Pulling my 230 - a few final questions

[Praxiss454]

I'm pulling my L6 230 for a rebuild, and have a few questions before I pull it tomorrow. I'm using a 1 Ton harbor freight hoist, I have a tilt bar with 4 chains. I also have a 1000 lb capacity harbor freight 4 wheel engine stand to put it on once it's pulled. I am pulling the trans w/ the motor.

I've yanked most everything off of the motor, including dizzy, fuel pump, carb, air cleaner, alternator, coil, starter motor. Radiator pulled. Exhaust pipe disconnected from manifold. I removed the battery and tray.

I still need to disconnect the clutch linkage, manual transmission shift linkages, throttle linkage.

Questions:
1. Are there locations on the sides of the motor that are good for attaching to the hoist? Or do I need to pull the valve cover and bolt to the top of the head? There are a lot of various bolt holes.

2. I don't know what it's called, but the piece that spans the entire front of the engine compartment -- the hood latch bolts to it, and the upper radiator supports bolt to it -- do I need to pull this? Seems like it'd give me another 6-8" of space to work with, but I can't tell how it's bolted in.

3. I know to get grade 8 bolts. How do I actually connect the engine to the engine stand? What size/length of bolts do I need for that?

[Macdaddy1]

I removed as much stuff as I could 6-8 inches can be the difference between easy and learning some new colorful words. The bolts that bolt the bellhousing to the back of the motor are the size you need but in a longer length. Take one of them off and measure the hole length on the engine stand and you should be good. I am really new at this so some others with more experience may have much better advice. Take your time and do not rush anything and you should be good.

[Praxiss454]

I'm afraid I'm not positive which exact bolts I'm looking for...

[Praxiss454]

Well, the hardware store is open tomorrow morning, I can buy the bolts for the mount after o yank the motor I guess. Still hoping for some clarification on hoist bolt points on the L6 230. Does any old hole work or should I really pull the valve cover and go in on top?

Does it make a difference that I'm yanking the trans with it?

[The Rocknrod]

How to pull a straight six - http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=616896

[Cris]

I'm going to assume that you are using the kind of engine stand that allows you to rotate the engine to work on it. (As opposed to an engine stand or cradle that it used mostly for transport or storage and not rebuilding.)

The engine stands arms attach to the bellhousing mount locations. Usually these are adjustable, but most all will match up to your 230 because it uses the standard chevy bellhousing pattern. They typically use four mounting points.

Get bolts long enough to pass through the arms of the engine stand arms and give maybe 1/2" of engagement into your block. I can't remember the bolt size - 3/8" or 7/16".

[nail pounder]

When I pulled the 235 out of my 58 I used an exhaust manifold and starter bolt. Not saying that's the right way but it worked fine for the 10-15 minutes it took to yank it out.

[Praxiss454]

Originally Posted by The Rocknrod

How to pull a straight six - http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=616896

I've read that thread but I'm still not confident in an approach. What I gather from that thread is that either I need to remove the "front clip" which I understand to mean literally everything off the frame ahead of the cab, or I need to disconnect the motor from the 3 speed manual trans before pulling it.

Is that accurate?

It sure seems like there is enough space with just the radiator pulled for me to extract the engine and trans together.

Regarding mount points, one guy says he used a chain wrapped around things, one says tow straps, but I have neither of those. Can I pull the engine and transmission as one unit using my 4 chain tilt bar with 4 bolts into only the engine? Top or sides?

Not trying to be dense, I just can't afford to screw this up.

[Cris]

There are a couple of camps on removing engines and transmissions. I always pull them separately, but I have a lift so getting under the truck is easier.

I have a 63 with an inline 6. I have not pulled this motor but have spent some time looking at how I would do it. If only the motor was being removed, I can't believe you would have to remove anything more than the radiator. For the initial pull I might remove the intake and exhaust manifolds.

I would not pick up the motor by the manifolds, though this would probably work in a pinch. Its the passenger side of the motor that is lacking in pick up points. The battery cable ground looks promising, and the rear head bolt looks like a candidate.

[Cris]

I just took another look at my truck. It looks like the bellhousing bolt holes are threaded through on the block. This might give you another option on the passenger side. Remove the bolt from the bellhousing and thread in from the opposite side for your lift point.

[Praxiss454]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I still have to disconnect a few things. Going to try to get some of that done tonight, and then hoist tomorrow morning.

I wish someone here had experience pulling a 6 cyl + trans together w/o pulling front clip, just to give me reassurance that it is possible.

[69 C10 LWB]

I just pulled the engine out of my truck a few weeks ago and I pulled the engine and left the trans. You can leave the bell housing in since that is the rear motor mount and use a strap across the frame to support the rear of the trans. If you pull just the engine it will lift straight out without pulling any sheetmetal. I used one bolt on the front right corner of the head and one of the rear manifold bolts to lift mine. I also pulled my engine complete with everything but the air cleaner.

The bolts you need are 3/8-16 and to figure out the length you just need to measure the length of the mounting mounting tube on your engine stand and add 1/2”.

