If you pull the radiator and remove the crossmember, you should be able to take the engine and trans out as an assembly. At least, that worked on my '68 Skylark. There might be less room in your car, but the parts are the same size. What do you do in the Navy? Machinist's Mate? That's what I did. The old Boiler Tech and Machinist's Mate ratings seem to have gotten rolled into one rating (Machinist's Mate), last I heard. But then, I got out in '76.
I've got the radiator out but I don't know if I will have enough vertical room because the skylarks subframe it's very close to the cts-v oil pan I have and the 4l80e is only about 2" away from the top of the tunnel. So hopefully I'll get it lifted enough to come out! I will report back in a day or two whether I get it out as a engine trans combo or if I split them. I'm a ETN, electronics technician nuclear. Wikipedia gives a better description than I could haha Nuclear-trained ETNs perform duties in nuclear propulsion plants primarily in operating, maintaining, and repairing reactor instrumentation and control systems. ETNs may be assigned as an operator to a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, as an instructor at a Navy nuclear power training command, or as a technician at a shipyard or other nuclear support facility. Additionally ETNs may volunteer for nuclear submarine service. ETNs are the only rating in the Navy that can qualify as a reactor operator of a naval nuclear propulsion plant.
I'm not sure of your clearances, but on my 76 skylark with the Buick 350 I pulled the front clip off and then unbolted the mounts from the engine and then just slid the motor forward a few inches before i really started raising it. I left the trans in but i have to do mine this way because valve cover only sits about a 1/4" away from my a/c delete cover. keith Thank you all for your service!!!
Definitely going to be a tight fit. Not sure how the LS pan is around the cross member along with how fat the 4L80e is, both these could be working against you depending on which oil pan is on the LS. One thing I finally did because I was a habitual engine puller is cut the upper radiator support and weld brackets to it so I just un-bolt it to pull the engine now. I don't have to raise the engine so high or angle it so much with the transmission attached. For a one time deal it's probably not worth doing.
If I understand correctly, the motor mount brackets bolted to the engine won't clear when trying to pull engine and trans? If so, can you lift the engine high enough to remove those from the engine to get them out of the way? Then you could lower the engine the height you need to move forward to get the trans out with it? Derek
Ha, it was a low-buck camera meant for tying to a dogs collar set to take a picture every 5 minutes. A 1/3 of the pictures didn't come out despite being stationary and I put the rest in this GIF.
So I think I've decided to split the motor and trans and just pull the motor out from the top and drop the trans from below. I feel like pulling them together is a form of a shortcut which is going to backfire and then waste more time when I have to then split them. I'm currently on leave and getting the motor in the Buick is my goal. So I think spending the extra hr or so splitting them will save me time and headache in the end. Especially since I'd probably end up scraping up the fresh fire wall paint trying to squeeze it in! The 4l80e is considerably larger than a th350 at about 6" longer and much larger case. I love the idea of a removable coresupport brace. Any issues with the rigidity of the car or and twisting you've noticed around the new mounts you've made for it?
Haven't noticed anything unusual that I could attribute to the core support mount. Compared to the sub-frame it's not very structural, just keeps the fenders from folding in on themselves. I rarely leave an automatic transmission attached on an engine pull. The only reason I leave the manual transmission attached on my car is because the shifter has interference issues trying to pull the transmission back far enough to clear the input shaft and is even more difficult to line back up on install for the same reasons. I've contemplated cutting a larger shifter hole in the trans tunnel and removing the shifter, it'd make removing and installing the engine/trans together easier and allow for easier transmission only removal. As it is, when motivated, I can yank the engine/trans out of my car in an hour so how much time would I be saving? Hence why I haven't done it...yet?
I was hoping to pull it all in one swoop because my little 140lb body struggles to get the 170ish lb trans in from below. But i did it when I was 20 so I guess I'll be able to muster up the strength again haha I've got a nice low profile jack that should make things easier!
Man the system is whack! I somehow got into some sort of multiquote mode. I will just say, "Look at him go!" I'll check back later to comment on other posts.
Got around to installing the front swaybar. Addco 709 1 1/4" bar. It fit really well but my only complaint is it is butted up against the idler arm dust boot. Hopefully it won't cause any issues but oh well that's what happens when I try to stuff a huge bar on a grandma car haha
Made some more progress today. Pulled the 5.3 out of the nova. It took some effort to separate the block from the bell housing, took some jiggling around. After that I had to worry about the passenger side head to heater box clearance, it was tight but got it out. Spun the engine around and threw it in the Buick, went smooth as butter, a flat firewall sure helped make some room, although not much! Mission accomplished Cts-v oil pan to subframe clearance Passenger firewall clearance Drivers side 4l80e is out and ready to go in the Buick! Cleaned up and repainted the crossmember which is a flipped around th350 crossmember. Also put on the energy suspension poly trans mount. That task will probably happen next week as I'm pretty tired!! Oh I forgot to mention the converter. It's a custom order from RevMax converters that I had built when I initially put the motor and trans in my Nova. Flashes about 3500rpm and is a blast to drive on the street. I would never go below 3000 on a aftermarket converter now haha
I'm gonna say that you are the first ET I have ever heard of that can work on cars. The rest of them didn't seem to know one end of a wrench from another, when I was in.
When it comes to locking converters, can you ever have too much stall?? I feel your pain, I'm 6'2" my weight ranges between 150-160lbs.
Unfortunately my garage time is very limited while serving in the navy, I will probably take on that task once I get out! Since I move around so much I don't want to have a long term project. Also I'll soon be selling my nova's rolling chassis to afford some nicer parts! Maybe I can start collecting parts for it haha!
No worries and thanks for your service... I know after my first drive with the turbos on my Buick 350 it was a life changing experience!