Tips for engine installation?

Hello! Finally rebuilt an old engine (3rz) to put in my truck and am currently working on putting it in. I’m having a bitch of a time trying to get it aligned with the input shaft while also not catching the oil pan on the crossmember of the frame. The trans (w59?) is jacked up so I clear the motor mounts so I can put it in but I’m struggling. Any tips ?

 

Plz tell me u got a buddy helping for beer/pizza working front hoist while you on ground wrestling with the input shaft alignment !!!

 

The first step in the book for engine removal is….remove transmission, a motorcycle lift is perfect for this on a lifted tacoma……..done it a few times. Install engine then transmission, done it by myself numerous times.
GL

 

Just did mine solo. Funny how my friends disappear on these days! You say you've got a jack on the W59? Lots of posts here say the tranny needs to get jacked up all the way to the firewall (and maybe even then some) for the oil pan to clear the crossmember. Also...Have you played with the angle the motor lives on your motor lift? It looks pretty steep to me. The motor needs to drop towards the flywheel side to match the tranny but yours looks pretty steep. I would try to level it a notch on your lift and try again.



I've also done these on rocky, uneven ground. What a pain! See if you can at least get a plywood sheet under your lift so you have the ability to move everything back and forth a bit easier to rock the motor on to the tranny. Here's me doing a 22R years ago at our maintenance yard at the ski area I worked at. Not a friend in sight! Full sheet of OSB let me move the lift a bit when needed. Good luck!!

 

Yup, this is exactly right. The time spent removing the transmission and then reinstalling it will be well worth it, to not have to fight as hard to allign the input shaft

 

I don't know. I've done a half dozen clutch jobs in my day and some in the dirt and rocks like in OP's first pic. I'd rather be standing at the front of the motor than lying flat in the dirt wrestling with gearboxes.

OP: just jack the tranny up to the firewall, get the angle of the motor right on the lift to match the angle of the tranny and then just take your time, making small adjustments to both as you go along. Stabbing the motor that way took me no more than 15 minutes solo without need for picking rocks out of my back and out of my butt crack if I didn't have a shop. LOL!