SpeedChimp Racing: Part 12

Engine Removal

We finally got the opportunity to pull the original engine and transmission from the car. The way the car is designed, there are only two points where the engine/trans assembly is bolted to the car: one cross brace under the middle of the transmission and one cross brace at the front of the enging. After removing the most of the electrical stuff during teardown of the car, it was fairly painless to get the engine and transmission loose.

After attaching the engine hoise and getting a little tension on it, I removed the bolts on the engine mount, then loosened the two nuts attaching the transmission cross brace to the chassis. What I failed to consider before removing those nuts is that the freaking thing is HEAVY, even just the tail end of it. And I hadn't removed the shifter and boots and shifter so the transmission dropped as far as the shifter boots would let it, the drive shaft came out of the transmission, and tranny fluid proceeded to spill out all over the garage floor under the car.

If you've ever smelled transmission fluid or gear oil, you know that it smells pretty awful; very sulfery. Once you get it on you, it takes a few days to get the smell off, no matter how much you wash. For those who have their laundry machines in the garage, your clothes get to smelling like sulfer, too. That's nice.

So after most of the fluid had drained out, I slapped a rubber glove over the end like a cow's udder and secured it with some tape. Problem (temporarily) solved. I then removed the fasteners on the shifter boot and pulled the shifter out of the transmission and covered the turret with a bag to keep crap from falling into it.

We lifted the engine and started pulling it forward and up out of the engine bay. That's when the coolant (which I thought had been completely drained) gushed out, adding to the gear oil puddle on the floor. Par for the course...