Dropping the engine in fully assembled

[tyhous]

Hi Guys,

It's been a long time since I chimed in.

I've been slowly rebuilding the engine for my '76 Spider (with an '80 fuel injected engine swap), guided by my neighbor who is a mechanic. After a blown headgasket we pulled out the engine with the head off, rebuilt it and replaced everything, and we are about to reattach the head to the block (on the engine stand) and set the timing, but I just realized we might not be able to drop it back in fully assembled. I seem to remember reading somewhere that the head has to be off in order for it to tilt and fit back in.

Can the engine be dropped back in fully assembled? Or do we have to drop in the block, then attach the head and install the timing belt?

Long story short..we're 3 guys and one of us is a full time mechanic, but has never worked on a Fiat.

Thank you for your sympathy,

Tyler

[70spider]

I just did mine, I dropped the whole thing in assembled + tranny attached using a "make-shift" frame hoist. I didn't have any helpers so a second person should make it much easier.

[burgandy81]

Did mine in the Spring.

Fully assembled engine, with manifolds. Transmission was in the car.

Used a rolling engine host.

Lots of wiggling to get the transmission aligned but worked ok.

More hands are better!

[tyhous]

That's all I needed to hear. Thank you!!