I bought a 354 Hemi that's sitting in a 1956 St. Regis. It's running which is nice. The car was too far gone so I made an offer on just the engine and he took it. Now he wants me to pull it. It's an hour away from my shop. Aside from my engine hoist and basic hand tools what do I need and does anyone have any tricks to make this be a painless experience? I have plenty of experience pulling engines just looking for Hemi specific tips and pitfalls. It has the push button automatic in it. Pull with or without transmission?
Are you allowed to remove the front sheet metal and other stuff that will be in your way... The engine and trans will be over 1000lbs so plan accordingly. .
Take the car to your shop......pull motor ....return car. Your going to,waist time pulling it away from home
Tell him you will just take the whole thing for the price you agreed, haul it home and remove at your leisure. Pull some trim take 6 months to 6 years to sell the parts but run the carcass to the metal recycler. But hurry . Winters a coming .
@bhemi Having to do this away from home is NOT an enviable task. Pulling the engine, with the trans still attached, and all the front sheet metal still in place, is going to be very difficult. On the other hand, uncoupling the trans on that car is not a piece of cake either. Starting at the back of the engine, you have an aluminum intermediate plate, about 3/4” to 1” thick, like an adapter. Then there is the bell housing, which is a separate part from the trans main case. All that sounds pretty straight forward, but here’s where it gets more difficult. There is NO separate flywheel or ‘flex plate’ to which the torque convertor simply attaches with three or four bolts at the outer diameter like you find on virtually all late models. The torque convertor (with integral ring gear) bolts directly to the crankshaft flange. The TC has six or eight studs that pass through the crank flange and is attached with nuts and lock washers on the front (engine pan side) of the flange. They can only be accessed from below, by removing a tin lower cover, and loosening with an open end wrench reaching up between the TC and engine pan/block. Only a few can be reached at a time...the crank must be rotated to get to them all. If you remove all the bolts holding the bell housing to the engine plate, you can remove the trans and bell housing together, leaving the TC attached to the crank for removal later. But this leaves the TC exposed and I would opt to leave the bell housing in place IF the TC flange nuts have not been removed. Alternatively, you can (relatively) easily remove the trans main case from the bell housing, as only four bolts hold them together. The main case will pull free along with the input shaft, leaving the TC in place inside the bell housing. Unless you first remove the body front ‘clip’ before pulling the engine, that is how I would plan on pulling the engine. If the clip is pulled, I would pull with engine and trans together. Hope this helps your planning. Ray
I had a 1940 Plymouth Business coupe and I removed the whole front clip making it a breeze to remove the 1955 291 DeSoto Hemi and trans combo .
^^^X2 How big are your engine hoist's wheels? Is the car inside or outside? Is it parked on concrete, gravel, or buried in mud?
I pulled a 354 w/Powerflite attached from the '50 Packard sedan it was installed in, by John St. John, in 1961. Unusual car...I bought it for $150, from John's Mom. If I hadn't shored up the entrance header in Grandma's garage, it could have turned into an 'Urban Legend'. ...Engine/trans were heavier than good music!
The guy who I bought my 53 Chrysler from, needed mainly just a Sawzall to remove the 331. LOL Sorry, bhemi... I'm no help. Good luck with everything.
I bought a good 440 engine and 727 transmission for a great price. But I was pulling it from a motorhome and it was an hour and a half away from me. It took me four times going out there.
I have a big old made in USA Sunnen hoist. It's good for 2,000 lbs, It has 4" or bigger steel wheels. It's in his backyard just off his concrete driveway. I have a 4x4 Tacoma and I should be able back right under it once it's in the air.
Bring your credit card and know where you can buy any tools you might of left at home. I brought a 56 Chevy from a guy 40 miles from my home. The car was all apart, parts all over his garage but all the sub parts were together, you know like the engine, transmission, rear end, they were all together. The guy's garage was heated (this is a NH winter), had a two post lift, and every Craftsmen tool Sears sold, all dress right dress hanging on hooks. I left a deposit and came back the next day with the cash. My buddy was looking it over and started to put it back together, I chip in and soon, well after about 6 hours, I had a running yard drive car. Came back the next day and put the front end back on and I was going to drive this thing home. Got down to the end of the drive way and a police car pulls up, with the cop saying, "where do you think your going?" I reply, "Back in the garage"!! The Seller turn out to be a police officer and he was just coming home for lunch. But really, plan on everything going wrong, with the seller not lending a hand and crying about giving away the car, bring a buddy and pay for his lunch.
What was said about the front end - if you can bring a saws-all and a TORCH - get the radiator out of the way and cut the radiator support might get it out without the whole front end coming off - but the whole front end would be best if your pulling the trans and motor together - what they said - they're heavy.....
"...just off the apron." Sounds like the cherry picker wheels will be in the dirt. Basically impossible to roll a cherry picker across dirt with an engine and transmission on it. "I'll back my truck under it." As long as the other vehicle can be moved out of the way.
If the car is too far gone and going to be scraped anyway---- A "heat wrench" and have buckets of water at the standby
Pulled a hemi out of a '51 Chrysler at the dump with a couple of friends when I was young. The man working at the dump was quite helpful and hooked the engine to the bucket of the loader he was operating.
Back in my youth, with limited cash and tools, we made friends with a couple of the wrecker operators in town. They'd swing by and pull the engine/transmission out in a couple of minutes, if we had everything ready. Carry it out to a waiting pickup bed or trailer, if that's what we were doing.
Mission accomplished. We took the clip off and used a come-along too pull the engine hoist onto the concrete drive. i backed the truck under and job done.
Thanks for all the good advice. Ray's was the most useful. I literally used only 9/16, 5/8 & 11/16 wrenches or sockets. A floor jack, engine hoist and sawzall for the exhaust.
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