Motor's out.

Last week I picked up a couple of chains for pulling the motor, one for the motor and another to hold up the transmission.  I was getting everything ready for pulling on Saturday and realized my chain was too short to go from frame to frame (it's only 4 feet long).  Probably should have a 6 foot chain for that.  Anyway, I jacked it up with a block of wood under the trans oil pan and it worked fine.  

Here's the rented hoist in the back of the van... 

...and assembled.  Rated to 1500 pounds, $18 4-hr rental from Ruddy Rents... an outstanding deal, assuming I only need it for four hours...

I was waiting for Mark to get back from his errand, so I rolled it in and lifted the engine just a teensy bit.

After some fighting, she came out no problem.  I had missed a big bolt down by the oil filter, had to take the oil filter off and get that bolt out (5/8 inch).

I had a lot of bad scenarios playing through my head, like will the lift be high enough for the block to clear the car and not too high to clear the garage door... it was just fine.

With the new vantage point and better light, an Asian beetle infestation was revealed.  Also, it's cool seeing the exhaust valves in there.  Filthy... like looking in a chimney... which makes sense, I suppose.

Photo op with Nathan, who was interested to see the engine pulled and really needed a haircut.  The hoist wheeled really easy also, it was great.

Nate wrenching the engine stand bolts onto the block.

And there it is.  It's not a very good engine stand, but it was free. The oil leak at the front of the crank kept going, so I replaced the Crate and Barrel cardboard with the oil pan and have since drained the oil from the oil pan (as best I can... the angle means there's a good amount in the pan yet.

And here's the engine bay with all kinds of room for me to climb in there with a scrub brush.  :-)  I still have to figure out how to remove the shift linkage for the transmission so I can pull it.

Since then I've continued attacking the block with a wire brush to clean things up and took off the carburetor. I also picked up a 'way on sale' stick welder and 4-inch grinder from Northern Tool so I am primed to start some serious work, hopefully... assuming I don't electrocute myself.  With the engine block there and the further work planned, I'm kind of assuming that my car will be parked in the driveway from now on in order for there to be decent room for the van (for Sarah and the kids).  It's cool, it's almost spring anyway.  

I'm going to practice weld chunks of the exhaust pipe to start out and start carefully cutting away the rusted body panels with the grinder to get at the underlying structures that I need to cut pieces of steel to replace.  I'm hoping I don't 'need' to get a band saw for cutting sheet metal, but we'll see.  Also (like I said), need to disconnect the shift linkage to get the transmission out, clean up the engine compartment... then get the car set up so that I can remove the k-member and get set up to replace/repair the frame.  And while I'm at it, proceed with cleaning/disassembly of the motor.  It's good to have something to keep me busy.