The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Hi, Personally I have always pulled the engine out with the box through the top.
I've tried through the bottom with the front subframe and that's not my favourite choice.
Also taken the g/box out through the inside of the car and did not like that either.
Others may have a different take on it.
But as I'm getting older rolling around on the floor is not my choice LoL
Good luck

It really depends on what you want to achieve and what facilities you have.

Either way you really need a crane, obviously for the through the top method, less obviously its the easiest way to get the body high enough for the under and out method.

Since the head is already off, the exhaust manifold/downpipe is out of the way so I'd pull it out the top.

If you are going to pull the gearbox at the same time, jack and support the rear end of the car leaving the front wheels on the deck, it will help with angles. Also, if pulling engine and box as a unit, beg, borrow, buy or otherwise acquire a load leveller for the crane It really does save a ton of effort.

Steve

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'73 2 door Toledo with Vauxhall Carlton 2.0 8v engine (The Carledo)
'78 Sprint Auto with Vauxhall Omega 2.2 16v engine (The Dolomega)
'72 Triumph 1500FWD in Slate Grey, Now with RWD and Carledo powertrain!

Maverick Triumph, Servicing, Repairs, Electrical, Recomissioning, MOT prep, Trackerjack brake fitting service.
Apprentice served Triumph Specialist for 50 years. PM for more info or quotes.

When I switched the 1500 lump for the Sprint engine it through the top. £100 2 tonne ebay crane was more than enough for the job. The tricky bit was getting the crane support legs under the car and the height the engine needed to be lifted to was a bit alarming for someone who hadn't used a crane before.

If you pull the engine and gearbox out the top.
Try jacking the rear off the car up.
Gives a better angle.

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2009 Mini Clubman Cooper S Daily Driver.
1980 Dolomite Sprint with a touch of BLTS
Balanced Lightened and Tweaked 13B Rotary and SuperCharged.
Back in my possession 22 September 2019.
Rebuilding the Sprint time taken so far, 111Hrs@15/12/2020
212Hrs @31/12/2021
352 @ 28/11/2022
455Hrs @ 20/10/2023
480Hrs @ 14/03/2024
This is time taken at the Sprint not necessary time worked.

Working on a ratio of just 7Hrs a day not including driving to the Sprint.
That equals to 68 days that doesn’t include weekends.
Member TDC no 0471

Project 13B Sprint now back on.

I've done all the methods of removing the engine and gearbox. You are just removing the engine so I would split it from the gearbox and remove it from above. You already have the head off which makes it easier but bearing in mind I assume you will put the head on before replacing into the engine bay? It's still easy enough.

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Sprintless for the first time in 35+ years. ... Still Sprintless.

Engines, Gearboxes, Overdrives etc. rebuilt. PM me.


1997 TVR Chimaera 450

Hi Dave, With the head removed you will lose the rear engine lifting eye. The front one on the cylinder block is still O.K. though.
I'm not sure where you can put a chain round the rear of the engine for lifting purposes.
Plan "B" needed !
Tony.

Which engine is it?? OHV engine block on its own is easy enough to remove without a crane..

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Vindicator Sprint, Honda Fireblade RRX 919cc, re-powered by AB Performance. Quick.

It is a Sprint engine that Dave is asking about, Jod.





Ian

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I have described and shown photos of my method of removing the engine several times before.

What then is the quickest and easiest way of removing an engine out of any of the Dolomite range?

I follow the factory procedure of removing the entire sub frame assembly out from underneath the car.

It takes me about 40 minutes working on my own to remove the sub frame assembly complete with motor and gearbox from the cars which I work on. Perhaps a bit quicker if it is a Toledo or a Dolomite for the access in the engine bay is less restricted. I am a bit slower now for as I get older and less agile, my desire to get down on my knees and crawl under cars has decreased.

Yes I have a reasonable amount of head room in my workshop, insufficient head room to lift the engine out over the top without the help from somebody else.

I purchased a very cheap chain hoist, second hand for about the price of an evening meal which I have slung from a convenient beam. Years ago I acquired some rated 75kg castors for a song, solid castors which I bolted to some homemade frames to make some dollies for moving cars around. You can see one of them sitting under the back axle in the picture. I bolted three of those same castors under the dolly which I made out of some scraps of wood on which the entire sub frame assembly sits supported at the front under the sub frame and at the rear under the rear of the gearbox.

