All:
At the risk of muddying the engine lifting waters:
I have a friend here who is a Healey repairer / restorer. He is a factory
trained Jaguar mechanic. He has built literally hundreds of Healey engines
/ gearboxes / other mechanicals over the course of his carreer.
When he installs a Healey engine - often into a car that is undergoing a
complete restoration, he wraps his lifting chain around the rocker shaft, so
the weight is taken by the assembled shaft. He much prefers to install the
engine and gearbox assembled together as a unit - a few extra minutes when
lowering the whole thing into place, but a lot faster in total, and less
chance of damaging a clutch disc during assembly. He has never had any
repercussions doing it this way.
At first I thought it a little weird - I had always used the two valve cover
studs with lifting brackets (didn't realize until now that they were
probably Westminster sedan bits) securely bolted to them. At certain points
in the 'tilt', no question that one chain / stud / bracket is taking most of
the force - even though that is the approved method, it always made me a
little nervous. Thinking about it, the rocker shaft method distributes the
force over a greater number of fasteners.
Food for thought!
Earl Kagna
Victoria, B.C.
BT7 tri-carb
BJ8
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