FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

Can anyone please part there wisdom and experience on me re: fitting a motor ?

Is it best to fit the motor bare, or with SOME accessories already fitted.

I'm thinking it is easier to fit and tension the ALternator and belts, also, starter motor, gearbox, extractors, inlet manifold ect ect, or is it best to leave some of these things till after the motor is fitted.

I just didn't want to scratch the engine bay ( freshly painted ) by swinging spanners and torque wrenches ect when fitting up these things afterwards.

Deos that make sense ?

Any ideas greatly appreciated.....oh yeah...its a REd 202 with Triple CD Strombergs and YES the firewall has been recessed !

Cheers

Mark

In my humble opinion it is much better to fit everything onto the motor before lowering it into the engine bay. Just have lots of patience and some extra ahnds when fitting the engine and you shouldn't have any scratched paint.  Also helps to have a good engine crane.

Remember the old broken bolt problem - much easier to fix with easy access rather than trying to lean over a guard, stretch your back and then slip the ####ing spanner onto your new paint.

earlee

I put my motor in the other week, by myself, A Frame, block and tackle and a trolley jack. The engine bay is no where near show cond. so I guess I didn't have that worry, but it went smooth as silk.
I had the trans, starter, water pump, oil pump, dizzy and fuel pump fitted.
On the car I had the grille in but no radiator.
I attached the chains to the engine mounts so that when raised the trans was hanging towards the floor. I had also taped the trans yoke into postition to avoid any trans fluid spills.
It wasn't a super easy job, but I had to grab the chance as the kids were out of the house.

While on the subject , Just wondering if you need to remove the radiator and the bonnet catch plate etc..if you are removing just the block?

                                       Cheers Jody (jodstar) :)

You'll make life a lot easier for yourself if you do.  Apart from the extra room you give yourself to get that bloody heavy motor out, compare the price of a bottle of coolant to the cost of a new core when you put the fan or the harmonic balancer into it...

cheers
RET

To add to my original post......it seems I'll be fitting the engine complete with all accessories...so my next question is:

Has anyone heard of Jacking up the rear of the car ( on ramps ) to help with the angle that the motor slides in at.

It seems that when hoisting up the engine / gearbox, the whole thing points down at the gearbox end by quite a lot, so apparantly by jacking the rear of the car up, it helps lower the angle at which the eninge hangs so as to clear the tunnel?

Your thoughts

Cheers

IMHO, Not really needed, I just had the trolley jack on the floor ready for the trans yoke and it slid along quite nicely. A skateboard or something similar would do the job, but you need to jack the trans up at the end to go over the x-member.

In about 3-4 weeks I'll be dropping my motor back in the car, so this thread is good timing for me.

Another question, Glenn (or anybody else):  Did you have the rear engine mounts on the car or on the body?  I'm thinking that if I have the mounts loosely bolted to the engine it will give me the "play" I'll want to juggle the motor into place.  The reason I'm asking is because when I was taking it out yesterday (Sunday) the right-side mount kept snagging on the steering gear, so I got under and took it off.

Any other hints will be appreciated.

Thanks.

Martin

Sorry Martin, can't help, got a 202 and a chassis kit in mine.