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Pulling the engine... one of those plates on the carb, or...

dremu

dremu

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should I wrap the whole engine in chain, or try bolting to it somewhere?

I'd like to pull the motor (454) and tranny (TH400) as one unit, but I donno where good attachment points are.

Any comments?

-- A
 
I pulled my 454 with bolts in the heads frt & rear on opposite corrners. a carb plate would be fine too, as long as the intake is NOT aluminum :p:
 
DEMON44 said:
I pulled my 454 with bolts in the heads frt & rear on opposite corrners. a carb plate would be fine too, as long as the intake is NOT aluminum :p:
Click to expand...

All stock, so no blingy aluminum here :D

Bolts in the heads meaning removing the valve covers, or actually pulling the heads?

Oh, and ya think a carb plate can handle the weight of motor AND tranny?

-- A
 
no not valve cover bolts. front face and rear face IIRC I did the pass rear and driverside front. there was nice little tapped holes 3/8 maybe.

and a 3/16 oe 1/4 plate on the carb hole with bolts correctly torqued would have no problem with that weight. theres 4 right, each bolt only has to hold 1/4 of the total weight. lots of people really underestimate the clamping force of smaller bolts.
 
There are holes in the sides of the heads, rear at least. I used a water pump hole on the front.
 
i would definetly go with the holes on the heads like everyone else is saying, the threads should be 3/8-16. probably use grade 8 bolts.
 
70GMC said:
i would definetly go with the holes on the heads like everyone else is saying, the threads should be 3/8-16. probably use grade 8 bolts.
Click to expand...

Cool. I have lots of 3/8" gr8 left over from my rollcage project.

OTOH, how do I get to the back of the heads... doesn't seem like there's much room back there.

-- A
 
you can use your intake bolts too.. yank the intake and reuse the stock bolts down into the heads.. or pull the stockers out of the intake and put longer ones in...
 
I pulled my big block out with a th400 attached with a carb plate, no problemo. I wouldn't stand under it but it worked...
 
hole in the head...

I either use the factory lifting brackets on the front right and left rear of the intake,or chain bolted to the holes in the heads as aleady suggested..if the factory brackets are still there,thats the best place to hook the chain up,its balanced perfect with the tranny attached or not..an engine "tilter" device on the chain makes life much easier too,to tilt the tranny down into place..

Though I'd be leery of using a carb plate to hoist a motor with an aluminum intake,I have seen several guys install big blocks with the tranny attached using them,with no troubles..I'd be 100% certain to use grade 8 bolts and ensure all the bolt holes have perfect threads though..:crazy:
 
When i pulled the 350 out of my K5, i used the factory mounts and a load leveler. worked really nice. the big block didn't have the mounts. i felt alot better about the factory mounts but either work.
 
i also used the factory lift brackets on my 350. i don't know if i'd trust the rear one with a tranny attached. it was bending with just the fully assembled engine and most of the accessories. i next time, i'll probably get a second bracket for the rear, just to be sure. the front one is so beefy i had no concern, at all. plus, uses two intake manifold bolts, not just one. my $.02
 
The 'Mustangs & Fords' periodical (June 06) did a test on this very thing and the results are pretty useful. With a Edelbrock Performer manifold #11009 (aluminium), Lift Plate (steel)#11193 and a carb stud kit #10967, they broke the lift plate, the studs stayed intact up to 4493 pounds.

With a homebrew chunky lift plate it took 5410 pounds to pop a stud. Thats damn near the weight of a Blazer. The studs were tested for grade and were assesed as Grade 2.

I'd use a lift plate and studs on anything that powers a K5. Remember the key here is studs, not bolts.

Jas
 
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one of my buddies used a lift plate on a aluminum intake. we pulled the motor every month. in 2 months, the bolt holes started to strip out. then we put helicoils in it, after 3 months, the helicoils started breaking. they still held the bolt in, but when you take the bolt out it would take part of the helicoil with it. after that we stoped using the plate and just used a chain with a bolt on the heads.
 
Stripping out is different to pulling out, loctited finger tightened studs dont get stripped out.

My alloy mainfolds that I use bolts on also get stripped and generally degrade over time. I know I'm overtightening them and I can only blame myself for that. I should know better.

That test is conclusive only if the proper fastners are used in the correct manner. If you have an alloy manifold that has flogged out female threads and you use bolts, then yes I'd expect point of failure to be much lower.

Jas
 
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we used the poor mans stud, long all thread bolt with a nut to torque it tight, mainly because we didn't have any bolts that were short enough to not bottom out. it still stripped out, though it could be from tightening the carb down.
 
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