What is your fastest time to drive a car in, pull the engine, swap in another and drive it out?

[qkcuda]

Back in the 80's my buddy blew the 340 engine in his 73 Roadrunner. We initially swapped in a 360 from a Fury donor, but it was a dog so we ended up swapping in another 360 from a Duster. (or vice versa)

He lived about an hour and a half away, so I am pretty sure both swaps were one day affairs. The Fury was so rusty that when we removed the transmission crossmember it started to fold in the middle. We told his wife she almost had a permanent planter in the driveway.

 

[493 Mike]

In 1982 I acquired a 360 core and rebuilt it up to the rocker assy for the welder I had been fitting for at my real job (he called me from New York as he was coming back to Michigan for the weekend). Then he drove the 70 something Ramcharger to my shop and left. I pulled the OEM 360, stripped the rocker assys off and put them on the new engine. Had it running that afternoon and the owner returned to drive it back to New York state. I told him to change the oil at 500 miles.
Mike

 

[70 sublime]

Spring 1985 and my last week of university
We were a dairy farm so came home every weekend
I drove a 1981 Dodge omni ( little hatch back car )
No way that car was going to get all my crap home so the plan was to take dads toy car that week to move my stuff home
His car was a 57 Chev 2 door hard top
Before I got home that second last weekend the 327 in it started pumping oil out the exhaust
So Friday after milking we got the 327 all unhooked in the car
Saturday pull the 327 out . Pulled a 350 out of another junk 4 door late 70's car and dropped it in the 57
The 350 was back in and running by Saturday night which father took the car out and tried to blow it up
Held together so I jumped in the 57 and drove it 2 hours away for my last week of school

So pulled 2 engines and installed one and running again in less than 24 hours ( and milked the cows 2 times )

 

[4406bbl]

5 hours alone on a 76 dodge 4x4. picked up hoist at noon and returned it just before 5pm. That included cam break in. Today it would take a lot longer.

 

[Cop car wagon]

I'm so old now, I can't give you an exact number.
In my youth, I bought a $20 273 dart with bad freeze plugs.
Pulled the motor out, and changed them, including behind trans, all while working at a gas station collecting money..
Then drove it home.
I only worked 4-9pm, but may have stayed late.

 

[BeepBeepRR]

I also pulled and swapped a Ford Courier 4 banger in about 4 hours. Pulled the old one and had it out the owner left to go get new oil and coolant I had the new 4 banger back in and bolted in place before he made it back. I can't do this now nor do I want to.

 

[qkcuda]

Not engines but at the track we've done some quick repairs. Put a head gasket on a friends 340 in between rounds. I've gutted and repaired 727's between rounds. This year broke a waterpump. It was apart. They came by and put us on the clock with 5 minutes to be at the line. No radiator, fan or pump when the clock started. 4 1/2 minutes later I was suited up and belted in at the line.
Doug

That reminds me of one day at the track back in the 80's. It was a long weekend with races both days, and I was fighting for points. I had experimented with a sheet metal divider in a 1 inch spacer. The car started running rough and when I removed the carb, the divider was missing in action. We pulled it apart at the track, cleaned out the metal shot that the divider had become, and went home and bought a set of gaskets. We put it together the next morning in time for time trials. The car ran great, and the metal shot cleaned all of the carbon off of the piston top. I couldn't do that today either.

 

[nitro_rat]

I did a whole "build" in a weekend once. I bought a 1985 Chevy Caprice "Landau" out of a field for $300. It had been sitting for years. I dragged it home, cleaned it up, and got the 305 barely running. It was tired and the catalytic converter was stopped up. I traded a Suburban I had for a fresh Vortec 350 long block. I borrowed my friend's muffler shop for a weekend. I pulled engine and trans, freshened up the 700R4 and did a shift kit and a reman S-10 4.3 V6 torque converter (same as the 80's Corvette high stall unit). I got a carb intake for the Vortec 350, swapped everything back in, lowered the suspension, swapped on a set of wheels and tires from a previous project, ran dual exhaust on it, and adjusted the stance all in two days by myself. I missed the distributor gear for the Vortec roller cam and the HEI ate itself in a few months of daily driving. I was in my early 20's.

I ended up pulling the engine and junking it. A similar one went for $20k recently…

 

[Curiousyellow71]

My brother and I were coming back from college on a friday night when the water pump went out of the slant 6 in the 80 volare we were driving. Had a tough week of school and wanted to get home. Didn't make it, got a 1/2 mile from home. The next day we pulled a slant 6 out of a 75 duster we had and installed it and was running the next day. Went to church too I think Sunday morning.
It wasn't a great week. We had a 440 in the charger that we locked up the weekend before. Beating on it we didn't have enough oil clearance and welded all the bearings to the crank. It died about a 100' from where the volare did. When we went to pull the charger home with Dad's pickup it ran out of fuel in the same spot. So we walked that same field to get home to the farm 3 times in one week!

 

[OneWheelPeel]

I’ve done it in like 3 hours a few times, but the advantage is we are talking about air cooled VWs.
A friend and I once switched bodies and frames between two trucks in one day on the curb in front of his house.

 

[Cojohnso1]

I assume we are talking about a stock engine bay and components? My drag race Duster we pulled the engine. (with auto trans attached) replaced the converter and had it back in filling fluid in just over 2 hours.

But the car has a steel tilt front clip that only 2 bolts hold. Front clip and radiator out in 5 min. It's a clever design that I guess some farmer did 15+ years back. It was so liked he began a side gig.

But I'm sure this doesn't count. A dragster would even be faster.

I've never tried a speed swap with a street car.

 

[493 Mike]

I’ve done it in like 3 hours a few times, but the advantage is we are talking about air cooled VWs.
A friend and I once switched bodies and frames between two trucks in one day on the curb in front of his house.

Was that just a radiator cap switch?
Mike

 

[440 PHIXX]

I saw a guy do it back in the 70’s. He was swapping out a 383 for a 440 in a road runner. Less than two hours it was running. He used an old swing set and a ratcheting come along to pull it.

 

[OneWheelPeel]

Was that just a radiator cap switch?
Mike

That guy always had some crazy project, I think in this case it was a 2wd truck and 4x4 blazer and he wanted a 2wd blazer, so we did the switch. I think he was driving it around a few days later.
I found an old pic of the mayhem: