Adventures in engine swapping (Updated with video)
 

well, it has now been 7 days since my old motor popped and i still can't drive the car.
the good thing is that it is down to one item jsut for piece of mind, a water temp sending unit so i can see if she gets hot.
god knows that i and the people who have helped me have done enough engine swaps in our lives. i have swap engines in as little as 5 hours and once participated in a trans swap that took less than 45mins on the grass pits at cecil county.
had to man handle teh engine out and the new one in because the reach my picker is not as long as the front end of a second gen. couldn't go over teh side because of the my driveway situation.
my swap went nothing like any of those events. it took 3 of us 2.5hours just to get the damn trans to agree to line up.
then i drop the old starter on only to realize when i tried to test fire that the new motor has a smaller diameter flywheel leaving the starter from the old motor spinning with 1/2 inch of free space. gggrrrrrr
once the trans was lined up and everything else was attached i fire the engine only to find out that my wonderful parts store fan switch crapped out. as of now my fan is ghetto wired to turn on when i start teh car. good enough for the moment, that will get fixed as soon as i have time.
in between i had every possible version of a stuck bolt and usually in the hardest to reach places and always after it was dark and i was trying to work with just a shop light and a flashlight.
i would like to thank pamperedz and tru2chevy for lending a hand. having people to chat with while everything was doing poorly definately made it less stressful and allowed me to work while others did quick part/supply runs.
justin got some video of the motor when we were first firing it on the open pipes. that is enough to make any small block sound mean :)
once we got it rolling and warmed up a little the idle settled right in at 700rpm where it was supposed to be. lots of tunign left to do on her, but it should be a 12 second combo once i get it tuned in.

later
tim

ttiwwp

You knew it was comming :-D

Your supposed to document this stuff for the records! Congrats on the swap, cant wait to see it!

I dont know about everyone else, but I want to see that vid! :twisted:

I want to hear it through some real speakers! I am running out tomorrow to grab a firewire card and cable, video will hopefully be up tomorrow night. It's pretty dark, but hopefully the sound will come through clearly :twisted:

- Justin

Definitely a good job guys...good luck with the car man!

Jon

Yea Tim, you didnt seem thrilled when i talked to you on the phone today. Like i said, I kno whow you feel after my weekend last week. When nothing went right on anything I did 1000 times before, and I just said "F**K IT" and went and watched tv.

http://www.njfboa.org/JustinImages/Tim_New_Motor.wmv

Right-Click, Save-As....

- Justin

sounds pretty sexy to me too :cool:

Damn sounds pretty good :-D

NIIIIIIIIIIIIICE!!!!!!!! :shock:

wonder what mine would sound like with open headers now with the bigger cam?? i never ran it except through the full exhaust

most of the video was at 1000-1200rpm. once it gets soem heat in it the idle settles right down at 700-750 where GM says it shoudl be in gear. :)

later
tim

I think i got motion sickness from the video, :lol:

Its sad I can tell who is talking just by the video :lol:

Sounds good Tim, cant wait to see it in person!

nice

Yeah documenting the work is something that everyone vows to do, but throws to the wind when things dont go right. Being an enthusiast who at least knows the correct side of a screwdriver, I'd love to pick up as much tech as I can from people who have had the experiences AND can document their work.

The car sounds good.

the problem most of us have is stopping work to take pictures and getting grease/filth/mung all over the camera because we work alone. Â*if someone actually does show up and can hold a camera the work has usually progressed to a point where it would be silly to start recording it then unless, like tim's case, you want to get the open header sound recorded, or something similar.

something as silly as replacing a steel hood with a fiberglass cowl induction hood was one thing i was able to document from start to finish. Â*i even showed how someone who can't lift anything heavier than 5 lbs can get the steel hood off of the vehicle. Â*fulcrums and levers are beautiful things.

i always want to be learning. Â*not just for my own benefit, but for others as well. Â*you never know when someone is going to need someone who knows what you do, and i like to be the go-to-guy in situations like that. Â*when i stop learning is the day they'll put me in a pine box.