I had a little time yesterday evening, so I unbolted the driver headers (boy, that takes a while with an alan wrench), took off the rest of the radiator and heater hoses, drained the oil and the little remaining coolant. I'll be picking up the engine hoist this weekend. I'm about ready to take the hood off. Going to mark everything really well, so it will only fit badly when I put it back on . I might get crazy and try to get the engine out on Monday. I'm getting really curious as to what the condition of the bottom end is. Oh, and if anyone needs 1 good 400 small block head - I know a source.

John,  you know of course most engine hoists will not reach the engine from the front. You'll have to take a front tire off to reach it and take it out that way. This was covered on Horsepower tv show when the were working on project stinkray. Man, the hood is a lot heavier than I thought it would be. I just had mine off this past week. The wife was gettin tired of helping me put it back on. This project of mine started out as replacing the valve stem seals and before it was over, a new cam and lifters, roller rockers, lots of cleaning, new radiator, hoses, trans service and oil change had erupted from the valve seal job. Have fun.

Dave

John,

Don't know how far you have gotten with your project but I will offer some advice anyhow.  I recently replaced the big block in my '69 for a bigger block.  After you get finished with the headers, remove the trans.  You must disconnect the trans and rotate it about 90 degrees so it will clear the crossmember when you shove it back away from the engine.  Remember to put a wooden block under the engine or at least have the disributer removed so it does not break when the support is removed from the back of the motor.  While you have the motor out, it is a very good idea to replace all the vacuum lines.  Dr. Rebuild sells a good kit.  Do them ALL one at a time.  Be very carefull lifting the motor out cause those vacuum lines will manage to get disconnected and unless you have a diagram and they are clean enough to read he color codes, you will play hell getting them back in again correctly.

Good luck,

Glenn