I got a lot of Big stuff done the last week or so. I have been too busy to blog about it until now. Here we go.
First, I got my Engine Delivered. Here it is:

Isnt she a beaut?
Next I had to put together the clutch system and mate the Transmission to the engine. I had never done anything like this before, there were no directions and I had to research this on the internet step by step. Here is the end of the engine that drives the driveshaft. You must put a pilot bearing in that slot in the very center of metal circle with the bolt-holes in it (Flywheel goes on that).

The Business end of the Engine. Flywheel goes here
Next you have to put on the separator plate. It goes on some metal dowels sticking out of the engine block but doesn’t get bolted on yet.

Note pilot bearing not yet in center. More pics about the pilot bearing later in post. Starter comes in the hole on the right side of the separator plate
I don’t have a pic of the pilot bearing in place, but its the little metal ring on the left in the below picture. All I can figure out it does is keep the transmission lined up with the engine. The roller-bearings inside the bearing prevent any friction between the engine and the transmission drive shaft which actually stabs into this pilot bearing. The metal thing on the right is the throw-out bearing which activates the clutch. More on that later.

Pilot bearing on left, Throw out bearing on right
Next you have to put dowels in the flywheel. You chill the dowels in ice water and heat up the hole with a heat gun then you bang the crap out of the dowel to get it in. Works like a charm though. for my flywheel the dowels went in the very center of each group of holes. Its different for every clutch so be sure where to put yours.

Ice water in glass, heat gun on hole. Bang like crap, rinse, repeat X 3
Here is one dowel in place. Make sure it is flush or slightly recessed.

After dowel placement.
After getting the dowels in place at the benchtop (you can put them in on the engine but I had a hard time accepting the concept of hitting your dowels on the flywheel while its on the engine. Too scary) you bolt it to the engine. The bolt pattern is NOT symmetrical so you have to spin it around to get it perfect. There is a lot of misinformation out there about how hard to torque the flywheel bolts. Many sites say 75-85 ft/lbs but ANY resource out there about 7/16-14 bolts (I think thats what they were) will say that is way too much. Especially since you have to put some teflon paste onto the bolt to stop oil leakage (which increases the pressure in the bolt hole due to the hydraulic pressure). My Transmission salesman, Mike Forte of Forte’s Parts Connection said 60 ft/lbs is WAY more than enough. Thats what I went with. Mike is great and I recommend doing business with him. Anyway, here is the flywheel in place.

I torqued the bolts to 60 ft/lbs and put teflon paste on the bolts before torquing. You can see the pilot bearing in place now.
Next the pressure plate goes on and gets held in position with the clutch alignment tool (a pretend transmission end that simulates what the transmission will fit like).

Clutch over the pressure plate (not seen - its under the clutch) The clutch-alignment tool is in place in this picture with the ring on the end for removing it before mating with tranny.
Nest you have to mate the transmission to the engine. You can put the Bellhousing on the engine and stab it with the transmission or put the B/H on the Transmission and mate the two. Also, the throw-out bearing goes inside the bellhousing on the clutch fork. I tried mating the two with the B/H on the engine and had no luck. It worked better for me with the B/H on the Transmission side. Whatever you do, don’t use the bolts to draw the two together. You will damage something. Only use the bolts once its mated 95% and the rest is just a matter of tightening. It takes patience.

Bell Housing on the engine. Ultimately I took this off and put the end we are looking at now on the transmission, and mated the two after that move. You can just see the Throw out Bearing on the clutch fork in this pic.

WOOOO HOOOO!
Next, the car had to be rolled outside. Not enough ceiling clearance for the engine to be put in here. I don’t know if I blogged about it but I did the rough alignment this week after I put the wheels and tires on and also got the front coil/shocks on after that. I needed to steer it out of the driveway so I am officially a “Roller” now. Woot!

Dont do this....Unless you are in a rush like me. Drill was on a very low torque setting.
Car outside…engine prepped and ready to go. I also put a 90-degree oil filter adapter on the engine so I could remove my oil filters easy. In stock position its too tight of a fit.

Easing it in...
I did this with one other person (a third didn’t show). Its doable, but hard with two. Also, my engine hoist can only hold 500 lbs at max extension, so I had to dial it back one notch. That gave me less freedom to place the engine easily. If I did it again I would have the ability to extend the boom further. We had to move the engine, the engine lift and even lift up and down the CAR to wiggle the engine into place. Fun with physics!! Ultimately we got it in over about 30 minutes from the time the engine was up in the air.

Check out that grin! the engine is IN!
I rolled the car back into the garage. Here are two pics of the car now…one has Jon Weiswasser in the pic. He is building too. His blog is great for info.

I cant believe how far this has come! Still much to do.

Big help!!!
So after it was all in I checked under the car to see if the oil pan was too low. It is…but what is even scarier is the bellhousing is really low too. I will need to shim up the transmission mount a bit (Forte’s has shims for that) and possibly even change the engine mounts to slightly higher ones.

Rut-Roh....
Here is the transmission sitting on the crossmember in the tranny tunnel. Its not supposed to do that. Its a bit low.

Tail of Tranny sitting on crossmember.
I also looked at my oil pan…it scraped along the battery-holder bolts during installation and made a mess of the bottom. I might have to change the pan anyway due to clearance issues so I am not going to bum out too much. Its all cosmetic, but still…

camera looking up from ground at bottom of oil pan....looks awful.....
Now I am on a well deserved vacation. Dash and electrical wiring is next for me.