Steve and I have been wrenching away on our Project 666 car this week, in preparation for some new drive train components. Specifically, the engine and transmission. Like Steve wrote in the previous blog, we have identified our replacements, but our first task was to get the stock stuff outta the way.

Part of the deal in the powerTV garage is that parts that are removed for future use and cleaned and wrapped for storage. We describe this as “clean storage”. Because we wanted to re-use most of our cooling system components, like our Meziere electric water pump, Flex-a-lite electric cooling fan, and radiator, we started by draining the coolant. While the car was up on the lift we drained the oil and transmission fluid. All the bodily fluids were coming out of our baby.

Once the fluids were drained, we brought the car down and took off the hood. Taking off the hood is essential for removing the engine/transmission combo from the top, and not as difficult as it sounds. The key to successfully re-installing the hood is to scribe a line around the hinge that holds the hood so that it can be put back together in the exact same position. We stored the hood standing upright with shop towels taped to the edges of the hood to prevent paint chipping.

Next step was to harvest our reusable cooling system components, which was a lot less messy now that the system had been drained. At the same time, I had Steve-O removing the wiring from the electrical components, vacuum hoses, and fuel lines running to the engine. Having two people working in the engine bay is crowded but it speeds up the removal process. Steve-O and I took a left side/right side approach to working in the engine bay. He didn’t cross the line to my side and I didn’t cross the line to his.

The empty engine bay. Notice all the wires and lines.

Once all the wiring, hoses and lines were removed from the transmission and engine block, Steve-O and I supported the engine from above with an engine hoist and removed the transmission and engine mounts. With the mounts removed, and using a couple of eyes on each side of the engine and one set of not so young eyes watching under the car, we hoisted the engine out of the engine bay and onto the garage floor where the transmission could be separated.

Our old muscle out of the Stang.

Because our transmission was going to be replaced as well with a brand new Tremec TKO-600, we separated it from the engine block and did a preliminary cleaning on it. We checked the endshaft play and the input shaft movement. There’s still a lot of miles in this transmission, so we are going to store it for future use, or maybe sell it on Craigslist.

As if that weren’t enough, we capped off our day by removing the entire fuel system which is going to replaced with a full Aeromotive Stealth system. We’re talking every line, hose, filter and tank removed. Although we drained the tank before removal, Steve-O still had the 91 octane perfume smell all over him.

Dropping the fuel tank.

We brought the car down on the lift close enough to use a floor jack to support the fuel tank. Using a 2X4 between the floor jack and the tank to prevent us from puncturing the tank, we loosened the mounting bolts, removed the retaining straps and lowered the tank far enough to remove the vent lines and electrical lines to the fuel pump. With those removed, we lowered the tank to the ground.

Our drained fuel tank on the ground.

The beautiful part about this whole evolution was that we paced ourselves to the point where when we were finished, it was quitting time on Friday afternoon. Perfect timing yet again!