The engine is in! Now what?

[mladen]

Big day today. The engine is finally in the chassis!

Overall, the process went fairly smoothly. We used a 2-ton engine crane, extended all the way, with a leveler, and lifted it out of the crate it came in.

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The first step was to install the engine mounts, and that's where the first problem started. The mounts would not sit flush with the block due to, apparently, the support ridges that the Dart block has. A few quick searches suggested making notches in the mounts (NOT on the block), which is what we did. The following shows just how much misalignment there was on the holes, and how big of a notch we had to make to have it sit flush. I have to say, cutting into the mount does not feel super comfortable, hopefully, it's not compromised in any way.

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Once the notches were sufficient, proceeded with mounting the mounts (no pun intended). Second problem. The blots provided by FFR are too long and bottom out before the mounts are fully seated. Luckily, the blots that came from Blueprint and held the engine in the crate were of the right length and were a grade stronger to boot, so used those. As suggested in many places, we had the rear of the car on jack stands to make it easier for the transmission to go in, which did help, but created a new problem. Now the front 4" tubes were too low and the legs of the engine crane couldn't go under, so we used the jack to just barely lift the front too which worked. One thing that almost got us, and it would have been hard to correct at that point, was that we almost weren't able to clear the engine over the frame, because the chains were too long. I'd strongly suggest using as little chain as possible when picking up the engine.

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Getting the engine into place was fairly easy for the two of us, slowly moving forward, and downward and reducing the angle little by little. The leveler was a bit hard to work with once we got it to that extreme angle, and in fact, we couldn't get it to move the other way, it would just spin and skip, so my neighbor lifted the transmission end to alleviate some of the pressure from its weight, which made it possible to crank the leveler the other way again. Also as suggested elsewhere, I did not torque the bolts on the mounts to the engine fully to allow wiggle room. I want to make sure that everything is aligned well before doing that. Which moves me to the questions...

[mladen]

Problem number 1: I'm still regretting getting the firewall forward. It's a great piece, but I don't need the space behind the dash, and now the valve cover is so close to the heater that there is no room for the 90-degree elbows. Any suggestions on what I can do? Any flex hose options here? Even with a flexible line, it might still make contact with the valve cover. Do those get hot, would that be an issue?

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(potential) Problem number 2: How do I know my engine and transmission are aligned well? I installed the transmission mount as shown below, and the a-frame below it. What I'm seeing is that, when I remove the jack from under the transmission, it does not sit flush on the a-frame, not sure if it's contacting the edge of it there, and also that one whole is a millimeter or two closer to the a-frame then the other, potentially indicating that the whole thing is rotated slightly around the longitudinal axis. Not super easy to see on the photos but hopefully some folks might have ideas around this.

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[edwardb]

(potential) Problem number 2: How do I know my engine and transmission are aligned well? I installed the transmission mount as shown below, and the a-frame below it. What I'm seeing is that, when I remove the jack from under the transmission, it does not sit flush on the a-frame, not sure if it's contacting the edge of it there, and also that one whole is a millimeter or two closer to the a-frame then the other, potentially indicating that the whole thing is rotated slightly around the longitudinal axis. Not super easy to see on the photos but hopefully some folks might have ideas around this.

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Real common to need spacers in there to get the proper pinion angle. You need to check that next. As far as not being even side-to-side, also real common for the engine to drop in and wedge itself between the motor mounts and not be level. It basically stops wherever you let it down. Level or not. Something else to check and not hard to fix.

[mladen]

Real common to need spacers in there to get the proper pinion angle. You need to check that next. As far as not being even side-to-side, also real common for the engine to drop in and wedge itself between the motor mounts and not be level. It basically stops wherever you let it down. Level or not. Something else to check and not hard to fix.

Thank you! I found a few really good threads on how to measure and set the pinion angle. I'll need to wait until I get the driveshaft from FFR for that. Maybe a dumb question, what's the best way check if the engine is level? I could measure the angle of the front round cross-member tube and then compare the angle of the bottom of the oil pan?!

And maybe an additional question. Since I don't have the driveshaft yet, should I hold off on torquing down the engine mounts? That is, do they need to be loosened to set the pinion angle?

[edwardb]

Thank you! I found a few really good threads on how to measure and set the pinion angle. I'll need to wait until I get the driveshaft from FFR for that. Maybe a dumb question, what's the best way check if the engine is level? I could measure the angle of the front round cross-member tube and then compare the angle of the bottom of the oil pan?!

And maybe an additional question. Since I don't have the driveshaft yet, should I hold off on torquing down the engine mounts? That is, do they need to be loosened to set the pinion angle?

Try to find something on the engine that should be level. Oil pan could work. Top of the intake with the carb/EFI removed is another choice. But I wouldn't take anything apart. It's not super critical. Just looking at it by eye it's sometimes apparent that it's leaning one way or the other. The engine itself will be fine if off a few degrees either way. But it could ultimately affect your header/side pipe alignment if way off. Also could explain why the transmission mount isn't laying flat.

No, you shouldn't need to loosen the engine mounts to set the pinion angle. For your setup, it's a pretty simple process. The IRS pumpkin is fixed, so no adjustment there. My experience with IRS and TKO is a 3/4" spacer under the transmission mount is needed. I haven't installed a TKX, so don't know if it's the same. But pretty likely you'll need something.

[Jeff Kleiner]

Thank you! I found a few really good threads on how to measure and set the pinion angle. I'll need to wait until I get the driveshaft from FFR for that….

Actually you DO NOT need the driveshaft to set pinion angle…you may not be understanding the difference between pinion angle and driveshaft angle. It’s easier to measure pinion angle without the driveshaft installed. Simply use your angle finder on the face of the pinion flange and the face of the harmonic balancer/pulley.

Jeff

[haak60]

I had the same problem with heater just tweaked it by hand and it is fine now

[haak60]

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[Blue Viking]

I had the same problem with the heater. I desoldered the fittings from the heater core tubes, shortened the tubes, and resoldered the fittings. Problem solved.