Forrest
05-24-2001, 12:12 PM
Woooo!!! Man, oh man. Has anyone ever taken a big block engine out of a Hornet with a TRS outdrive? Let me tell you first hand, it's no fun. Last night I went to pull the engine and transmission of my 1979 Hornet II. With all that room in the engine compartment, I figured that it shouldn't be any big deal since all you have to do is unbolt the motor mounts, after disconnecting all the plumbing and electrical connections, and the pull the whole works out with the cherry picker. Haa!!! The drive was off already, so I didn't need to remove it. After attaching a carb-mount lift-plate and a neat extra heavy-duty stainless-steel swivel that I bought at local commercial fishing supply house, I began to lift the engine. Well, no sooner than I got the engine lifted off the mounts and pulled forward in order to clear the transmission tail piece from the transom plate, the engine was hitting against the bulkhead. No big deal I said, I'll just remove a the water-circulation pump and the should give me enough room to clear the tail piece. No way! Now the power steering pump is touching the cross stringer located just in front of the engine. With that, I then removed the power steering pump and tried again. Now, the belt-driven raw-water pump hits! Geeezzzz! Then I removed it. Oh boy, it looked like the engine may be able to come forward enough to clear, and it did, but now the engine/transmission was wedged between the bulkhead and the transom plate. I couldn't rotate it, couldn't go up and couldn't go back down without tearing the dog-crap out of everything! at this point, I broke out the big pry-bar and with some help from my next-door neighbor on the controls of the cherry picker I was able to put the engine back on the mounts. I said, "#@#%!" and, "*&^%^$" and some other stuff not suitable for children's ears.
I now figured that I'm going to have to separate the transmission from the engine and leave the transmission in the boat for now. That's not too hard - six bolts and it's free - from the transmission that is. Now I was able to move the engine forward clearing the transmission's input shaft, but low and behold, I still couldn't get enough clearance to get the engine to come far enough to turn sideways or anything for that matter! This time it was hitting thermostat housing under the lip in front of where the engine hatch closes not allowing enough room for the oil pan to clear the engine mounting brackets attached to the stringers. So at this point, off goes the thermostat housing. It was still in a tight position, but with some serious maneuvering, I was finally able to rotate the big-block engine sideways and lift it out of there. After I removed the thermostat housing, I figured that if I could still not get it out, I was going to have to reduce the engine to a short block to get it out, which by the way, would not have made me very happy. As much trouble as it is to remove the engine from this boat, I can see why the factory installs engines prior to fitting the deck to the hull.
The big block that I just pulled ran well in that boat, but I'm just not really sure what is there and I don't need it to unload anytime soon. I will be pulling the heads and oil pan and inspecting everything. At a minimum, it will be getting a big Mercrusier cast aluminum oil pan, new oil pump, a set of roller rockers, and pushrods. On this engine in the past, I've installed a Crane H-286-2 cam kit, a Holley dual-plane intake, and Hardin P-1000 exhaust. It already has big-oval port (not peanut port) heads. Now, I can't wait to put it all back in! http://www.donzi.net/ubb/biggrin.gif
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Forrest
[This message has been edited by Forrest (edited 05-24-2001).]
I now figured that I'm going to have to separate the transmission from the engine and leave the transmission in the boat for now. That's not too hard - six bolts and it's free - from the transmission that is. Now I was able to move the engine forward clearing the transmission's input shaft, but low and behold, I still couldn't get enough clearance to get the engine to come far enough to turn sideways or anything for that matter! This time it was hitting thermostat housing under the lip in front of where the engine hatch closes not allowing enough room for the oil pan to clear the engine mounting brackets attached to the stringers. So at this point, off goes the thermostat housing. It was still in a tight position, but with some serious maneuvering, I was finally able to rotate the big-block engine sideways and lift it out of there. After I removed the thermostat housing, I figured that if I could still not get it out, I was going to have to reduce the engine to a short block to get it out, which by the way, would not have made me very happy. As much trouble as it is to remove the engine from this boat, I can see why the factory installs engines prior to fitting the deck to the hull.
The big block that I just pulled ran well in that boat, but I'm just not really sure what is there and I don't need it to unload anytime soon. I will be pulling the heads and oil pan and inspecting everything. At a minimum, it will be getting a big Mercrusier cast aluminum oil pan, new oil pump, a set of roller rockers, and pushrods. On this engine in the past, I've installed a Crane H-286-2 cam kit, a Holley dual-plane intake, and Hardin P-1000 exhaust. It already has big-oval port (not peanut port) heads. Now, I can't wait to put it all back in! http://www.donzi.net/ubb/biggrin.gif
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Forrest
[This message has been edited by Forrest (edited 05-24-2001).]