs are hanging out under the door while this happened, and the area where it happened doesn't look like its really steep like the rest of the driveway. When this stuff happens, it happens quickly.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AbruptChaos/comments/1i1cpyz/being_a_selfmechanic/

 

I guess parking brakes and wheel chocks stop working when pulling an engine

 

Hey guys it’s a 2 car garage from 1964. It’s shorter than modern garages. The 60 is the garage queen. I might have 2 feet extra behind her. The left side is the wife’s Tesla area. The whole left side can’t be blocked. I forgot to mention I do have the street but they street sweeping every 2 months. No cars can be on the street on street sweep day. Oh I also have a truck that I can put an engine in. As far as the bumps on the pavers . I can make ramp using concrete so the wheels of the hoist can roll over easier. Maybe modify the wheels on the hoist like at junkyards?

 

Pretty soon someone will tell us how they pulled an engine with nothing but the shoe strings out of their boots, in the snow.
But the next post will be how someone didn’t have shoe strings, so tied their socks together, and was in a hurricane.
Kinda the “walking to school in the snow, uphill, both ways”.

And the engine needs to be rebuilt or replaced because?

 

Zoning might prohibit this activity. Sure as heck, don't spill antifreeze or oil.

Only takes one neighbor .... to ruin a good day.

 

Please post the "****ysis" data here. Gazillion years of relevant experience on this board. Need info.
My opinion -
Keep it simple. Don't pull an engine that needs minor things. Don't tear down an engine that needs a PCV or valve stem seals. If it smokes, it could be one of a host of relatively minor issues. I have a fresh build that was acting like it had bad valve stem seals. It didn't. It was ****ing oil past the PCV valve into the the intake. I fixed it with a catch can. You paid almost $400 for an ****ysis and an opinion. It's short on the first part and long on the second.
Please post the "****ysis" compression and leakdown information here.
When I was 16 I had an ex CHP car that smoked like a freight train. I did a re ring and bearing job with the engine in the car; had the heads rebuilt at a shop. Ran excellent after that.

Please post the ****ysis data.

Did I miss where you posted the ****ysis data in this thread that you paid $387 for?

 

Sounds like you have it under control, what more do you need from us?

 

Doan dew it!

 

Looking forward to seeing how it goes.

 

Who's taking photos of themselves pulling engines by themselves ????
Go back to my previous post and it explains how to do it, everybody is hung up on moving the engine hoist and it shows how many people have never pulled an engine on a slant before.
The engine hoist doesn't move, the car does ! Put wheel chocks behind front tires, tie the front bumper to the car in the garage if you're that worried, jack up the rear end shove something under the rear tires and jack stands under the frame. The higher you jack it up the more slant and chance of jack stands tipping you get, so do bare minimum. Go under car and unbolt the flex plate from converter, put a ratchet strap under trans to frame to support Trans once it's separated from engine.
Let it back down on all 4 wheels, disconnect wires, hoses, throttle linkage, etc. on engine, hook up engine hoist, chock engine hoist, put car in neutral. Jack up on engine as far as it'll go before interfering, back one wheel chock up a couple inches, now wiggle remaining wheel chock back until car rolls back into first wheel chock. Jack up engine more, repeat wheel chock, if he has a helper put the brake on then slide wheel chock back and ease off brake until it rests on chock.
Repeat that until the engine is out, make sure engine hoist doesn't tilt forward, by adding weight on back, when the hoist is high, once clear lower engine immediately.
That's it, done finished !
I've done this several times, my garage floor ain't no joke, you better not drop a socket or anything over here because it'll roll away so fast you'll never find it. If you notice in the accompanying photo the wheel chocks under the 57 pickup because there's no drive shaft in it.
It definitely can be done, use your head on safety, I use a chain fall here but it's the same, the engine only goes up and down, vehicle moves.



Using the chain fall to spin the 57 180 degrees without it rolling away down hill

 

a young me with the wife in the back yard.
Has a wheel chock to jeep it from rolling down the slope
Not just engines, but cabs and heavy flatbeds