Today’s lesson: How to name an engine Humpty Dumpty

Even though taking apart the Camaro is an essential part of my build, I decided not to post much on it since the real story here is building the Miata. But some happenings are just too good not to share!
 

Before I fell gravely ill I switched the cars and put the Miata in the shed and the Camaro in the garage for the, ah, harvest... It was truly a surreal feeling firing it up knowing it would be the last journey the car would make. But I held my guilt and I didn't say a word about it. Thankfully there was no indication she knew this mile was her last.

With a number of parts already sold from the aforementioned disastrous Craigslist ad it was time to dig in and the parts started flying. I am being careful to label all the wiring and keep things separated so I have a hope of getting things right in the Miata. For the most part the tear down has gone quick and smooth. Partly because I know the car so well and partly because I know the car will never run again so I keep the saws all handy. :D

After much consideration and for a number of reasons I decided to drop the engine and trans out the bottom as a unit rather than separating them and taking the engine out the top. So I plopped it onto a dolly and rolled it out sub frame and all.

I pulled the sub frame and was pleased at how stable the engine sat on its large flat bottomed oil pan. What I failed to notice is said oil pan is a rear sump pan so there was nothing supporting the front half of the engine. Yeah you see where this is going right?

When I pulled the trans off the back the balance of the assembly shifted way forward and the engine tipped right off the front of the cart onto the floor. (no photo of that cuz I wanted to get him off his nose and back on the pan right away) Now you might imagine my first word after Humpty took his little tumble would have been “Oh” followed by a colorful string of expletives. But due to God’s grace, good law enforcement training and raising teens I rarely get riled and the best I could manage was an emotionless “bummer”.

The only damage I can see is the power steering pulley is busted. I was considering removing it and having manual steering anyway so this will certainly factor into that decision. I am concerned that the crank pulley is also damaged but won’t know till I fire it up in the Miata. Actually considering it fell from 9 inches off the floor it is quite possible the crank itself is damaged too. All I know for sure is God has no problem protecting His engine if He wants to so it’s pointless for me to worry about it.

Even though for the most part the tear down is going well it’s really not much fun. I am very much looking forward to getting the Camaro shell out and the Miata back in. And hopefully I am done dropping large expensive things!!