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.