If the engine block, bellhousing and transmission assembly fits....

So, a couple weeks ago I received my M22z transmission, and the plan was to do my powertrain test fit the following weekend.  John was busy on that day, so I took the operation international when a sort-of-co-worker car guy, in town from our UK office, offered to help.  Which was a good thing, too, as he had some good ideas about how to maneuver the block/bellhousing/trans assembly into the car without the hernia that I probably would have acquired otherwise.

The main reason for this exercise was because I had some trouble finding engine mounts, and a bellhousing, and a transmission mount that were advertised as being appropriate for this engine in this car.  That was a little bit strange to me, because this engine and trans were available in this car from the factory, so it seems like there should be parts available, but for whatever reason Summit Racing does not list any motor mounts for a Mark IV big block in a 1965 Impala.  Eventually I found that they do list motor mounts for a Mark IV big block in a 1965 Bel Air, and I thought, "Well, that should be exactly the same, for all intents and purposes."  But, I wasn't 100% sure, so I wanted to test fit everything to make sure that the mounting holes would line up, because if we needed to make any new holes, I wanted that done before the frame was powdercoated.

So anyway, we started by putting the transmission on the edge of the bench and bolting the bellhousing to it.  Then we put the chain on the engine block, hooked it on to the hoist, unbolted it from the engine stand, and wheeled the hoist over to the bench, where we could line it up with the bellhousing and bolt the bellhousing to the block.

The hood was already off the car, but the front fenders, radiator support, etc., were all still in place, so we had to come in at a pretty steep angle. I didn't get any pictures of the assembly hanging at that angle, because I was always nervous to see it hanging with all its weight on one half of the chain that we used to hoist it.

But, after we verified that the chain could hold it at that angle, I grabbed the tail of the transmission and lifted it up to level the load.  Then we rolled the whole deal over to the car and maneuvered the assembly over the engine bay.  From there, we lowered the tail of the trans down into the engine bay until we could support it on a jack.  At that point, we had the engine block hanging from the hoist, and the tail of the trans resting on the jack.  As we moved the assembly towards horizontal, we maneuvered the jack under the transmission case, so that we could continue to support the trans as we moved its tail over the crossmember.

It was a bit of hassle to lift the tail of the trans, lower the engine block, repeat, shift the whole deal back towards the crossmember, repeat again, etc., until we could work the tail of the trans up over the crossmember and rest the trans mount on the crossmember.  At the same time, we had to be lining the engine mounts up and bringing them down into place.

But, finally we had the whole deal in place, with bolts in place in the engine mounts, and the studs threaded into the transmission mount on the crossmember.  The photos below show the views from below and above.

 

You can see the shiny gold-colored ends of the transmission mount studs sticking down through the cross member just right of center in the picture above, and you can see one bolt sticking through the motor mount assembly just below-ish center in the picture below.  Full success.



 

I was worried that removal was going to be just as much of a hassle as installation had been, but the whole deal actually came right out, quite a bit easier than it had gone in.  Or maybe it just seemed easy, relative to my expectations.  Either way, we got it out, disassembled everything, put the block back on the stand, put the bellhousing back in its box, and left the transmission on the work bench.

My tentative plan as of now is to take the car to the body shop, have them blast and powdercoat the frame, then I'll bring the frame back home where I can start installing the suspension, fuel lines, etc., and eventually I will drop the engine, bellhousing, clutch, transmission, etc., into place without the body on the frame.  That will make the job much easier and remove the risk of damaging the paint on the body in the process.  Then the whole frame and powertrain will go back to the body shop for the body to be dropped on top of it.

At least ... that's the plan.  We'll see how it goes.

Next task:  get the car to the body shop.

Transmission Received

All right, so, what's going on here....  A few weekends ago, I went up to Austin to look at a 1933 Chevy 5-window coupe that a guy was selling up there.  Do I need a 1933 Chevy 5-window coupe?  No.  But about a year ago, I was looking for one and couldn't find anything that looked suitable.  Then I stumbled on to this one on Craigslist, and it looked like a great starting point for a hot rod project, perfect for my purposes.  I thought the price looked fair, so I decided I should at least go look at it.

