ICE Motor Removed!

All of us were very excited about this moment! We were planning on doing this on Saturday, but the entire morning there was pouring rain! Very disappointing... However, we got the transmission all taken care of. When Alex, Marcus and Michael removed the transmission cross member, we were shocked to see how much the transmission sagged down! So we ingeniously tied it up from inside the car. We were ready to pull the last four bolts and lift out the motor.

We started to get everything in place when we could not get the engine lift under the car. We saw that the lower control arms were just a tad too low to get the lift all the way in. So, let's lift the car a bit, right? We get a bit further then hit the jacks! Should of thought about that... When we finally got it in as far as we could the bumper kept the lift from reaching to the motor. Darn 280Z's have such a long front end! Could we get the lift in place? We tried to think of doing it from the side, but that would not work. So the guys removed the front bumper, voila, just right! Strapped it up, tightened everything we could and started to lift it a bit. Removed the last four bolts (I can't believe that only four bolts kept the engine up) and got ready... It started to slowly rise and quite easy at first. We cleared the engine bay, with the front of the motor. Then the oil pan. Then... We were a bit short. Hmmm... Ah! Lower the jacks! The lift had cleared the lower control arms so we let it down that few inches. Ok, let's keep it going, then... The lift could go no higher! What were we going to do?! We were committed, so we put our thinking caps on... Let's see if all of that weight lifting pays off. I climbed into the engine compartment and lifted! Just enough to clear! We moved the whole engine and transmission to the next parking stall and hmm.. just leave it there? Well, for now. Next we will disconnect the transmission and engine to get at the clutch, pressure plate and flywheel. Then we can mount the engine onto the engine stand. Thought it would be cool to be able to take a look at the insides of the motor for a learning experience. All of that complicated pieces of moving metal! It has worked well, but the time has come for a more efficient and much less complicated mode of transportation!

All of us were so excited to get the engine out! It was surprisingly easy, all of that nervousness and anticipation really tired me out... Now to the challenging part, designing the electronic drive components and putting the new parts IN. That under dash mess of wires is a concern, but not insurmountable. Next is to get things rolling to build an adapter plate... More to come...