Well, the seller’s ad encouraged inspection before bidding on this Corvette. I didn’t do that, so I only have myself to blame. Anyway, I got to own a Corvette, didn’t I?
Having driven the Vette home from the Rego place, and having the benefit of seeing the car up on a hoist, I decided that a quick pull down and re-build was in order. I figured I’d start with the motor, because it smelt like it was burning oil & the box (T400) , because it was leaking badly and then turn the attention to the front suspension.
Had lots of “fun” preparing to pull the engine out. This being my first Corvette, I have to learn everything the hard way. (I usually learn by my mistakes........now I know quite a lot)
First problem encountered was the Corvette's exhaust system. The nice new 2 1/2 inch exhaust system was fully welded and passed through the exhaust pipe hole in the cross member. There’s only one way to remove this exhaust system, cut it up with the angle grinder…… Oh well, I didn’t like the support brackets for the exhaust system any way.
Whilst lying on the floor, cutting the exhaust off, my foot kicked something and it fell onto the floor. It turned out to be the last remaining spacer from the left side trailing arm. The rest had fallen out some time before. Oops, looks like the rear end of the Corvette is need of some attention too.
To the uninitiated, the plumbing in the engine compartment looked quite complicated, particularly all the vacuum lines for the lights etc. I took lots of photos so I could look back on them when the time came to put this thing together again.
Having removed the bonnet, radiator, condenser & all the other engine peripherals (trendy word these days) and heads from the Corvette, the short motor and T400 parted company with the rest of the car without much drama. In fact, it was just a one person operation.
It all came out at a pretty steep angle, over the front of the car. I used the rear most head bolt holes for the chain mounting positions, which worked out quite OK. With the engine out, it was a simple operation to separate the engine from the gearbox, then put the engine on an engine stand, ready for disassembly. One could say, the corvette restoration was on its way.
Hmmm. This tired old Corvette engine has a brand new sump gasket. I wonder who’s been doing what in there??
Having driven the Vette home from the Rego place, and having the benefit of seeing the car up on a hoist, I decided that a quick pull down and re-build was in order. I figured I’d start with the motor, because it smelt like it was burning oil & the box (T400) , because it was leaking badly and then turn the attention to the front suspension.
Had lots of “fun” preparing to pull the engine out. This being my first Corvette, I have to learn everything the hard way. (I usually learn by my mistakes........now I know quite a lot)
It seemed that the best (and possibly only) way to remove the engine was to remove the heads from the engine, undo the front yoke from the rest of the tail shaft, and pull out the short motor & gearbox as one unit.
First problem encountered was the Corvette's exhaust system. The nice new 2 1/2 inch exhaust system was fully welded and passed through the exhaust pipe hole in the cross member. There’s only one way to remove this exhaust system, cut it up with the angle grinder…… Oh well, I didn’t like the support brackets for the exhaust system any way.
Whilst lying on the floor, cutting the exhaust off, my foot kicked something and it fell onto the floor. It turned out to be the last remaining spacer from the left side trailing arm. The rest had fallen out some time before. Oops, looks like the rear end of the Corvette is need of some attention too.
To the uninitiated, the plumbing in the engine compartment looked quite complicated, particularly all the vacuum lines for the lights etc. I took lots of photos so I could look back on them when the time came to put this thing together again.
Having removed the bonnet, radiator, condenser & all the other engine peripherals (trendy word these days) and heads from the Corvette, the short motor and T400 parted company with the rest of the car without much drama. In fact, it was just a one person operation.
It all came out at a pretty steep angle, over the front of the car. I used the rear most head bolt holes for the chain mounting positions, which worked out quite OK. With the engine out, it was a simple operation to separate the engine from the gearbox, then put the engine on an engine stand, ready for disassembly. One could say, the corvette restoration was on its way.
Hmmm. This tired old Corvette engine has a brand new sump gasket. I wonder who’s been doing what in there??
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2 comments:
Hi, thanks for the blog. I have a friend who has just imported a Corvette, it looks like he might have to do a similar thing to what you are doing. We'll subribe to your blog so we can get the instant updates. Cheers David
Hi David, Thanks for your comment and subscription. If we don't cover any topics that your friend is interested in with his Corvette, feel free to drop us a line again. Bob 'n Dayle
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