Installing the engine and gearbox

I’ve been a bit slack about getting a complete pictorial record for this body of work.

The steps in the process were:

Pick up the engine from Land Vehicle Spares (see previous section on engine repairs)
Get the engine off the trailer, and safely under the car port
Remove the bell housing
Sand blast the engine
Paint the engine
Re-install the bell housing
Install the clutch
Mate the gearbox to the engine
Lift the engine and gearbox into the chassis

The engine ready for blasting

After sandblasting and painting

I rented a 15cfm compressor for the day (actually half a day, it didn’t take long), and bought a cheap blasting gun from SuperCheap. It did a great job of cleaning all the rust and crap off the engine.

After that I gave it a coat of VHT Cast Iron engine paint (see previous section on engine paints for my deliberations on what and how to paint the engine).

By the time I took these pictures I had the bell housing and rear cam shaft cover back on too.

Lifting the engine and gearbox into the chassis

I got Mick Dowsett, from MD Mobile, to give me a hand. I was a bit nervous about getting the clutch dead right, so he handled that end of the operation, and provided half of the brute strength needed to get the rest of it together.

The whole affair took about 2 hours, and that incuded Mick servicing the Camry in the intervals.