Big Day!! Engine Goes In

The crane was supposed to be here at 1:00pm today.

Get a call at 8:00am, can we come earlier? Seems they needed the crane for an emergency call across the river in Astoria, it was come earlier or wait a couple of more days. So I hustled to make preparations, needed to pull some peripherals off the engine that were susceptible to damage. By 9:00 the engine was in the air.

The operator handled things like a surgeon with a scalpel.

The lift went beautifully, although it was a little nerve wracking seeing my prized John Deere dangling in the air.

Here comes the test, is it going to fit neatly through the new opening in the deck.

I didn't leave much room to spare, and it was going to require tilting the engine down slightly to get it in, all 1500lbs of it.

Down the hatch!

This procedure adds new meaning to the expression.

It's in the engine room, facing the wrong direction, but the meter was running on the crane and I wanted to let him go. I would deal with orienting the engine using the ugly engine hoist that has been sharing my space all this time waiting for this moment.

Well it's sitting roughly where it needs to.

Now I need to engineer new engine beds and mounts to permanently secure this monster.

Every movement of this thing requires careful planning, even if I'm only moving it an inch.

Working by myself, I can't afford any mishaps, this thing weighs so much that it means instant finger amputation if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Have already determine that in order to get it lined up properly with the angle on the prop shaft, the original engine rails, the beams that it's sitting on in the pic, will have to be cut out and new ones built.

This engine is taller than the previous unit, hence in order for it to fit below the cabin floor, it will need to go down several inches.

The new engine rails and mounts will need to compensate for the fact that this engine has twice the horsepower and torque that the original engine did.

I tend to overbuild things in general, this instance will define overbuild, have lots of new aluminum on hand just for this project.

Estimate it will take a whole day and about 20 blades on the saws-all to do the cut out.

Another day to fab up the neccessary pieces, by Thursday, Cap should be welding.