We've made a little bit of progress through today with the Thunderbird. Being from Michigan, the car is quite rusty underneath and many of the fasteners do not feel like budging. A combination of Rem Oil, the right wrenches, better leverage, and a solid hammer are working so far. Here's our starting point -
To review, we are pulling the engines at my Mom's place, where I grew up. We will be using a Come-Along strung from the center beam to lift the motors. We moved the car perpendicular across all 3 bays, which allowed us to stage a table for tools and shelves for parts and fasteners -
With the hood off, we are able to take advantage of overhead lighting. As of this evening, we have removed the:
- battery and many of the electrical connections.
- radiator
- intercooler
- starter
- unbolted (mostly) the engine from the transmission
- unbolted the passenger side engine mount
- cut off the exhaust pipes above and below the catalytic converters.
We need to remove the front accessories, throttle, fuel lines, electrical connections, and remaining engine mount bolts. My nephew, Kris, is skilled with a wrench, and he will be coming over tomorrow morning to help with the car(s). I don't believe it is unrealistic to think that the SC engine will be sitting on my engine stand by tomorrow night.
This is a fun project for both of us. In some ways we are both learning as we go, while I'm trying to teach him about the inner workings of the automobile. Both of us already have a more colorful vocabulary. As bolt heads get rounded which causes busted knuckles when the wrench slips, we just have to look atop the 3.8L see the final goal we have in mind for Jack's Mustang -
