Hoisting engines

Once the current ice age ends I'm hoping to re-chassis my swb S3. I intend to strip it to a rolling chassis with bulkhead and then remove the engine and gearbox in one lump, sort the bulkhead insitu before swapping it to the new rolling chassis and then drop the engine/gbox back in. I've no idea where the centre of gravity of the engine and gearbox is so does anyone know where the best place to put lifting strops is?

if lifting both together then front of engine and center of gearbox will keep it fairly level

If you attach a lifting lug to the back of the cylinder head using one of the head bolts that will be pretty well balanced with the gearbox still attached.

as bove, its only ten mins work to split them tho, do yer clutch at the same time

Thanks all - By the way, I did the clutch not that long ago....

Hi,

There is a small plate bolted to the back of the engine, can't remember if its on the block or the head. It might be intended as a lifting bracket for the engine alone, in conjunction with a bracket at the front. Whatever, it seems to be at the centre of gravity, both front/rear and left/right.

I cannot admit to being happy with the weight of engine and gearbox hanging on two
3/8" (?) diameter screws, so I won't do it again.

Er, I don't think you can lift both together if the bulkhead is still in place.

602

I'm assuming that I can lift the engine off it's mounts and, with the gearbox brackets unbolted from the chassis, the engine and gearbox will come out forward with a bit of a lift to clear the front crossmember. I was going to leave the bulkhead in in case it needed any repair work to maintain alignments etc. I can always put it back on if it needs to come off.

yer will find it easier with the bulkhead off , its worth the ten mins extra, thers room but not enough to tip the gear box at a reasonable angle with out loosing balance of the engine , keep it simple
then drop yer bulk head back on fer tinkering later

My engine had a bracket on the back as allready mentioned, and also theres one at the front, somewhere around the water pump, if you can scrounge some from a breaker do so it makes life a lot easier, I bashed the ones on mine and made them fit my 300tdi.
You'll struggle getting the motor out with the 'box attached, I believe it can be done but the crossmember makes a bugger of a job out of it.
Might be good to split them, if your going to all the trouble you might as well put a new clutch plate in as well.

ees done the clutch recently

yeah , i made a couple of brackets fer mine, only ten mins on the pillar drill and file the slot out , they are both on the head, one front top right of the water pump and one rear, dizzy side of the head, both on cast lugs with threads ready