For the first time ever i put my motor in my car with the trans attatched. It was a little over a foot off the ground on the hoist. Tilting with the weight of the trans and Gear Vendors OD. IT FELL!!! OMG i dont know how, but one of the chains slipped UP? and off the hook! How is that possible? At first I was looking for a broken chain, it wasnt. How can a chain slip up off the hook with all that weight on it? It fell to the side cause the other chain was still attached. First the side of the block hit one leg of the hoist, then the harmonic balancer dove into the concrete. It took a little gouge out of the concrete. It didnt appear to do any damage that i can see. Oil pan is fine, valve covers ok, trans and GV OD are ok too. The motor still turns easily with a breaker bar on the crank bolt, and it seems to turn straight. Of course I cant turn it fast enough to see any wobble if there is any. Man! I cant believe this happened, I have installed plenty of motors and never had a problem like this, I just hope It didnt do any damage that i cant see. Ill call the machine shop tomorrow and get his opinion. It is a forged crank so hopefully it didnt bend. CRAP!

 

Well that sucks Steve. Thankfully you weren't hurt or have any gouges.
Can you sit it on the floor and spin it with a starter mounted? It probably
will be ok, but DAMN.

 

Wow. That'll get your blood pumping.

I'm glad the damage seems to have been minor. I suspect the crank will be fine.

As far as how it happened, my guess would be that the rear chain ended up holding all the weight, with the OD unit providing that little bit of extra ballast to hang it all off the back, which, when the engine was swung just right, relieved the tension on the front chain, which let the hook slip, so that when the thing swung the other way, S&$T!!!

Once you get it hung back up, see how much additional weight on top of the OD it takes to raise the front - I bet it's less than you expect.

Good luck getting this done safely and with no further stress. You deserve a beer now.

- Eric

 

I quit using chains for that reason. I use intake plate and a cherry picker. Happened to me years ago with a set of chain falls. Dang man that just sucks.

 

Well at the time the engine was just hanging, I wasnt moving it or swinging it. Even with the weight of the trans and od, if it did put slack in the front chain, I still cant see how the chain could rise up off the hook. It has me stumped. I did turn the engine with a wrench, the harmonic balancer seems to turn straight, if it has a wobble its to minor to see. At least turning slow. I can put a starter on it and crank it, see how it looks then. the motor does turn very easily with the plugs out.
I think when i take it back out ill do the engine and trans separately, like i have always done before.... until today. I put it in the car to see what trans tunnel modifications ill need to do for the OD. Then ill take it back out, modify the tunnel, then pull the body and put it on a rotisserie HOPE the body dosent fall.

 

Gravity is no ones friend.

 

I always use a safety rope include chains, will never know if something will fail, hopefully you are Lucky, not good feeling when something like this slam in the grounD. Remember safety shoes too

 

X2 on the intake plate! That really sucks!

 

Sorry about your misfortunate accident, hopefully everything is ok.

 

you may want to pull the oil pan...check the oil pump and turn the crank and look for anything out of order

 

if it was an airplane engine the crank would be checked for straightness, consider pulling the balancer, and using a dial indicator on the snout to check runout..

 

Sorry that happened. I would pull it apart to check the crank and more imortantly the thrust bearing is likley damaged.

 

This may or may not make you feel better. I was loading up an olds 350 engine once into a van, and the front wheel of the hoist shattered. the whole thing tipped and dropped the engine right on the balancer from about 3 feet off the ground, and sheared the snout right off of the crankshaft. It was only a lo-compression 72' motor, so no huge loss, but still an awful experience.

 

You know what they say... crap happens. You say you had chains on the engine, like 2 chains? I only use one chain from one corner front to the opposite corner rear. If you had 2 chains I would guess one was not seated all the way in the hook and rolled off. Just my guess at this point. I hope nothing was damaged but your ego.

 

It was definately an ego bummer, I talked to the machinest who did the motor in Houston. He says if there is no obvious damage and the engine turns easily, he wouldnt worry about it, he said it has happened to him several times. It did hit one leg of the hoist first then rolled off and dove into the cement. There is no visible damage anywhere, some cement on the edge of the balancer where it scraped the floor. Oil pan is fine, valve covers are ok too, motor turns over very easily. I plan on putting a starter on it to turn it faster and watch the balancer for wobble.
Its just that sickening feeling, seeing my shiny, nice, rebuilt, original, beautiful E block falling. It was a first for me, hopefully the last. I will invest in a better system, I usually use only one chain front to back, I used 2 this time.

 

I bought one of these and will never use anything else again.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/mt...FZCIaQodabgAsg

 

Pull the sparkplugs and see just how much it takes to spin it by hand. With the bar on the pulley bolt, you'll feel if there's any variation. I'd use an old style bar type torque wrench ... that needle will shout out loud if it feels any difference worth talking about. Beyond that ... all you can do it stuff it in and hit the Go button ... maybe stop by the local church for a little supernatural help if you're so inclined. If you've got a set of old crapped out motor mounts, use them for the test. New ones might cushion a slight vibration.