So it turns out that I may have overestimated the structural integrity of plywood.
I made the prototype engine mounting plates out of plywood because it was cheap and easy to cut. And it was good for test fitting and verifying my dimensions, but it was not strong enough to actually hold up the engine. Once I got everything bolted together and tried to jack up the car to remove the dolly from under the engine, the two piece mid-plate between the engine and bellhousing creaked and flexed in a major way. It was not going to hold.
So then I had to come up with a Plan B. Eventually that materialized as two 3" x 1.25" x 24" aluminum bars. One bar runs horizontally across the top of the bellhousing where it bolts to the top center hole in the block and the top hole on each side of the bellhousing. The second bar also runs horizontally and bolts to the two lower holes on the back of the engine and the middle holes on each side of the bellhousing. With those bars in place and the wooden front plate still bolted to the tub, I put a jack under the transaxle case and started jacking up the back of the car. There were a couple of groans from the front plate at first, but it held and I was able to jack the car up high enough to get the engine dolly out. Success! The two halves of the car were joined again and it would roll.
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| Figure 1: Engine-to-bellhousing mating with 1.25" thick aluminum bars. |
It was a nice day so I rolled the car out and washed it.
Here is a close up of the engine, bellhousing and the rear of the car.
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| Figure 2: Engine, bellhousing and transaxle. Notice how there is no rear subframe, the rear suspension bolts directly to the bellhousing and the transaxle case. |
Now that that's sorted, it is time to reattach the bodywork to measure how much clearance there is for all of the peripheral systems and probably a different transaxle.
