The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop removing old 216 revisited

OK guys...

before I unbolt the front engine mounts I want to verify that I have all of the bolts out of the bellhousing betwwen the sm420, and the bellhousing. I'm assuming there is suppose to be 4 bolts on each side, but I'm only able to find 2 on the right side, and 1 on the left side.

Point A is the bolt I removed, and point B is where I believe bolt 2 was. are these the 2 points where the bolts are between the bellhousing and the tranny?
Picture of right side

OK point A is again where I removed the bolt between the bellhousing and the tranny. point B is where I believe a bolt would normally by, but this is a piece of solid metal.
Picture of left side

from what I can see here I am assuming that what is actually happening is both bolts on point B are fastened from the inside, and not the outside. if this is the case then I will probably grind the rivets off the front tranny crossmember, and removed the engine and tranny togeter as suggested earlier.

Only 4 bolts on the tranny to the bellhousing.Top 2 are for outside the tranny into the bellhousing. Bottom 2 go from inside the bellhousing to the tranny. Take off the sheetmetal pan under the flywheel(if ya got one) and you should see a bolthead on each side.

Wook, what a mess! I couldn't make ups or downs on your pix at first! First remove the floor center pan inside the truck to get it away from your trans/clutch area and you will see better. You have to remove the shift lever to get trans out anyway. Just press down on center cap and turn ctr/clockwise and lift out assembly. Then if you have brake lever on back of trans, cover will come over it, but handier to remove the lever and mechanism first before removing trans. Just the lever and links, not the drum part. Next, clean/scrape some of that gunk off, so you can see what you're doing! Bottom two bolts come from inside housing. Remove the bottom tin pan and you will see them. 3/4" bolts. I'm betting a big wad of mouse nest in this area too, so beware of that falling allover your face. In looking at pix, it appears that the whole b/house and all has fallen down some onto the x-over and you may have to raise it some to get tin pan off/out of there. Don't you see the two big rubber mounts on each side of B/house? ONe big bolt down thru frame on each side for them. By the looks of all the Gunk down there, I'm sure you will need to take s/driver and clean out the areas above and below to see the bolt heads/nuts. OR, you can remove the two bolts holding the mounts to side of b/house and leave them onframe till later. About 9/16" bolts, use an extension to reach in there. So, I reccomend lift engine some now (if front mount is unbolted from rad x-member) and them remove pan on clutch, remove inner floor pan, remove trans handle and brake lever. Don't forget the driveshaft or support the trans and leave in truck. Remove the trans bolts, and b/house mounts either way and pull/seperate the trans and b/house with s/drivers as levers. Again with a nest in there, plenty of rusty stuff and harder to get it to move off. Bellhousing WILL NOT come off engine from outside bolts only! You need to remove trans or pull engine as said, remove clutch and p/plate from underneath and let fall/come out bottom and THEN, the flywheel needs to come off after bending those dang lock tabs back from bolt heads, THEN drop it out bottom, THEN you will see around 4, maybe it's 6 bolts inside you need to reach with wrenches or sockets. B'house has two pins to locate/support it on engine. Now you will see why most times you see the junk engines with b/house and clutch still on them! Oh yeah, you can usually get the flywheel bolts thru the trans center hole part of b/house. Believe me, an air impact is much nicer for most of this stuff, can't get it into all the spots tho. Trying to cut all the rivets and remove x-member is far more trouble than it's worth and a major pain. That x-member is holding a lot of truck together and some may move around on you if it's not there. If you're going a V-8, you may have to remove it, but needs to be replaced by some other brace/xover for support.

well the temp has dropped and it's 8 degree's without the wind chill so I'm not going to get it done today... (I already have the gear shift off)

Keep us apprised of any new developments. This will be a major milestone as you move toward having to spend some money.

well I had a nice enough day here today that I decide to go ahead try to get this engine pulled again.

well I knew I had to replace the flooring so I took a cutoff wheel, and cut more space above the tranny, but not up to the firewall (firewall is in good condition).

only real problem I had was I could'nt get the driveshaft & tranny to separate very easily, but I did go ahead and pull the engine & tranny together. after getting the cover off the tranny on the inside, and inspecting all the animal fece's I decided I wasn't too excited to take the bellhousing cover off.

if anybody wants the intake or manifold, head or anything off this they better email me pretty quickly cuz I'm having the scrap guy haul it off.

BTW that stinkin 216 and sm420 are HEAVY!

I think you should clean and detail that engine for practice.

I've done one engine in one k5, and I'm doing another one on this one so I've had a couple of those projects!

I saw just the thing on the history channel last night. A high-tech junkyard had a machine for removing engines in about 2 minutes. Big hold-down swiveled over the car from the rear like a big mouse-trap, giant arm that looked kind of like a log loader reached in and plucked out the engine. Then went after the radiator. Just what you need, Solo.