Is it possible to pull a 455 out of a 66 Skylark w/o removing the hood? It was suggested if I tried it, to pull the intake and heads off using the cherry picker, and then pulling short block. Any possibility to do it with heads and intake still on? Car is freshly restored. Don't want to remove hood unless absolutely necessary. Thanks.
Only if you pull the grille and rad support. Even then you will need a cherry picker and very close hookup. Pull the hood
If you're worried about the hood lining up use masking tape an out the hood Hinges or use the scribe to outline around the hinge. Lot less chance of damaging the hood or the car then dismantling the motor while still in the car.
Yeah. That's kinda what I figured. Doesn't hurt to ask for opinions. Was hoping someone would say "Sure, plenty of room, no problem. Done it many times!" Thanks for the quick responses. Pulling the hood it is.
Plenty of room if the trans is left in the car. As long as your crane can reach the center of the top of the engine, you'll be able to remove it with the hood on. You'll need to attach a chain tight with just a little slack across the top of the engine connected on the back on one side and the front on the other side. Without the trans connected, center the crane hook(make sure it is setup as high as it can go) in the middle, the engine should be very close to level on its way out, if not set it down and move accordingly. You will need to support the trans when you are removing the engine with a jack, I usually wire the trans up after the engine is out. Lift engine off the motor mounts, disconnect from trans, lift a little, back up a little, lift a little, back up a little until you are clear of the car. Easy peasy, done. If you do take the hood off, leave the hinges bolted to the hood, WAY easier to align when re-installing. There will only be around a 1/4" of forward and backward adjustment with the hood latch lining up in any position.
I have read about drilling a small (<1/8th) hole through the hinge base and sheet metal before removing the hood to allow for alignment during reassembly. Any one done this?
I did it on my hood, deck lid, and doors after after doing all of the bodywork. It worked great. I removed all of the parts to cut them in and they all went back on and my gaps were fine.
This thread is kinda funny. I have no idea why anyone would want to risk damage to their paint and body work by doing all of that ridiculous engine disassembly in the car just to avoid pulling the hood. With two or preferably three sensible people, pulling the hood off of even a supremely restored show car is still very easy. I would never even dream of pulling a hood with the hinges still attached to it, rather than removing the hood from the hinges. The risk of scratching up the insides and tops of the fenders coming out is WAY too high. Plus in my opinion, it's much easier to align the hood when all you have to worry about is two axis - front/rear and side to side. When you unbolt the hinges, you have to worry about up/down and the tilt as well. Completely unnecessary to create that extra work for yourself. If the hood is properly aligned now and shuts perfectly with level corners in the back, there is no reason to touch the hinges. Just unbolt the hood from the hinges. The hood is four bolts. Use some good quality masking tape with a sharp edge to mark all around the hinge on the hood, remove it, and spend a few minutes lining it back up during reassembly and it just couldn't be any easier. Place thick towels underneath the corners of the hood prior to removing the bolts, and always remove the forward bolts first. I like to do it with three people. One person on each side with a hand underneath the corner for support, and the third person holding the front of the hood, paying attention to the angle on the hinges and not letting it droop down as bolts come out. I use a ratcheting wrench wrapped with tape, and I've done this numerous times without issue. It's not rocket surgery. Edit: and drilling holes in freshly painted sheetmetal to aid in alignment? I can't even wrap my head around that one. If a body shop or mechanic did that to my car I would be FURIOUS. I wouldn't even dream of doing that to my own car.
I (always) hit the bolt heads with white spray paint, pulled the hood, did all that stuff, year and a half later, put the hood on, hand tightened the bolts, lined up my "paint shadows" and tightened them down. less than 5 minutes off, and 5 minutes on. Then a little rattle can love with a little satin black and close the hood.
Like the idea of using tape to outline the hood hinge on the hood before removal. I've actually removed the hood years ago by myself, way before the frame off, and when the car wasn't in as good of shape and wasn't worried about a few scratches. My problem is getting someone to help with the hood when I want them there. Don't have enough height in the garage, so it's gotta be done outside, which limits me to a weekend and nice weather. Thanks for all the suggestions. Will update the thread after I find time to do it.
