Yesterday I spent the good part of an hour making a tool that I used for 10 seconds. I needed a 1 ½”AF deep socket to remove the flywheel nut, luckily I had a spare ¾” drive Chinese one that was made of such crap metal that I could easily turn the square drive into a circle, then added a bit of gal pipe and a spare ½” drive socket for the top add some dodgy welds, the rattle gun and as I said the job was done in 10 seconds….at least I can use it to put it back on later. I will throw it in the box labeled “Special Tools”. However it will not stop me making one just same when I need to do this job again, I always forget to look in that box!

Having had this engine apart a couple of times now means it came apart very easily this time , whacking the flywheels with the copper mallet freed it from the crankshaft and later the big-end journal from the inner flywheel. This engine has effectively 3 flywheels and the ones inside are heavier than the one you can see in the picture, in fact the engine looks like it should run on steam by the robustness of construction and therefore weight. The reason I have dismantled it into its component parts is so I can carry it. Never mind shaggers back this thing will hurt much more without the fun angle.

So today I have dropped the bits off and await Colin’s call so will have to pull something else apart while I wait.

As can be seen, the engine is out although for a while there I had a bit of a déjà vu moment as originally the crane was at the front of the car, it took the strain so I knocked out the last bolts supporting the engine then realised that I was dropping the engine to the floor not lifting it but the crane could not go down as the radiator was in the way. Not quite as bad as the SM oil change fiasco.

Nothing like the right tools for the job, the engine is now resting on one of the ramps of the hoist jacked up to bench height, hydraulics really are wonderful. Next problem is getting the 38mm nut holding the flywheel off, a deep socket and an impact wrench would be good so I may have to sacrifice one of my Chinese 3/4″ drive  sockets to the angle grinder and welding gods.