OUT WITH THE DONK!
Last night and today, pulling out the motor, have progressed better than I could have planned.The only change to plan was that I pulled the gearbox out with the motor, instead of leaving it in the chassis. I have raised the front engine mounts in the hot rod to keep the correct motor angle, after lowering the front 
suspension about 6 inches. The gasser look has gone. “Been there done that”, as they say. The motor raising has made the bell housing bolts all but impossible to access, so the box T/H 350 came out too. This was very easy to organise as I spend more time on designing functionality into the chassis rather than showy stuff when building a street driven rod. One day I will get a spare gear box yoke. It will save the normal red lake left under the car after such an operation.
Next the motor and gearbox were separated and the motor placed on the engine stand ready for stripping down. On went the compressor, out came the rattle gun, sockets and a few spanners and the motor was stripped to a bare block in less than two hours, which included having a rewarding beer or two. A lot can happen in a short time in a hot rod’s life. From a driving rod to a stripped down motor in less than 3 hours, when it is meant to be going back together!. What a metamorphosis. Needless to say, it will take longer to get back together after messing with gasket sealing and plastigauge etc. 
The motor has only done about 35,000 kms since last rebuilt, so it came apart very cleanly and with no siezed bits. If only I had remembered to empty the sump before spinning the motorupside down on the stand, it would have been a lot cleaner too. I had the red lake and now I have the black lake too. Well, I haven’t done this for a while!!Seeya Cybers,Eric
