Pulling the engine

The engine compartment in these Mustangs doesn’t offer a lot of extra room so pulling the engine requires removing just about everything surrounding it.

First up was draining the radiator and overflow tank, followed by removing them and their respective hoses. The driver side header was removed off-camera as well.

With the radiator out it became much easier to access the manual fan bolts.

The alternator and its mounting brackets were followed closely by the heater core hoses, air filter, carburetor, coil and associated wiring, distributor wiring, oil pressure sensor, and engine temperature sensor. As soon as the carb was off I attached the engine lift plate to prevent anything from sneaking its way down into the intake manifold.

I labeled the spark plug wires, disconnected the fuel line from the fuel pump, disconnected the engine ground strap, removed the starter, got the engine hoist in position, and removed the bolts from the engine mounts.

Once again I failed to account for fluids and the coolant loosed from the water pump by raising the engine made a giant mess on the floor. I’m starting to think that maybe I’m somehow incapable of learning this lesson.

All that remained before mounting the engine on the engine stand was the removal of the bellhousing, clutch pack, flywheel, and engine plate. I was pleasantly surprised to find the clutch and flywheel in excellent condition with plenty of friction material left.

The chassis is looking pretty barren these days, shouldn’t be too much longer before it’s a rolling shell.

At the end of the day I was able to reorganize the garage a bit in order to fit the engine hoist along with the newly removed transmission and engine in a corner where they won’t be in the way most of the time.

With one of the 3 cars nearing a state of complete disassembly I’m happy to report that we’re still able to fit all of the cars in the garage without too much fuss. I’m sure that will change eventually but we’re enjoying it while it lasts.