Best way to connect 235 chevy out of 154 chevy car to engine hoist

I have a 2 door 1954 Chevy Bel Air with a 235 and a power glide transmission.

I am planning to pull the engine and transmission as one unit. I'm trying to determine the best way to attach the engine hoist to the engine. My uncle has pulled a 216 and tells me he did it by removing two of the head bolts, attaching a chain, and then screwing the head bolts back in to attach the chain. I'm wondering if anyone has ever tried this and can tell me which bolts to attach to so that I get the balance right and the chain does not damage the parts on top of the engine. Any ideas?

Also, my uncle suggested that pulling the engine and transmission as a single unit was the best way to go vs. separately. If anyone has any thoughts on this topic I would be very interested. Both parts need to come out at some point.

Finally, my uncle thinks that taking the hood off is the only way to go if I'm pulling both engine and transmission as one unit. I would rather leave the hood on but having never pulled the engine before I am going to prob pull it at my uncle's suggestion unless someone has done this same engine pull and can say it's not needed.

Thanks in advance.

 

I tend to use one of the rear intake/exhaust holes and the hole just to the bottom left (pass side) of the thermostat housing. It crosses over the valve cover works pretty good.


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^^^^^^^^ Exactly what I did ^^^^^^^^^

 

Pull them together if your front clip is off, if its not off get the hood off for sure, and yank em seperate, I have an engine leveler and it came in handy for this, had to get at a pretty good angle to get it out.

 

Wow. Blown away that two people responded to my post that fast. THANK YOU!

After you responded I went online and found a picture of it. See attached or click link. http://www.layitlow.com/forums/32-vehicle-parts-classifieds/276172-235-chevy-engine.html

Did you guys pull the thermostat housing off before pulling the engine or did you leave it on?

 

There are several ways to do this, but this is probably the safest and best way....

A few years back, when I pulled my 216 with 3 speed, I got an engine leveler and a couple of load-rated eye bolts replacing two head bolts.
These eyebolts are unlike the cheesy ones from the hardware store that have a loose fit and are unsafe for that weight.

That's how the old chevy shop manuals suggest it and it has worked well, using the leveler to easily shift the weight, as I pulled it all out, including transmission, by rolling the car back.
The fresh 261 with same 3 speed attached went back in the same way, just in reverse.

You can order these eye bolts from McMaster-Carr.
8-1/2" length. Made in USA.

 

Thanks everyone.

I'm will go ahead and use the rear exhaust/intake bolt and the bolt on the passenger side of the thermostat housing. I'll go slow and be careful and I'm sure it'll work out fine.

I will go ahead and get a engine level. They sell them at Harbor Freight for only 37$. Seems like a worth while investment.

I will pull the hood as others have suggested.

The 1954 Chevy Bel Air has a cross bar right where the top of the radiator is. I can't figure out how to remove it without cutting it out and I don't want to do that. This cross bar will mean that I need to lift the engine up and out. So I think the hoot will have to come off and the engine level will come in handy.

I'll spend the rest of the day in the shop working to get the engine ready to pull. Thanks everyone.

 

Make sure the jam nuts on the harbor freight one sare JAMMED together, mine worked its way off when I was turning the crank, would have been bad if I didn't see it. A tack weld solved the problem, but just keep an eye on it for safety.

 

You should be able to take out the whole radiator core support, just disconnect the wires and mark them so you don't have to feed them through again.
Yeah take the hood off, but dont mess with the hinges and springs if u can help it.
Definitely pull the engine and trans together..
I think I remember the chain hit the carb a little, so might want to take it off too.

 

I never used an engine leveller but sounds like a great idea..

 

That bar near the top of the radiator is a p.i.t.a., and it's almost impossible to pull the engine/trans together without getting it out of the way. I don't believe it'll come off without pulling the fenders and radiator support...or, cut it off. Not a big deal to weld it or have it welded back on. Pull the radiator, carb, valve cover, rocker arm shaft, and anything else that might get damaged. Safest to use the head bolts...actually longer bolts of the same thread size...to have enough to go through the chain link yet still enough thread engagement. The eye bolt idea is great too. Use a couple of head bolts toward the rear of the engine as opposed to one in front and one in back...that'll allow you to pivot the engine up and down as needed. Get the radiator and that bar out of the way, and you won't have to lift nearly so far. Still gotta remove the hood though. Once everything is disconnected or loosened...including the the torque tube...pull the engine forward to disengage and clear it from the torque tube. You can pull on the engine hoist hard, rolling it forward a few inches. The weight and mass of the hoist will help to pull the engine/trans forward far enough to begin lifting. Lift a little...pull forward a little. Lift a little, pull forward a little. Untiil you're out. Be very careful when rolling the hoist while the engine/trans is high in the air...it can tip easily. Lower it as soon as you clear the car. Go slow. Pay attention. Be careful of yourself and the car. Double check that everything is disconnected as the engine comes out. When disconnecting the engine from the trans, don't forget the two big bolts that enter from the front of the bellhousing down low. If you run into a question part way through...ask. Good luck.

 

The front of the torque tube will drop to the floor. Good to support it. You can jam a length of tubing or a 2x4 into the frame rails and under the torque tube to hold it up, to make the car easier to roll the car if needed.

 

Got it. Thanks everyone. In regards to the comment, "You should be able to take out the whole radiator core support"

I pulled it last night. Not hard at all. I removed the battery tray and just a few bolts and the radiator core support tipped back towards the engine block and came right out. I made sure to mark the wires first as suggested.

I spent the rest of the night just getting everything removed from the engine and getting it ready to pull. I'm about 90% of the way there.