[Captainfab]

Personally I would remove the trans before pulling the engine and bellhousing. I always remove the hood when pulling the engine. That makes things MUCH easier. I see no reason to remove any of the front sheetmetal aside from the hood. As for picking points. On the left side, I would connect to a manifold to head bolt and on the other side to one of the engine mount bolts. You will need longer bolts in those locations. those holes as well as the bellhousing bolts are all 3/8"-16 thread.

[maydaymike]

Pull the hood, pull the front bumper, and about 16 bolts, and the whole front clip will come off in one piece. One person on each side can easily lift it and set it aside. It will be much easier to pull the engine and trans without having to tip and lift as far to clear the radiator support. It will also be much easier to clean up the firewall, suspension, and frame before you put it back in. I put my chain on the hole where the ground wire attaches on the right front, and the rearmost manifold bolt on the left rear.

[Praxiss454]

Well, the motor is out. Here's what I learned.

1. It won't fit out with trans attached unless you remove the front sheet metal and grill, as maydaymike suggests. I did not go that route.

2. The trans is bolted to the bell housing and you can get at the back of the bolts by removing the lower flywheel cover. I did not know this and it was impossible to undo the trans. In retrospect this should have been obvious.

3. With the motor disconnected from bell housing, it lifts out pretty easily. I still had clearance issues, the 1 ton hoist I was using wouldn't clear the front, I sort of had to take it out sideways. I would not recommend this hoist, it doesn't lift high enough and the boom doesn't reach back far enough.

4. The turn lever on my tilt bar is useless. It hits the chains. It's welded on so I'll probably grind it off and just use a socket wrench to adjust the tilt.

I'm glad it's done. I'm afraid of the pain it will be to put everything back together, but that is a problem for another day.

Thanks again for the tips, everyone.

[Railroader]

Glad you got er out. On your engine stand, make sure it has good support lengthwise. The 6 cylinders are long and depending on stand, it can tilt forward. With the bell housing removed you should be all right but you might want to confirm.

Removing the front clip is not a major task and if your doing a frame off restoration, might consider going ahead and removing it. You can clean, paint, upgrade everything much easier and re-installing engine (with bell housing attached) will be less hassel.

On re-installing transmission, suggest removing rivets (if not already) from trans support and bolting back in after attaching transmission. By far, much easier.

[Railroader]

Forget about frame off restoration comment. Guess I have read too many threads.

[Praxiss454]

Originally Posted by Railroader

On re-installing transmission, suggest removing rivets (if not already) from trans support and bolting back in after attaching transmission. By far, much easier.

Thanks for this tip, I just might do this. I have a feeling it's going to be a while until I get this far. Hopefully someone in the future can learn from this definitive answer of whether you can remove a 230 plus 3 speed standard without removing the front clip. The answer is no. Pulled right out with hood off and bell housing removed, will definitely do it that way next time. An old timer suggested I try to pull them together. Considering he's forgotten more than I'll ever know about working on old vehicles, I gave it a shot.

[Chevy Fleetside]

It can be done. You have to tilt the engine back when lifting it out. Same can be done putting it back in. If you want some help putting it back in, give me a shout an if I am available I can lend a hand, plus I have a pretty good engine hoist.

[Praxiss454]

Originally Posted by Chevy Fleetside

It can be done. You have to tilt the engine back when lifting it out. Same can be done putting it back in. If you want some help putting it back in, give me a shout an if I am available I can lend a hand, plus I have a pretty good engine hoist.

Yeah, maybe with a better hoist, chain, and tilt bar, it could be done. I was having trouble getting the proper tilt level with my setup. My cheapo tilt bar wasn't cutting it, and my hoist boom was fully extended and still not really long enough. I had trouble even getting the oil pan to clear the front sheet metal, had to sort of scoot out sideways.

Appreciate the offer to help on the way back in, I might take you up on that as I clearly have no idea what I'm doing. But first I gotta get the motor taken care of.

[Cris]

If you really want to pull/put in your engine with the tranny, I would make the e-brake crossmember removable by drilling out the rivets and using bolts. This way you won't have to slide the motor forward (as much) to get the tail of the tranny to clear the crossmember.

[vince1]

So with a 4 sp. attached and cross member, hump, stick, radiator and hood removed, could they come out as a unit dangling on the end of a chain hoist? Or what has to be done to remove the transmission from the bell housing?

[69 C10 LWB]

The trans should come out with the engine if you have all that removed. You will have to tilt the engine quite a bit to get it to clear. All you have to do to remove the trans is remove 4 bolts, 2 outside the bell housing and 2 inside the bell housing. If you pull the inspection cover you will see the 2 big bolts on the bottom that thread into the trans. It was a lot easier for me to leave the bellhousing bolted the the crossmember and slide just the engine out. It’s only 6 bolts to unbolt the bellhousing from the engine.

[vince1]

If the engine and clutch will pull away from the bell housing then that's the way I will go. Thanks.