Engine mount bar

Graham,

So, can you explain the problem again? I gather you want to drop the engine cross member to get access to the oil pan, but the two outer bolts are "torn away". What exactly does that mean? Are the bolts still there, but the heads are rounded? Or are the nuts that are welded into the body torn out and are just turning with the bolt? If so, that is a BAD thing, as it indicates that the mounting for the cross member is rusted away, and there is a lot less metal holding the engine to the body. As a suggestion, those nuts are in behind the inner fender, just behind the wheel, so one way to get at them (and to fix them properly) is to cut a hole in the inner fender and grab them with a vice grip. Then you can properly repair the mounting locations and the hole in the inner fender with new sheet metal. But you will have to do a "proper" job, with a MIG welder and such. Do you have access to a MIG?

By the way, there are 4 bolts per side that hold the engine cross member to the chassis. Two outer bolts that bolt up into captive nuts inside the inner fender and one slightly inboard that bolts to a captive nut into the frame rail. This is where most of the strength is, but the outer bolts also tie the body together. And the fourth bolt is up along side the engine in the horizontal plane.

And if you want MY opinion, if you are going to rebuild the engine to the extent you are talking about, drop it out and do it right. It is WAY easier and you will do a better job. And, with due respect to Jared, it is SO much easier to drop the engine than to pull it. This has been debated as nauseum on this and the classicopels list, but I have dropped my engine at least six times, and I just dropped Kat's engine a few months ago to change her clutch and transmission, as well as to repair various seals and gaskets. The whole process (including building a set of tall jack-stands, since mine were busy under my car!) took four hours to drop it, and about and two hours to lift it back up.

Here are some pictures that explain the mounts for the engine cross member.

JM2CW

And here are some shots of the frame mounting spots. You can see that I had to repair my inner fender, but the rust wasn't so bad as to cause the cross member nuts to tear out. Oh, and you can see the mounts for my Addco front sway bar just ahead of the engine cross member bolt on the frame rail.

Keith/Jared

Thanks for the info. When I turned the outer bolts to take them out, the bolt and nut were so rusted together that they broke away from the body, however, they are fused as one and move freely still attached to the mounting frame. On both sides, the metal is rusted away from the running boards and there is about a 3" gap between the running boards and the engine bracket. I seriously pondered the top out approach, but believe that since I've started from the bottom, and with seeing the resto that has to be done to the engine mount, that I'll continue on with the bottom out approach.

After examining the problem closer, I see that I can probably get the bracket off the car, then once off, cut the useless bolts off the bracket. The next step will be to weld in new metal for the outer bolt mounts.

I don't have a mig welder, and don't have a cutting torch, but both items will have to be sought out.

It's amazing that just to get the oil pan off, so much other stuff has to be done. Had I not encountered this problem I could have had the new rings by now!

Keep the advice coming. Oh Keith, thanks for the pictures I didn't know there was a fourth mounting point!