The photo here is a very early photo of the first trial fitting which I undertook. I now never bother to remove anything off the engine. Nor do I remove anything from the engine bay. You can see the front shocks hanging down which, on reassembly, are bolted to the top wishbones just before the nuts are screwed onto the sub frame bolts. The bolts that attach the shock absorbers to their mounting plates then slip through the bottom bushings. The wheels are removed too, to provide access and remain off for they would be touching the ground.

As the exhaust is unbolted beside the gearbox and pushed back, leaving the downpipe attached to the engine, I unbolt the four bolts which bolt the gearbox support bracket to the car.

In the past I have also removed the gearbox tunnel cover in order to unbolt the clutch slave off the side of the gearbox but I suspect that can be done just as easily from underneath.

All you have to do is disconnect all the hoses around the engine bay, disconnect the fuel and electrics and yes, the brake lines to the front callipers.

Some may be worried about the rebleeding of the brakes when everything is reassembled but I like to change my brake fluid regularly anyway, in the same way as you change the oil in the engine.

Then it is simply a question of lifting the car body just high enough to roll the entire assembly out. As you can see here I have even removed the Sprint spoiler to reduce the height required for the body to clear.

It is called a Keep It Simple process. If somebody has devised a quicker than 40 minutes method of taking the engine out of the top with nothing more than a chain hoist or something similar and working on your own, let me know.

Good luck.

Robert

An interesting thread this.

Robert - when you lift the body up, where do you affix the chains to the body? I'm presuming the suspension turrets where the dampers mount?

Would a conventional engine hoist (not block and tackle from above) work for raising the body? or would the feet get in the way of the engine?

On the few times I have pulled my 1500 engine out, it has come out from above without too much drama, although it is a smaller engine of course.


MC

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Matt Cotton

TDC Oxfordshire Area Organiser.
TDC/TSSC group meeting - 3rd Tuesday of the month


1980 1500HL - OPD
1976 Sprint - SWU

Hello Matt.

Dave was seeking suggestions on the various methods others use and he will decide what suits him best from what he reads here, and with whatever facilities he has on hand. I realise that for some folk my method will not work. It is certainly not going to work for someone lifting the engine outside. I am lucky too for the beam to which my chain hoist is attached happened to be in the right place in my workshop and the hoist is now used for a multitude of tasks such as lifting things in and out of trailers, a task which would not be possible with an engine hoist.

To answer your question:

I bolt a couple of very simple little angle brackets onto two inner suspension turret bolts. Perhaps it is not necessary but I also attach a spreader between the lifting chains, The light chain, what we call dog chain in this country (used for tethering working farm dogs) is attached by a couple of d-shackles to the angle brackets.

The two photos you see here were taken before I started to assemble the car after its restoration. The yellow cord is holding the wiring loom out of the way. I carried out a couple of trial fittings in order to be sure that the method I was then developing, worked.

After getting the car back on the road the whole engine and sub frame assembly has come out 8 times as I sorted out a number of engine problems. It is about to come out again for 30,000 miles on from my restoration I think I have a leak in the rear main crankshaft oil seal.

I suspect that the feet from a conventional engine hoist would get in the way if you tried to use that to lift the body. The big advantage in lifting from above is that there is nothing on the ground to get in the way and as you can see in the previous post because the back wheels are sitting on dollies I can always wriggle the car body around in order to get everything to line up, something which you are likely to have to do when fitting the whole sub frame back under the car.

My chain hoist is now attached permanently up on its mounting beam, and is swung out of the way when it is not in use so is not taking up space.

The second photo shows how the whole assembly is slid out under the front of the car and shows another block under the rear of the sub frame which also supports the back of the engine. That allows me to split the gearbox and clutch off the engine block. It makes for bolting the clutch and gearbox back onto the engine a relatively simple one man operation.

The second photo also shows the angle which the engine and gearbox sits in the car when it is level. The sub frame is all but horizontal in the photo and when the body is lowered onto it the bolts pass through the rubber mounts. The gearbox mount is also in roughly the right position although I use a bottle jack under that back surface just in front of the gearbox output flange, to lift it slightly so that I can catch the bolts coming down through the chassis.

Hope that helps.

Robert

I've lifted the shell a couple of different ways. First I did it similar to Robert, using the turrets, then I started using a thick tow rope around the nose.

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Sprintless for the first time in 35+ years. ... Still Sprintless.

Engines, Gearboxes, Overdrives etc. rebuilt. PM me.


1997 TVR Chimaera 450

I have used all the methods mentioned but I found the far easiest was using a tilt lift to raise the rear and an engine hoist to crane the lump in. Due to angle of the car it was a very simple straight lift in. (1500)

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