Stripping the original vehicle down to a rolling chassis with engine/gearbox

Again, I meant to take more photos as I stripped down, but forgot.

This is the original rusted out chassis, stripped to pretty near a rolling chassis.

The tub is off and stored away, and I’ve got most of the shrapnel off the engine.

I was expecting dramas with the exhaust and intake manifolds, but they cam off easily. The only exception is one of the exhaust clamp studs, which is pretty near non-existent. I can see a bit of drilling and tapping happening here.

The biggest drama was with the thermostat housing. One of the three bolts was seized in, and sheared off when I tried to get it out. I drilled it out ok, and luckily the seizure was in the housing itself, and not in the cylinder head. I drilled the hole a bit crooked, so I’ll replace thermostat housing along with the thermostat.

The other interesting feature is the two holes gunked up with liquid metal in the side of the block, underneath the exhaust manifold – the final picture.. I think they might need some investigation before the engine gets put back together.