The marriage

And finally the day came to mate the engine and gearbox to the car - a process called the marriage.

With all the prep work done and the engine mods done, it was hopefully going to be a straight forwards job of dropping it in and bolting it up. It actually took 5 hours but in the end it was in, fixed and ready for fuel and power.

I hired an engine crane for the weekend and after checking everything was ready, hoisted it into the air.  I then slid it towards the car and realised the arm wasn't extended enough!  So back to the start, extended the arm and then started the process again. 

I used the tilt mechanism to lower the gearbox into the car and then started to lower the big lump into the little space. It took quite a bit of lining up and tweaking but finally was low enough to fit the mounting arms.  With these on, i connected the prop shaft, lined up the gearbox mount and bolted it down.

I kept the weight of the engine on the crane and sat it on the mounting plates in the car. I then ensured it was perfectly central and drilled the 8 holes for the mounting bolts.  I decided not to drill straight through the body panels and instead went for the more difficult option of attaching the nuts between the two sheets of metal. Difficult but doable.

Finally I torqued up the bolts ensured everything was tight and then removed the engine crane!  Nervous times but everything stayed where it was and I now have the engine and gearbox mounted!

Big thanks to Katie - my 9 months pregnant wife - who helped throughout the 5 hours it took.