83 Engine Removal Advice Needed

I need to drop my trans and am looking for advice from people who have done this without a lift. How high do I need to get the car in the air to drop the engine/trans? Should I put the car on four jack stands? Is this safe. Any other advice??

This is tough! I assume you have a floor jack. You need one with 16/20 inches of travel. the car needs to be high enough to clear the engine approx. 30 in. plus the height of the jack and a platform with wheels
that you must build. All told we're looking at about 38 in clearance under the rear sheet
metal. That's a hell of a jackstand.
I built 16 in. square boxes from 3/4 in. plywood (4) and used blocking from there.
Jacking in front and then in back 8/10 in.
at a time takes about 2 hrs. and a lot of scurring around.

The boxes go under the side sills as far
foreward and aft as you can get them.Shims on top of the blocks to prevent bending over the the pinch seam. As I said in my first reply, a floor jack with 16 to 20 in of travel(height).The carmust be raised in steps
of 8 to 10 in. If you remove your rear valence you gain extra clearance (approx 6 in. meaning the sills are about 30 in.off the ground. I built a dolly with 4 casters
designed to roll over the jack. For engine removal(or install.) it goes something like
this:
put blocks on the jack pad ,put your dolly
on top of the pile.Figure 16 in. verticle jack travel and 14 to 16 in. of blocks.this assumes the bottom of the engine is 30 in.off the ground.Take up the slack,pop the
fasteners and lower the motor/ trans about 15 in. Boy..is this fun or what? Block under the sides of the dolly(ya made it wide enough..right?).Lower the jack some more until the dolly rests of the blocks .Pull the
blocks from the top of the jack all the while a couple of VERY GOOD(BUT EXPENDABLE)FRIENDS stabilise the pile, jack up again
pull blocks...well you get the picture.
As I said this is tough & can be dangerous.
I am your basic gear head and did it. It isn't rocket science but a well thought out
plan is necessary.
My engine is carbureted and is approx. 24 in.
tall. I figured another 6 in. for the CSI crap on the top of your 83. If you remove that you will not have to raise the car as high.

Made ad error.Should read "engine should be 30 in. from the jack".

If all you need to do is remove the transmission, then you can leave the engine under the car, and just pull out the transmission. It's more difficult to separate them under the car, but you don't have to jack the car up quite so high.

If you're removing both the engine and the transmission for work, you might find it a lot easier to remove the fuel injection and the fan while the engine is still in the car, and pull the rest out from underneath.

[Wayne 962]

Hi there. There is a tech article coming real soon on dropping the engine and tranny together. I think that it might be easier to just drop them as a unit, and then reconnect them later on.

Keep watching the site for more info on this (should be up there within a month)...

-Wayne

I measured 29 inches from the floorto the lip that the engine comes under.Ned