Autozone, Advance Auto Parts, O’Reilly, and many other national stores as well as local parts houses will rent you specialty tools for the cost of replacement (incase you do not return the tools…).
For example, Autozone will rent you a 5 Ton, 2 or 3 Jaw Puller to remove that harmonic balancer. Yeah, it’s a lot of money to front, but you get it all back when you return the tool.
Just saying…
That tool shouldn’t be used to remove the harmonic balancer.
Unless you plan on replacing it anyway…
Tester
Tester is correct, I was day tripping with the “old shade tree mechanic” in me. I was kind of thinking that you could just turn the nut around and beat on it until the harmonic balancer cracks, and then it’s loose.
But these stores also have the correct puller, using bolts instead of claws…
Thank you tester, I stand corrected!
Hi Daniel:
With the inspection plate off, were you able to turn the engine with a small pry bar wedged between the flywheel teeth and the frame?
You don’t need much of a pry bar. I’ve often used a large screwdriver.
It would be good to know if you could or couldn’t get the flywheel to move doing this.
I’m gonna try to remove the heads and pound on the pistons to jar them loose and inspect the motor.
Anybody know what the thing on the back of the motor is going across in the first picture? Assume it needs to be removed.
Coolant drained. Oil still in it. Gonna pull the manifold next. Then I’m pretty sure I gotta take off the power steering, alternator, and exhaust headers to get them to come loose…
Don’t know, but my guess that tube is either part of the pcv system, or a coolant line, used for warming up the intake manifold to make the gasoline burn better.
If you’re going to remove the intake and heads, removing the dizzy is a doodle in comparison. Makes sense to remove it, if only just to get it out of the way, stored in a safe location for later re-install.
If the pistons aren’t already munged up, this might do the job. Proceed with caution.
Almost ready to pull it! Never took the heads off… Guess it’s gonna come out with the torque converter attached 
Look on the bright side, you got a good strong magnetic field inside the distributor at least, and a source for iron filings if you ever need it 
Or an opportunity to replace it with a 408 stroker crate motor!
What are your plans for a 1975 van?
hippie / protest van and art show piece mostly 
I wanted to turn it into a mild performance engine that’ll break the tires loose and camper / art studio with a tailpipe fire kit.
Ultimately going EV eventual would be cool when the price for electric crate engine and batteries goes down…
though it might just sit for the winter…
I got a quote for a 351w from '81 to drop in with a 60 day warranty… seems my cheapest option… though a rebuild would probably last longer…
Anybody know compatibility of 351w?
What does a quote for an 81’ mean? A 40 yr old motor with zero miles or 230k miles and sitting in a shed for 15 yrs? An 81 motor could come from a FI car and have no fuel pump or an hei style distributor and/or other issues it might drop in or not.
Its carbed and comes with a distributor. $650 plus shipping… $1100 max with 60 days warranty and tested vs. $2500 to have someone rebuild which still sounds like a stronger route in many ways… though it’ll get it running sooner and it just won’t sit this winter in the snow while I go elsewhere to stay warm…
If you are confident you’ll have a working used engine for $1100, that seems a good choice. Eventually of course it will wear out and have to be rebuilt, but you can worry about that then. Getting the vehicle in use seems the highest priority here, so you’ll have incentive to keep the project moving ahead. Otherwise if it just sits there unused, it will be easy to decide it’s not worth continuing. A quibble, I’m not so keen on that color combo and artwork. Are you thinking of an improvement to the paint job & colors? A artful paint job will really make your project pop and be noticed.
Here some puzzler questions: Do you know what the “W” means in 351W? There’s another 351 Ford engine, called a “Cleveland”. Do you know the difference between the two?
Make sure the interior of the vehicle, including the engine compartment, remains dry while the work’s in progress. Might pay to invest in a cover if you plan to keep it outside.
I think “W” is Windsor . . . ?
afaik . . . the Cleveland and Windsor engines don’t have much in common?
