Spent the day getting the front stripped out of a 78 van a co-worker gave me. I have the grill out the upper rad support, and the rad, hood, bumper, etc.... I took all of the front off the engine, pump, alt, power steering all brackets etc. Tomorrow I'll pull the carb and dist.

Anyone ever pulled one of these? Is it better to leave tranny on or pull tranny first? I'm thinking of pulling the mounts off the motor and the cross over to make some more room. Any suggestions? Tight working on these darned things.

BTW it is a turbo 400 and a small block 400 motor.

I pulled one out of a mid 70s chevy with the trans installed. I removed the carb and used as short a chain as I could to get enough lift to get the engine over and off the mounts. Good score on the 400, mine was only a 350.

Got an 18,000mi 4blt. 350 out of a '78 van front motorhome. I separated the eng/trans and took the eng out the pass. side door with an engine hoist. BIG PITA. Perfect bottom end, but it had sat so long the bores were rusty.
Howard

The one I helped my buddy Doc with was in a '68 Shoebox van!!

He asked me how to pull the motor and I just said to unbolt the doghouse.. I came back off the road a week later and he had chiseled the spot welds of the doghouse loose and we just flipped it to one side. Heck I thought the sucker just unbolted?????

Then we stripped her down to a short block, broke her apart at the b/h using a long crowbar and used a 2 by 4 stud and a short length of chain and manhandled it out the side door!!

We put the complete longblock back in using a cherry picker extended out as far as it would go through the side door!!

He just caulked and sheetmetal screwed the doghouse back..

pdq67

I would pull the engine out without the transmission. Not sure you can even do it pulling them both together.
In fact I'm getting ready to change the engine in an 85 van as soon as I get a "round tuit"

I made a extra short hookup for my cherry picker by welding a tow chain hook onto a short piece of box tubing to use to pull the engine out of an Astro van.

If you do not have any intentions on keeping the van, the old blue tip wrench will be your best friend smile.gif .

thanks Guys. Pulling it today. Have 4 20 year olds (one my mechanically challenged son) to help. It ought to be fun. I'll let you know how it comes out.

Originally posted by pdq67:
The one I helped my buddy Doc with was in a '68 Shoebox van!!

He asked me how to pull the motor and I just said to unbolt the doghouse.. I came back off the road a week later and he had chiseled the spot welds of the doghouse loose and we just flipped it to one side. Heck I thought the sucker just unbolted?????

Then we stripped her down to a short block, broke her apart at the b/h using a long crowbar and used a 2 by 4 stud and a short length of chain and manhandled it out the side door!!

We put the complete longblock back in using a cherry picker extended out as far as it would go through the side door!!

He just caulked and sheetmetal screwed the doghouse back..

pdq67 Man that's funny! I had a 69 Chevy Van and can say from experience, you've got to remove 5! bolts to pull the engine! Had a cradle underneath with 4 bolts that held the engine, and 1 bolt held the trans (top mount). Put the jack under the engine cradle, undo 4 bolts, pull the trans bolt and lower engine + trans to the ground. Jack up van, drag out engine + trans ass'y.

Make sure to show this to your buddy :D :D

I helped pull a 400 out of a van once, we lifted it straight up after cutting the dash out with the gas-axe :D

Well it is out. not really as bad as I thought it would be. Only one of the twenty somethings showed up that is ok, the one that did was great. We unbolted the trans mount bolts but left the tranny crossmember in place. We placed a jack under a peice of plywood under the tranny pan, we unbolted teh motor mounts from the cross member, slid the engine forward enough to unbolt the mounts from the engine. We removed the carb, distrib and the exhaust manifolds as well as the plugs. I put a very short chain through the stock pull tabs on the engine, hooked into the very front of the chain and we raised it up a little/ pulled it forward. The hoss of the 20 year old kid stepped down intot he engine bay and lifted the rear of the trannyu over the lower rad support and I pulled the lift forward until it was out. After two days of stripping the engine and van to get it ready it only took 5 mins to get it out, and we didn't use the gas wrench or cut or break anything. In fact we only broke the 4 of the 6 studs that hold the pipes to the exhaust manifold in the whole operation.

Thanks for the advice and support guys. Now I have to strip the 400 to see what kind of shape it really is in. I was told that it needed a top end job. It did fire but was bucking and kicking a missing. When I drained the oil it had either water or gas in it. Blown head gasket or stuck jet in the carb? Any thoughts?

later
rick

400's are famous for cracked heads and blocks.Pray its a head. smile.gif

Originally posted by 70isfine:
400's are famous for cracked heads and blocks.Pray its a head. smile.gif Damn.... where should I look for a crack in the block?

TIA

Look in the cyllinder walls.
You might have to pull it all the way appart if
it is a cracked block to find it.

Sawsalls and/or Torches: The only way

Sid,

You are right!! But we did this in the country on a gravel driveway under a big Oak and had NO way to jack the Van up high enough to do like you said..

We didn't even jack the van off the ground b/c I think it was tall enough we were able to just crawl under her...

pdq67

thanks for all the imput guys. Got it out with no real problems didn't cut anything up, tookt he noise off, reached in with my lift tookt eh weight off it, pulled the mounts completely off the blocka nd frame and it slid right out tranny attached. It was much easier thatn I thought it would be. In fact it was easier than a regular car since we didn't have to get up over the rad support.

Took the engine completely apart. No internal rust or that milky oil that is normally associated with coolant in the oil. Talked tot eh guy yesterday and he tells me "BTW" that he had the valve covers off it for a few weeks and the windows down adn it got rained on.... now he tells me....

thanks again.