Gluing your upper engine bolts in - for quick, easy engine removal/installation:

The solution I came up with 30 years ago still seems for me, to be the best solution: I glue the upper two engine bolts in, to make engine installs easy and fast. You can do this the next time you remove your engine. If you have an engine case that has that threaded insert in the upper left hole, you remove it. You'll use a 17mm nut on the bolt end instead.

I glue the upper bolts into the tranny hole and the starter's upper hole using 3M #80001 yellow weatherstrip cement (cleaning all surfaces, of course), using 17mm nuts on the engine side of the bolts. Bolts stay in there for decades til I replace tranny or starter. You'll use the Sears 17mm ratcheting flat wrench to remove and tighten the nuts, even *with* the dog house there - there's enough room to get the nut started on both bolts with most fingers, and you tighten with that tool. Don't do this procedure if you have any doubts about you being able to get your fingers back there on the upper left bolt to start the nut onto the bolt.

My engine removals and reinstalls take minutes, with no reaching up there into grease hell and the dark trying to get a tool on that bolt head in front of the tranny flair.

Once those two upper bolts are glued in there, and you line up the lower studs into their holes on an install, it's a no-brainer, and hassle-free. You glue them in when doing an engine install, so they find their proper positions. After that install, the bolts are perfectly lined up for any further removals and installs.

The detailed procedure for yah:

Degrease the heads of both upper bolts, plus about one inch of the shaft under the head. Degrease the insides of the left side hole on the tranny flair and the upper starter mounting hole, plus the forward surface of the left hole on the tranny flair and the front surface of the hole on the starter, too. You want to get all affected surfaces clean so the glue will hold. Clean up the threads so the nuts turn on easily.

Now, install the engine using your floor jack so the lower studs are in their holes. Don't forget to guide the accelarator cable thru the tube while you're pushing the engine in. Get the engine all the way in, which means that you may need to turn the crank pulley or the generator pulley while wiggling engine and pushing it in (see Idiot manual), until the drive shaft splines line up, and the tranny and the engine flairs mate. Engine's still on jack. Hand tighten the lower nuts to keep them mated.

Go under the bus with both bolts and the tube of 3M #80001 yellow weatherstrip cement, or the Permatex equivalent red and white box/tube of weatherstrip glue.

(one or both may have the original D-shaped heads - if so, you're in luck, as they hold easier when tightening the nuts), note they are different lengths, the longer one goes thru the starter hole.

Liberally place glue ONLY on the underside of the bolt's head, and glob it onto the first 1/2" of the bolt shaft, and insert the bolt. You don't want ANY glue getting onto the threads! Turn the D-head of the bolt til it locks in place, if you have them. You might need the visegrip on the left bolt head. Don't forget to remove it when you're done.

Do one bolt at a time. Get out from under bus, grab a 17mm nut (stainless steel nuts won't rust), have some extras in case you drop the nut onto the engine, feel your way back there til you find the bolt, and carefully, lightly start the nut onto the bolt, finger-tighten, and go back under the bus. If there's any trouble getting the nut to thread, reach back there with some cloth, and clean the threads.

Do the other one (over the starter), you don't need to rush, but sooner is better. Start that one thru the starter hole after gluing the required surfaces, get out and get the nut on finger-tight.

Go back one more time under the bus, tighten down your lower nuts (17mm wrench using light taps with hammer, NOT too tight!). Get out from under bus, take your Sears ratcheting flat 17mm wrench ($12), use the "ON" side, and find the nut using either your fingers or just feel your way onto it with the tool, they're there - it's easy. Get that ratchet on the nuts, and tighten well, but don't go crazy over-tightening. The engine isn't going anywhere.

You'll find that you can actually feel the wrench finding the nuts, and with the ratcheting action, you're done in seconds.

By the next day, those bolts are glued in solid, and any time you remove the engine, just be sure that you slide it out straight for the first three inches before lowering, and on installation, get it even, level, and eyed-in and get the lower bolts lined up in their holes before pushing forward. Those glued bolts will be there for you.

Any questions, email me at cjay(at)well(dot)com. ;-)

Enjoy,

cal