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Different ways to pull the engine

jays69bird

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Did a compression check on my 1969 Road Runner engine yesterday. Got 1,3,5,2, 135 psi-4,6, 130 psi, and 7 125 psi, and 8 120 psi.
Readings are in spec and for an engine rebuilt over 40 years ago its held up well. However I wanted to do a few things, Aluminum DB4
intake, TTI headers, newer carb, recam it. So I'm thinking about pulling it and reringing it. Now I have a cherry picker, but I also have a
lift. I was thinking instead of pulling the engine out of the car, pulling the torsion bars, upper control arms, and unbolting the K frame and
lifting the car up. Never done it that way but it seems to be a cleaner way of doing it. I was looking for feedback on folks who have done
the K frame method ?
 
Having done both methods, my thoughts are: six of one, half-dozen of the other. Pros and cons either, but I'd rather lift the car and drop the K. I've found that dropping the car back precisely is the most concerning aspect of that method.
 
I've done the drop method quite a bit. It helps that I have a lift, makes it way easier, but others have done the drop without a lift. For sure you need a cart of some sort to support the engine/trans/k-frame combo. There are ones you can buy or you can DIY like many of us have done. To help get the assembly lined up for going back in the car, I got ahold of 4, 5/8"x12" bolts. Cut the hex heads off and a neighbor tapered the cut ends in a lathe to 1/4" point. Works great.

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I’ve done both ways and prefer dropping everything out the bottom. Buy, build or borrow a cart on castors, although I have used jack stands as a temporary solution.

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Since you have a lift dropping out the bottom is definitely the cleanest way. Cart does not need to be fancy, I use a rectangular frame on casters with some wood dunnage on it. Then you can roll the whole thing out in the open to work on it.

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