Engine in

Now that I had the wheels on it was time to install the engine. I was really looking forward to seeing the engine in and getting some space back in my garage.

I bought some wheel dollies from SGS engineering which made it really easy to push the car out of the garage and position it exactly where I needed it. I then raised the back end as much as I could using the axle stands.

Once we had the correct height the engine was installed from the side - same was as Tommyboy did I think. The main reason for doing this was that my engine crane wouldn't go far enough in from the front.

One thing to watch out for is clearance around the bellhousing. I'm using a scattershield bellhousing - I'm not sure if these are slightly bigger but I ended up having to cut half an inch off the flange on the side and underneath. Looking on the web, this seems to be something that a lot of people end up having to do.

I also found that the gearbox support bracket didn't fit. This was down to me having a different rubber mount on the gearbox. If you get your gearbox from Roadcraft then the bracket will fit - I got mine from a different supplier and hence the bracket was different. We ended up getting a 6mm thick plate of mild steel and making our own. This was then drilled and fixed to the chassis with 4 M10 bolts.

I'm always a bit concerned about the fixing this way - and if it will hold. When you think you only have a few mm of steel and a couple of threads at most. Anyway, will be something I will keep an eye on and may change later.