IROC-Z DONOR PAGE CONT...

Here are the brains of the whole opperation!  Bill took care of this part of the swapping.  Contained within the confines of that aluminum alloy box dwells the infamous computer which runs all of the electrical componets of the vehicle.  Once again, I praise God, because I have all of these parts to swap over...It would cost an arm and a leg other wise!

Well, it's come down to trying to pull the ole V8!  Imagine our excitement!  We've disconnected all the wires that we know off, and hoses, etc.  We had all kinds of room to work with since we pulled all the fendors, and did some cutting.  It should make for an easy pull, and it was.  What a blessing. I'm sure what ever fluid hasn't completely drained, will, when the engine gets pulled and moves around!

Here, Mr. J, and Bill are adjusting the arm of the engine hoist.  We got the chain all hooked up, but the engine hoist arm was out to far, so when we lifted the rear of the hoist got off the ground.  Almost ready to come out...the suspense is building!  Up until this point it took two guys, with little know-how, two days to get all of the things disconnected, ready for pull.  It's been a very big learning experience.

She's free, I believe I saw a tear of joy stream down Bill's cheek.  It was a relief to see this puppy come out.  Here in this picture is Mr. J's dad, Mr. J.  He was very helpful to Bill and I.  He gave us some advice about all of this stuff, and I appreciate it greatly.  It was just what Bill and I needed, a little wisdom for the job!  After we got the engine pulled, we towed the IROC back to the shed, and called it a night.  All in a days work!

Here is another view of the V8.  She's a beaut!  Here also is the remains of the shell of an IROC.  Man, its amazing how much stuff we've taken off of this thing.  Pretty distorted frame ain't it?  Still going to possibly switch out the dash as well.  Hang the hat for tonight.  Come back later, to pull the V6!!!

This is the following weekend.  One last 2.5 hour drive with the V6.  The next time I go home with this car will be with a 350 TPI rumbling under the hood!

Here lies the tired 155K+ miles V6.  I have thuroughly enjoyed this engine.  It has a very distinct sound, and plenty of get up and go for it's size!  I will miss this engine, but it is exciting to have a bigger engine to replace it!  We have already begun to disconnect the hoses, and other lines.  Running pretty smooth now.

Bill, Mr. J, and I are all prepping to get this V6 out.  Again, It's been a blessing having tools at our disposal, and shelter from the thunder storms as of late.  Hopefully the pulling process will go a little quicker this time around.

All Friday afternoon and evening we spent disconnecting the engine.  By this point, Saturday morning, we were ready to pull the engine after some final checks and disconnections.  This was a little more tricky to pull out only because we had the nose cover to deal with, apposed to the IROC where we just took everything off.  Too much trouble...we considered taking off my nose cover, I didn't think I wanted to do that, so we just took it easy.

As far as the V6 to the V8, the 6 cam out MUCH easier.  It's sad to see it go, but It's gotta retire sometime.  It's interesting to see how much higher the front of the car sits up now, since all of the weight is out of it.  After the engine is clear, we took some looks to see what is comparable to the IROC and what is not.  It looks as though the engine mounts will need to be moved forward.

We moved the car out of the garage, to do some cleaning of the dog house.  It was filthy in there.  Caked dirt everywhere.  If you noticed one thing that I mentioned about my car when I was doing the body work, I said that the car had caked dirt in every crevice...it holds true still.  We noticed that the engine mounts need to be moved forward, and that the passenger side brake line needed to be rerouted.  No prob, just went to the other car, and pulled them off and swapped.  Let me tell you if you have ever taken off an engine mount from these cars, it ain't easy. Those that have, let me hear you say, "Amen!"

A few questions have popped into my mind as I look at the V6.  Do I sell it?  Do I learn how to rebuild an engine?  Do I keep it, in case something happens to the V8?  Prayer and some serious thinking will be the best way to handle it.  I would love to learn how to rebuild an engine.  Also, how am I going to lug all of these parts back to Evansville????? :)

I found that there were much more things to replace.  I had to reroute the AC line, and swap the heater core in and out lines.  I vacuumed out the dirt, and did some wiping down.  Lots of comparing engine compartments goin' on!  We're just about ready to put in the V8!  I'm so excited!

We hooked the engine up to the tracker, since we still have the nose and all of that on the front, we'll need to get much more height to get the engine in.  We put my car around the side of the garage, on a slope, hopefully the angle will be just right to get that engine in!

Higher! Higher!  Bill and I had to support the transmission, and lift it so that we could get the engine cleared from the front nose.  I could just see the chains breaking and the engine plummetting earthward taking the front end off my car.  Praise God, that didn't happen, I nearly broke my hand though.  I didn't have the best of grips on my end of the bar, and the transmission pinned my hand to the frame.  Thankfully it was in a spot were my hand didn't get crushed.

(this is my favorite picture :) We got the tranny to get down.  The way the engine was chained to the tractor it was kind of cockeyed.  It was a real muscle match to get that engine to turn and sit properly.  We ended up tying a band to the transmission and pulling sideways to straighted the engine.  Bill would tug, I would push on the engine.  The engine mounts were in, and the engine just wasn't clearing them.  Once we coordinated a good push-pull combo, and after a good 20min battle, the engine just plopped right down in place...when I saw this I did a YIPPEE and a YAHOO, and went to go kiss a cow...too bad they weren't around...I'd have kissed one too!  We just did a victory lap around the garage instead!

Well, Praise God, the engine went in with out a hitch.  We used the engine hoist to get it finely tuned to set in place.  Mrs. J, and Jennifer, Thanks for taking the pictures and being great supervisors!! We tried to get the engine mounts into place and bolt the transmission it after we got the engine in.  We got the tranny in place, and went for the drive shaft, but the rear differential was rotated to a point were I couldn't get the shaft bolted on...weird, but what happened was the springs cause it to rotate, no biggy, Bill got the shaft on...Now we can put it in "park!"

It's looking good!  Next weekend will be spent connecting it all back together! Lord Willing it'll be driveable come a few weeks!  I will need to order new radiator fan brackets, and the oil cooler lines.  The radiator brackets were damaged in the crash, and the cooler lines are just rusty, some pin holes in them.  Hopefully the wiring won't be too big of a mess to work with.

We got the car like this so that we could get some clearence for the transmission.  The car will be setting like this for a little while, off the jack stands of course, until we get back next weekend to connect the engine.  This whole process has taken plenty of time, but it has gone rather smoothly.  We haven't broken anything, yet, and hopefully never ;)  It's been steady, and lots of hard work, but it's been fun.

Well this past weekend, Bill and I went up to connect the engine.  We stopped by the local dealer to order my parts.  We should have them by this next weekend.  We got to a point were we could try to crank it over.  I never heard the fuel pump kick on, yet we gave it a whirl anyway.  I turned the key and it was just "CLICK"  The starter needed to be replaced.  I think it was damaged when we tried pulling the engine.  50 bucks later we got a new one.  We got it connected and it cranked the engine, but the engine didn't turn over, I turned the key off, and it was still cranking!!!  Mr. J. pulled the negative battery cable off and it quit.  Bill and I came to the realization that the entire dash wiring needs to be swapped over in oder for everything to work properly...So this weekend of the 14-16th we'll be doing just that!  It's been quite the adventure, and I will have much more pictures and information to come!!!! Thanks for keeping updated with me on this project...more to come!  UNTIL THEN, F-body Nut, Dan Rittichier drittrhs@hotmail.com Check out IROC-Z DONOR PAGE 3!! or go back to IROC-Z upgrade page 1