Or just a dumb move on my part??????? Lol
So I got the engine mounted to the stand, released the hoist from the straps and voila.. there she was all pretty and ready to be worked on, I was proud myself for all of about 10 seconds, all i did was pull the strap to untie it from exhaust manifold ( it's where the guys had it) and whoosh..... shels upside down, dumping 5 qts of oil and however much coolant was left in b lo ock all.over my garage floor!!! I had forgotten to install the lock pin in the swivel.
So much for an evening of relaxing engine dismantling... took over two hours to get floor clean!!!!
Anyhoo.. i am done for the night... hope tomorrow is a better day...

 

Look at it this way: every project a problem, some sort of ****-up. You got yours over-and-done with early on....and it was merely messy, not serious. Now it'll be clear sailing all the way !

Cheers
DD

 

Darren s&$t happens....get it out of the way early I say.

 

What to do now after such an inauspicious start...

 

And I suppose NONE of the rest of us have Ever done anything like that, have we?
Just think, Darren, now that you've got the Mess-Making out of the way, there's nowhere to go but UP!
(';')

 

Darren:
In any endeavor, there will be 'mess-ups".

Mine was early on in my conversion. Draining fuel from a tank. Far more and far faster than I was prepared for!!!

Got past it. The LT1 project purrs.

Carl

 

Last year I replaced my series 2 “cracked between the bored” with a later series 3 engine. I took the engine and gearbox out as one piece. I had drained the fluids. As the engine was angled up to get out, horrible oily fluids emptied from the back end! Unfortunately, I did the deed on my pristine block paved driveway. I was not pleased and the wife was incandescent! I still get oily rainbows whenever it rains - and that is quite a lot in the wet north west of England.

 

I always spill something during the course of a project even if its just knocking over a jug. I had just spent an afternoon cleaning the shop floor once and then went to a cruise night that evening. Several people showed up with electric cars and I mentioned to one of them how maybe I should look forward to someday restoring an electric car because there wouldn't be anything to spill except maybe brake fluid. He then opened up his hood and showed me it had a radiator and expansion tank full of orange coolant. Dammit! I'll never be able to work on a car without spilling something!

But seriously, go to Home Depot or Lowes and in the plumbing section near the appliances, purchase a washing machine drain pan. Measure the legs on your engine stand, but it should be able to make it work. I bought one to catch the drippings from engine cleaning but it would catch coolant or oil just as well.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Eastman-...2525/206188631

And before removing heads, I use my shop vac to suck as much coolant out of the engine as possible.

 

Some decades ago, I had a series of kitchen floods. Various devices busted. Not auto related at all. Old mop and bucket technique over whelmed. Then, eureka, the shoo vac. Sucked it all up and then dumped the heavy resevoir!! Why does is my kitchen about 7" higher than the breezeway???

solid sheet vinyl floor sure got shiny clean. Thanks for an earlier floor job. When we bought this old house in 75, the kitchen had a odd "out door" carpet in ugly beige!! Really!!! It and the ugly green carpet in the "great room" went early on. . Along with the "hospital" green wainscoting!!! ugh, it took a few coats of white to cover. Good move, good product. Still presentable!!! ..