I was all set to try to pull this engine without the hood off. I keep going back and forth but I've heard enough feedback that I will pull it for sure. I'll have to order the tool to remove the hood springs from Chevy's of the 40's before I try to pull the hood.

I still want to pull the engine separate from the transmission. I think it'll be the better choice for me. One of the things that makes me want to pull them separate is that I can't free the exhaust manifold from the ball joint/down tube from under the car. It looks like the bolts have not been touched for 59 years. I don't want to damage the screws and I can't get good leverage from under the car. There is also so much oil on the engine and in that area I'm worried about trying to heat it the screws up with the engine in. I'll remove the engine from the intake/exhaust manifold which I know will go easy and pull the engine out. Once the engine is out I'll go back in and work on getting the exhaust manifold to separate from the ball/down tube. I'll post back once I'm done and if I get stuck I'll ask for help.

 

I lifted one using the intake/exhaust bolts holes once and the grade 8 bolt sheared off. The engine fell, hit the hoist, sheared off the caster and almost took off my friend's foot.

I have pulled/installed several Inline 6s with tow straps. If they are strong enough to pull a car, they're plenty strong enough to pull a 300 pound engine. I loop one end between the engine/bell, and the other around the front mount (if you have one) or around the crank pulley. You might have to make a few loops. The straps themselves keep the engine from moving laterally.

 

Your asking for a lot of work to separate a powerglide from the block just to pull them separately. Don't bother. Just prop the hood up as high as you can. Have someone help to hold it out of the way. You can pull both out together with the hood in place. It's been done a million times You can do it too. Strip what you need to make it easier. Getting under your car to separate the tranny and motor is more work than you realize!
Dom

 

The service manual says to pull the rockers and use the head bolts, so that's what I did and it worked fine. The exhaust/intake bolts (any bolts really) are not intended to support that much shear load. I know it usually works, but I'd rather not drop an engine on myself. As said previously, the engine and trans come out very easily as a unit with the hood in place. I have also pulled them separately on another occasion and it's not worth the extra work. With the trans bolted up, you can take a driving car and have the engine out and on a stand in around 4 hours. It took me an entire weekend when I separated them.

 

FWIW, my wife installed a 235/3spd by herself in less than an hour. They're not hard to work with.

 

I have used the crank type engine leveler on a couple of occasions and wasn't impressed with it. The crank is hard to turn and tends to hit the hoist. It also spaces the hook above the engine far enough that it is easy to run out of length on the ram; when that happens you get to set it down and start over.

The last time I needed to tilt an engine/transmission while removing it I connected the lifting chain behind the center of gravity and then used a small come a long to tilt the engine. I had more room to move and didn't have to lift the hoist so high.

No matter what method you use go slow and pay attention, getting hurt is no fun.

 

Success!!!! Thanks for the help everyone.

It was pretty easy to pull the engine and the transmission together. I went slow and applied all of the advice everyone on the forum thread gave me. I probably made it harder than it needed to be but I had fun doing it.

I didn’t use an engine leveler after all. An engine leveler sounds like a great tool but I decided to skip it.

I used the chain going from the thermostat housing bolt (passenger side) to the intake bolt closest to the back of the engine. I bought a heavy duty chain and heavy duty bolts just to be on the safe side. Cost was only 10$ for both at Tacoma Screw in Seattle.

I ended up not having to remove the hood. I had no problem getting the engine out with the hood on.

I couldn’t get the exhaust manifold to separate from the down pipe so I cut the exhaust pipe right after the bend below the driver seat. Pulled it out to get it out of the way. Now I can heat the bolts to get the exhaust manifold to separate from the down tube.

Separating the drive line from the transmission was a bit of a trick. There are four bolts and each set has a safety clamp that holds them on that I had to pry back. Super easy to remove the side that was directly under the car but when I had to remove the other side I couldn’t access it to pry back the safety clamp. I had to shift the transmission into neutral (?) and rotate the transmission shaft connector 180 degrees so I could access the safety clamp and pry it away.
I also opted to remove the engine mounts. They seemed to get in the way and I plan to clean up the engine compartment anyways so they would need to come out at some point to be cleaned up. They were easy to pull and once they were out it was super easy to pull the engine and transmission. Tons of room to work.
Having the Chevy manual for transmission removal that was shared in this thread was super helpful. The pictures folks shared in this thread were also very helpful.
It all worked out great. I didn’t damage any parts. I didn’t get hurt. I had fun doing it.

Next I’ll be prepping the engine compartment for primer. Rest of the car is already in primer and sanded and ready to paint. The engine will get steam cleaned tomorrow morning and glass blasted and painted next weekend. Car will get painted late March early April. Hopefully the car will be ready for the interior and final touches by September.
Thanks again!

 

I just pulled mine...I used the engine mounts and beefy bolts, washers and nuts. Pulled the engine and trans at the same time with a hoist and load leveler. I also supported the trans so when it came off the driveshaft it didn't take a dive. Worked really well.

 

For some reason when I pulled my engine/transmission the transmission didn't take a dive. I think I got lucky and placed the hook on the hoist just right so it was balanced. I had some wood blocks to protect the transmission and the garage floor but I didn't end up needed them. Also might have been because I had the front end of the car jacked up. I think it created extra space.

LossenutNH, your engine is as dirty as mine. I just cleaned all the gunk off by hand with gas, a scraper, and steel wool. World's dirtiest job. But now the block is super clean and ready to be media blasted. Good luck with yours.

 

Thanks again for all the help everyone. The tips all helped. The one trick that seemed to really help was to lift the front of the car up on jack stands. It gives just enough room to make it easier to tip the transmission down a bit as you pull it out. Piece of cake.