Engine removal with radiator in place

[MikeK]

Originally Posted by Tom Wesenberg

. . . didn't want me to remove the hood rods and radiator, for fear of not getting the hood lined up again. I should have walked, but I did the job. . . .

How did you get it out with the hood rods in place?

[fredski]

Originally Posted by Tom Wesenberg

It can be done because I had a customer that wanted me to install his new engine but didn't want me to remove the hood rods and radiator, for fear of not getting the hood lined up again. I should have walked, but I did the job.

While the radiator is out you might as well turn it upside down and back flush it. I use a sump pump and large tub to back flush, because you need more flow than a garden hose can supply.

You just didn't tell him you removed the radiator?


Fredski

[marc silva]

Originally Posted by Neil Mylar LakewoodCA

Marc,
I've seen some great pictures of your coupe on the MAFCA website from time to time. It looks very original and you seem to use it a lot. Can you tell us/me about your car. It looks like a low mileage original. Has it been in your family long?
Neil

I have had the car for 26 years.I bought it from the original owners son. It came from Michigan and ended up on their ranch in Calistoga in the Napa Valley 15 miles from me. It was registered last in 1963 and sat in my garage until 2007 full of antiques and car parts on it and in it.I was going to make a hotrod out of it and had all the stuff to do it. Frame, suspension, shocks etc. everything running gear wise. I needed to make it run so I could move it around to use my shop space. I started researching the car and started finding that it was very much intact with all the correct fasteners still in place, wiring, battery cables and bolts,and a lot of other things month and year correct and a lot of stuff that would have been tossed over time. Once I did that it was forget the hotrod thing.I couldn't be the one to ruin it. Sold all the parts I had for 20 years for what I paid for them, joined the Sonoma A's and the rest is what you have been seeing. The best thing I have done, and the best car I have!! We love it and it gets all the attention wherever we go! Everyone knows the car at all the meets and no one wants me to change a thing. We/I drive the heck out of it! Only thing it has a crack in the water jacket and the rear main has finally given up..That's why the motor change, but you will not be able to tell when I get done with it. That is why I need to be careful taking it apart. It has great patina.

[Tom Wesenberg]

Originally Posted by Mikeinnj

Tom,

Tell us the trick that you used installing an engine and not removing the radiator and especially not removing the hood rods. ???

I wish I could remember the details of that one. He was standing there watching and telling me how to do the job (don't you just love that ), but I either had to remove at least one hood rod, or bring the engine up from below. I just don't recall the details, except that I was so dumbfounded by the idea he thought I couldn't get the hood rods back in the same spot.

I won't do another engine with the radiator in place.

[Mitch//pa]

"Due to insurance regulations customers are not allowed in the work area"

Sometimes customers like that accidentally get squirted with oil