'51 Ton & 1/2 Eng Removal Q

[Mo Hardy]

Hi everyone,newbie here. I have a '51 1&1/2 ton Chev. I got a while back from the owner for work I did. He told me it had a bent valve, I got some new valves on ebay pretty cheep so I was gonna fix it. During tear down I found it had a bent push rod so I went back to ebay and got some of those. Got it running, lo and behold I found the water jacket cracked but it had been JB'd. But it was leaking. Funny thing was the guy I got it from is an automotive instructor for a major org.,I guess he just doesn't know as much about engines as he is accredited for. Good thing is the truck had been updated to the 235 high pressure eng. I finally found a good replacement and am ready to swap in the 'new' eng.
What I need to know is, can I support the tranny and pull the block&bell hsg only. I know lining up the tranny shaft on install can be a pain but pulling the tranny/pto with the engine looks like it would be a lot harder to do. I have the dual control pto so I would have to drop the 10 foot drive system for the dump cylinder also and it looks home made but usable. Yeah this was a Kansas wheat truck so I guess a farmer did the set up, but it does have potential.
If any of you have done it this way and give some do's and don'ts I would appreciate that and thanx in advance. Mo

[mknittle]

I would just take the drivelines off at the pto and tie them up same with the cables then drop the transmission. Putting an engine on a loose transmission would be no fun at all and could take longer.

[mr48chev]

On that truck the bellhousing totally supports the transmission so you would have to drop the trans before pulling the engine and bellhousing. Be careful when you drop it out as it weighs close to 100 lbs. The first thing I would do is pull the floor mat and pull the cover/transmission hump out to give you more room to work. Use a floor jack or transmission jack that can handle the transmission safely.

You could leave the bellhousing in the truck but that would mean you would have to pull the clutch and flywheel out the bottom before unbolting the engine from the bellhousing. The only reason I can see for doing that though is so that you could clear the core support with the engine if you leave the nose on the truck. No matter how or when you take the clutch and flywheel out they are both pretty heavy, especially the flywheel so be careful there as the teeth on the flywheel love to hit right on arms or other body parts if the thing drops out unexpectedly when you aren't ready to grasp it right.

Unless you pull the nose off you will have to use an engine lift that can lift the engine pretty high and most cherry picker style engine hoists won't go that high. When the previous owners took the engine out of the 51 1-1/2 ton I have they pulled the grill and cut top off the core support and basically made a mess out of that part of the truck that will take longer for me to repair than it would be for my son and I to lift the whole front fender and grill assembly back on and bolt it up.

[Mo Hardy]

First, thank you both for the advice and quick response. I should note that I have the grill off and have removed the head(and oil pan) so I can bolt the cherry picker as close to the block as I can get as I thought there might be clearance issues on the rear support. One of the problems I have is I am working in my yard on grass, but I built a wooden platform for the cherry picker. Looks as though I will have to do the same for the tranny lift if that is the way this removal will happen. Again thx for the replies, Mo.