I have to drop the tranny so I'm going to rebuild her too, along with new a clutch assembly.
I'm prolly gonna drop the oil pan and crank, to replace bearings and new oil pump. I need the engine to limp by maybe another year or so while I build an LT1 on the side or roundup parts to re-use this block. Just out of curiousity could I pull out the pistons from the bottom?? Do the mains get in the way? I dont remember.

I'm running hooker shorty headers and was wondering how hard is it to install full length headers?? I'm not going to remove the engine, but the tranny will be out but I'm not sure how much easier this makes things. Does it help??
I do not have a cherry picker to float the engine from the top with, and if this is a need then I'd rather leave the damm shorties.

Also how bad does clearence from the floor really get???

 

Hey, im not sure what all is wrong but here is my suggestion. Its not a honda, you can't pull the motor apart from the bottom. With the proper tools it is easier to drop the whole motor/tranny assembly out the bottom than to disassemble it in the car. You could pull the tranny, oil pan, and rear main in car to replace oil pump and gaskets for now.

The tranny being out really doesnt help a whole lot for header install. I've never had floor problems on long tube installs with good motor mounts.
Hope this helps....

 

I got my LT1 on a stand right now, and without pulling the crank, you wont get the pistons out the bottom. It's as simple as that....Having the tranny out might make it a little easier to do the headers, but not much. The LT's are a pain in the *** to install, but they are worth the trouble.

 

Does the oil pan come off from the bottom??
And maybe the crank?? I don't care for the pistons really at this point I'm willing to leave them in there.
I just want to limp by for another 20K-30K if I can. But with new bearings+oil pump.

Man what a headache, I want to rebuild the tranny right now along with a new clutch.
I initially wanted to re-ring her but now from what I'm hearing that's impossible. So I'd like to at minimum drop the crank from the bottom replace bearing and pump.

Slap it all together to buy me enough time to buy a cherry picker and stand and a forged crank. And maybe even a Ford 9 inch. I'd say a year or 2 is all I need. But I didn't want to leave it as is cuz she's lower on oil pressure and I think compression too.

The truth is I can't afford a full rebuild right now. I have to pour a cement driveway on the side of my house where I intended to do this later. As it is I'm trying to pull this off on the little cement squared side of my house which is not too much fun to be on, but I don't want to roll a cherry picker or engine stand on this(if I COULD even afford those right now)