The guy hadn't given any contact information, other than e-mailing him through Craigslist's anonymous e-mail system.  So, I tried that, and got no response.

So I tried again the next day, got no response.  At this point I figured that he must have sold the car already, but been too lazy to take the ad down.  Still, I tried again the next day.

Still no response.  By now it was the weekend, and I gave up.  On Monday, I saw that the guy had re-listed the car, and knocked $500 off the price.  Now I'm thinking that apparently none of this guy's messages are getting through to him, and, man, how do I get a hold of this idiot and take advantage of him before someone else does?

I tried to e-mail Craigslist, explain the situation, and see if they could help put me in touch with the guy.  Predictably, I never heard back from them.  At the same time, my buddy John was in the UK on a business trip.  I told him by e-mail what was going on, and he decided to try and e-mail the guy through Craigslist, also.  Somehow, his message got through, the guy gave John his phone number, and John sent it to me.  So then I texted the guy, and decided to go up and look at the car after work on Friday.

By the time I finally got up there and saw the car, I had had a week to think about all the practical aspects of such an acquisition, and most of them were more towards the "impractical" end of the scale.  I didn't really have a good place to put it, and while several people offered to let me keep it in various places, I figured that it might take a couple years or more before I was ready to work on it, and I didn't want to leave it somewhere for that long, or have to move it around as I wore out my welcome at various locations.

But, I still went up there to look at it, anyway, because it just seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up.  There was a lot of good stuff there, original frame, original engine, original trans, most of the original sheetmetal, except for the fenders and running boards, which I didn't want, anyway.  I also had no use for the engine and trans, as my plan was to get a 409 Chevy from a guy at work who knows someone who's trying to sell one, and maybe another Muncie M22Z for the transmission.

I stood there talking with the guy for a while, he turned out to be a very nice guy.  I was looking at the car, and trying to talk myself into or out of it, but I couldn't make my mind up either way.  He said that he had bought it in Iowa, took it to Montana, then brought it down to Texas as he moved around, but never had a chance to get started on it.  Now he and his wife were getting ready to start a home renovation project that would block in the back yard, so the Chevy had to be moved before the project started.  The project was supposed to start in a couple days, so if I didn't buy the Chevy, he was going to show the car to a couple other potential buyers on Saturday, and if they didn't buy it, then his dad was going to buy it from him, just to get it out of the way.

Well, I still couldn't decide if I wanted it, so I told him to text me on Saturday if the other guys didn't want it.  I was kind of hoping that someone else would buy it, and I wouldn't have to worry about it.  I got dinner with a friend in Austin, then headed back to San Antonio.  By the time I was driving home, I was really starting to think that I wanted that '33 after all....

Sure enough, Saturday afternoon I got a text from the guy in Austin, the other buyers had low-balled him and he had declined their offers.  Last chance to get the car.  I wandered around the house for an hour or so, trying to figure out where I could put the '33, whether or not I even wanted it, etc.  But, for whatever reason, I just couldn't get excited about it, and every time I tried to picture an exciting hot rod project in my head, I kept picturing 1937 Chevy coupes, instead of '33's.  In the end, I decided that I just didn't want it right now, so I told the guy, sorry, thanks, but no thanks.  I guess if all else fails, if I decide I should have bought it, I can always try to contact the guy and see if his dad still has it.

Since then, there's been a couple of relatively unproductive weekends.  The Corvair got an oil change somewhere along the line.  Last weekend, on Friday, my transmission was delivered.  So, the plan for this weekend is to do the powertrain test fit, and then the car will be just about ready to send off to the body shop.  At that point, I'll be able to get back to painting parts, and start building up the engine.  So that will be exciting.

Slowly moving along....