Engine's on the stand!

 Finally received the correct bolts to mount the engine on the stand- turns out M10 and M12 80mm bolts are hard to find in class 10.9 (equivalent to grade 8- sturdy enough to hold the weight of the whole engine on 4 of them).

Olivia attaches the mounting plate attached using said class 10.9 bolts.  I torqued them to about 60 ft-lbs which is what the transmission-to-engine mounting bolts get, figured that should be good.  

Then we positioned it, slipped the plate stock into the stand, and lowered the weight off the hoist, and the $65 Harbor Freight engine stand holds it!  Not rock-solid, but the first thing we'll be doing is removing a bunch of bolt-on stuff from the engine which will lighten it a lot.  

And here is is on the stand, ready for work! 

New Project: Trooper Engine Rebuild...

Olivia convinced me that fixing the suspected connecting rod bearing on the Trooper engine (Diesel- C223T) would be a good father-daughter project, so the first step was pulling the thing out.  No photos of that process, which involved the removal of the transmission among other things.  But the engine is out, a stand at the ready (still need to source the correct bolts to mount it), and the rebuild project is now ready to begin!