I pulled my 455 out of the 71 with the hood on. No issue at all. I figured i would try it since i didn't have any help. I was surprised. It came right out
Tried to tell him. I have pulled the engine out of both of my '64 Skylarks, '72 Skylark, '65 Impala, '69 Grand Prix, '79 K-5 Blazer, '88 K-5 Blazer and an '88 Dually 1 ton Chevy pick up with a BBC with the hood still on without help. Also re-installed all of them with the hood still on by myself without incidence. Need to leave trans in, remove fan, fan shroud, radiator, exhaust manifolds or headers, carb, starter, ground straps, pulleys, torque converter bolts, trans to engine bolts and motor mount bolts and its ready to go. Have to remove power steering pump and move it to the side and wire it out of the way, can leave it connected to the hoses, if not, it will leak fluid. Need to support the trans with a jack, use a piece of wood on jack to the trans pan, won't hurt it one bit. After engine is out wire the trans up and you'll be able to move car. I usually use a couple heavy duty bungee cords hooked to the trans to the lip of the cowl. Doing it this way you don't have to disconnect shifter linkage, don't have to remove drive shaft, don't have to remove trans mount or mess with the cross member, trans and torque converter stays in car. Means no trans fluid spilling on the ground as well. If you want the trans out too, after the engine is out the trans is very easy to remove with the engine out of the way. Just jack up front end, install jack stands, move jack to trans from the front of the car, use a piece of wood to help distribute the weight on the trans pan, remove drive shaft, remove shifter linkage, remove trans mount, remove whatever you're using to support the front of trans. You can even leave the cross member in, just jack it up and roll it towards front of car balanced on the jack(a ratchet strap to hold it on the jack to keep it from falling or one of those trans jack tops for a floor jack, or I just kept it balanced on the jack when I did mine, dealer choice), self explanatory from here. Just helped Mart(another v8 member) remove his engine out of his '71 Skylark GS 350 with the hood still on. He couldn't believe how easy it was, took about 10 minutes after all the mentioned above pieces were removed. I have noticed with these engine cranes they sell nowadays the boom is sometimes shorter than the older made in USA ones, make sure yours will reach at least to the center of the engine to be able to sneak the engine out with the hood on. Or you will need to take the bumper off. Or if you have a store where you can buy metal stock you could get the correct size tubing that is the extra length you need for your crane to make it the way it should be.
Copy and pasted from another thread. Posted it in the wrong thread. Got around to swapping my TA1607 pistons in over the weekend. My compression ratio with stock 71 pistons/heads along with FP head gaskets and stock deck height(piston depth varied from .040-.045) figured around 8.2:1. After the piston/rod swap along with using McCord steel shim head gaskets(think they're .020 thick, forgot to measure, someone let me know if I'm wrong), piston to deck height was between .030 to .035 , the c.r. now figures to be about 9.5:1 using the .035 number. Also swapped out my weak break-in springs for TA1435(TA288-94 cam has about 120mi on it now) and topped it off with a B4B. Just thought someone might like to see info like this. Hehe. Turns out the no-ethanol 87 octane ain't gonna cut it. Got some detonation at WOT now. Hoping 92-93 oct no-ethanol will be plenty in the future. Going to see about getting a 5 gal can of 104 unl to add to my current half tank of 87 to bring it up. TA288-94 definitely runs better with more compression. Lol ******************** New info... Ended up siphoning out about 5 gal of the 87 octane. Topped off the tank with 91 no-ethanol(15gals of 91, 5 gals of 87), so as of right now, it's at about 90 octane and..... The car freaking loves it! 9.5:1 and a TA288-94 cam and it's a different car now. So, from here on out, 91 is going in it(haven't seen any no-ethanol higher than 91). BTW, I pulled the hood, left the hinges in the car for those keeping score.
