[67Lemons]

Originally Posted by Sirrotica

Anyone that has done it for a living leaves the transmission in the car, and pulls only the engine. You eliminate a lot of work by leaving the transmission in the car, plus it saves on transmission fluid and the red lake you almost always end up with on the garage floor. You eliminate taking cooling lines off, plus reinstalling the driveshaft, shift linkage etc.

If you have ever worked flat rate, it saves you money, and time.

:2 cents:

As a former flat rate tech I agree with you but most of the folks on here are doing this in their garage at night with minimal tools and or help so picking the easiest method makes sense, also a lot of us myself included will be pulling the motor AND the trans to service/seal one while replacing/upgrading the other so it makes sense to be aware of other ways to make the job easier for folks who don’t do this regularly.

[Formulajones]

Hell I use the leveler even with a simple engine R&R just because it's super simple to tilt a few degrees here or there when it's not quite lined up to the bell or I need to slide a motor mount bolt in. plus its just easier to bolt that thing on the intake and do it rather than screw around with chains.

[Sirrotica]

Originally Posted by 67Lemons

As a former flat rate tech I agree with you but most of the folks on here are doing this in their garage at night with minimal tools and or help so picking the easiest method makes sense, also a lot of us myself included will be pulling the motor AND the trans to service/seal one while replacing/upgrading the other so it makes sense to be aware of other ways to make the job easier for folks who don’t do this regularly.

When I was 15 YO I started pulling engines and swapping them with a chain fall and a cross chain bolted to the intake with longer bolts, because that was what I had to work with. I always pulled the engine trans as a unit because I never thought I could unite the two units in chassis easily. It's also how I saw my buddies doing it so I followed suit. My father was livid when I dumped many quarts of ATF on his fresh asphalt driveway, and threatened to banish my car repairing out of his garage. Another reason I tried just pulling the engines, and leave the transmission in chassis was to placate my dad. Years later the picture of why he was soooooo POed about the mess is crystal clear.

After graduating from high school and Vo Tech I went to work at a Pontiac dealership, and saw how the line mechanics always left the transmission in the chassis when they changed engines. After observing how easily the transmission while supported by a floor jack, and the engine supported by an engine crane went together I finally tried it in chassis. It was a major change for me swapping engines. Unless I needed to remove the transmission I always just pulled the engine by itself and saved a lot of unnecessary labor, as well as clean up.

Now at 72 I've never used any leveler or tilter, because I never felt it would save me any time or labor. If I can do it at my age I would think that anyone younger could do it also...........

Since I probably won't be changing engines on a wholesale basis I'll likely never change how I do it, nor invest in a tilter/leveler. As has already been said a screwdriver through a chain link will not let the hook slide, pretty basic, and effective.

Anyone that has perfected their engine swap another way good on you, keep doing it the way that suits you..... I'm just relaying what has worked for me over 50 plus years with minimal investment.

[JLMounce]

Interesting tidbits here. Up until 2023, I had never pulled an engine from anything that wasn't a tractor. I had to pull the engine to replace a broken dipstick. I then had to pull that same engine in May of 2024 after it spun a bearing. In both instances, I never even thought about taking the engine and transmission out as a single unit. That to me just sounded like more work and chaos than it was worth.

Yes, the upper bolts on the transmission suck to get in, but I had very little trouble getting everything aligned and back into place. Heck, with a load leveler in use and the hood removed, I was able to spin the engine as it was coming out and going in such that I didn't even have to remove the radiator from the car.

[gtorich]

Hey Brad i get what your saying about leaving the trans in the car, your talking about an auto right, im thinking if i left the 5 speed in the car, wouldnt that make it pretty difficult pushing the motor into the trans, in my case it doesnt matter i have them both out, was wondering out of curiosity if i would have been better off leaving the 5 speed in the car. Just trying to learn stuff here.

Rich

[Sirrotica]

Originally Posted by gtorich

Hey Brad i get what your saying about leaving the trans in the car, your talking about an auto right, im thinking if i left the 5 speed in the car, wouldnt that make it pretty difficult pushing the motor into the trans, in my case it doesnt matter i have them both out, was wondering out of curiosity if i would have been better off leaving the 5 speed in the car. Just trying to learn stuff here.

Rich

Rich, I've done plenty of cars and trucks with stick shifts, it's sometimes a little bit harder than an automatic, but it comes down to eyeballing the surfaces to make sure that the distances on the top and bottom are the same, same as doing it out of a chassis. Also with any split you need to have a good pilot tool to get all the clutch parts aligned properly.

I've done sticks separating them at the bellhousing to block surface as well as splitting the transmission from the bellhousing and putting them back together with the bellhousing still bolted to the engine. If done like this, pilot bolts make it easier to slip the two back together. Pilot bolts are simply transmission to bellhousing bolts with the heads cut off to be removed after the transmission slides into the bellhousing. Most older GMs use 1/2 inch coarse thread bolts.

I also use pilot bolts when replacing clutches to make alignment easier, as well as a way to rest the transmission on when you get tired and need a rest without taking the transmission down to the ground. Once you have it up in to the transmission tunnel, taking it back out clear down to the ground is kind of disheartening when you're getting winded from wrestling it.

I use 2 bolts cross corners from each other, and I make sure I can remove the bolts after you get the two together, some transmissions can make removing pilot bolts difficult due to the casting webbing, just look at the casting to make sure you don't have to pull the transmission back out to get your pilot bolts out. Of course I'm speaking from experience having not looked into removing the pilot bolts after the two pieces are seated together, things that can make you cuss a blue streak..........LOL

[gtorich]

I use 2 bolts cross corners from each other, and I make sure I can remove the bolts after you get the two together, some transmissions can make removing pilot bolts difficult due to the casting webbing, just look at the casting to make sure you don't have to pull the transmission back out to get your pilot bolts out. Of course I'm speaking from experience having not looked into removing the pilot bolts after the two pieces are seated together, things that can make you cuss a blue streak..........LOL

Brad, thank for the info, i will try the cross corner deal when i put it back in, the last couple times i had the pilot bolts in the top of the bell housing, seemed to work ok, but maybe crossways could be easier....im still working up the courage to put the motor and trans in together, just cant get over using those two barrel bolts to hold everything up..........might knock off a few beers and go to town. lol

Rich