Here's what I received with the 65 I bought a few years ago. 302 block (the seller said out of a 1981 Granada) with most of the parts to assemble it. I also have a 4 speed and HURST shifter out of a 66. My question is, how much of the engine should I assemble before dropping it in ? I'll probably bolt on the clutch and pressure plate but what about the bell housing and headers? Also it's a very early 65 (Aug 6, 1964). I see there's several combinations of motor mounts for 302's vs different build dates for the chassis. Any comments or advice will be surely appreciated. I won't be putting the engine together until next year, so I have plenty of time to plan the job. Please hit me with as much as you want. Thanks in advance.
Need advice dropping a 302 into my 65
- Thread starter black65
- Start date
I've put motors in both ways with the bell housing on and off. I like it on, then you only have to both the transmission up to it. I assemble the motor leaving the carb and distributor off with a clean rag in distributor hole. I put the headers, along with the pullies, fan and etc on afterwords. But that's just my 2 cents. good luck with your project.
I recently had the engine and tranny out of my 64 1/2. It is a 289 with an automatic. I pulled it out as one complete unit (engine and tranny) and put it back in as one complete unit. I did take off: hood, manifolds, carb, generator, fan and its pully, starter, and radiator. Because I had the engine rebuilt for me, I didn't want to screw with resetting the timing, so I left the distributor on. I did have to be careful to prevent it from hitting the lift, when I had it at the big angle needed to slip in the tranny. The thing I learned was to have the lift's hook close to intake, to help get everything over the radiator support, but not so close that you cannot tip the engine. About the only things that were tight, was the tranny dipstick tube hitting the firewall (not a big deal but took a small chip out of the paint), and getting past the bottoms of the shock towers. But take your time and it should be fine.
Since you have a manual, that would be way easier than the auto.
I did a lot of reading, when trying to decide whether to pull it with or without the tranny attached. It was kind of split, but those that did it as one were glad they didn't have to lay under the car trying to line the tranny back up.
Also, keep in mind, how you would get the tranny back in. Will you need to jack the car up to slide it underneath? The auto is big and I really didn't want to deal with that.
Since you have a manual, that would be way easier than the auto.
I did a lot of reading, when trying to decide whether to pull it with or without the tranny attached. It was kind of split, but those that did it as one were glad they didn't have to lay under the car trying to line the tranny back up.
Also, keep in mind, how you would get the tranny back in. Will you need to jack the car up to slide it underneath? The auto is big and I really didn't want to deal with that.