Something Broken In The Head

As you've already had the heads off, personally I'd remove them and sling a chain across the head bolts (one near the front, one near the back on the other side). I've seen people drop in big blocks with a plate bolted to an aluminum manifold, but I've just never been comfortable with them (small bolts of unknown tensile strength in an intake of unknown material and years of corrosion). I'd rather not smash my radiator, fender, or my toes with a falling engine block. These engines, free of the heads, aren't really all that heavy though, so you'd probably be safe drilling the plate out and using it if you wanted. I'd just use a chain myself.

The only other thing I'd mention is if you're pulling engine & transmission together, it will be a very steep angle on our cars (you'll have to raise the front-end quite a bit for the tailshaft to clear the "toilet seat.") I was able to do it when I put mine in, but I wouldn't recommend it unless absolutely necessary.

Is it an automatic or manual? If it's manual you'll want to separate the transmission from the bellhousing (4 bolts), remove transmission, and you can pull the bell out with the engine. Just the driveshaft, cross-member, shifter, speedo cable, reverse switch to remove.

If it's an auto, you can leave the transmission sitting where it is, just unbolt, but also remember to unbolt the torque converter from inside the dust-cover (which you might find challenging since the engine won't rotate! in that case you might need to remove the torque converter with the engine, which will take a good bit of frontal clearance as well as the potential for damaging the tranmission) Just make sure the front of the transmission is jacked up, the rest of everything can remain attached (though I usually disconnect the shifter linkage to make sure I don't damage it if the transmission drops a little, if it's a cable shifter than that's not a problem).

If you've done this before then I'm sure you know all this.

Well you could remove it at the bellhousing, but the transmission input shaft is pretty long as it goes through the clutch into the pilot bearing in the flywheel / crank, so you'd need that much room at the front of the engine to pull it out straight (and I'm not sure there is). Then there's the problem of getting it back in, it's very difficult to align the engine perfectly to allow the input shaft to slide back in without damaging something. So generally it's better to remove the transmission which I think you'll find easier in the long run when you consider reinstallation, even if you have to remove a few things beforehand. Driveshaft is a couple of u-bolts, 4 bolts from trans to bell (which are easier to reach than the bellhousing bolts honestly), one bolt for the speedometer gear, one plug for the reverse light, the clutch cable pops out but may have a retaining nut, shifter is 3 bolts, and finally put a jack under the transmission and remove the two bolts holding the crossmember on (I usually leave it attached to the transmission).

At that point, since you've already done the hardest parts to remove the heads (exhaust, all the accessories and plumbing), two engine mount through-bolts and a hoist and your engine's out.

I think you made a good choice, a nice thick chain on the head bolts isn't going to go anywhere. Good luck and let us know how it went!

Congratulations! If you do ever find out what locked that son of a gun up, do let us know.

They can be stubborn sometimes. The old cork gaskets dry out and fuse things together after a while. The rubber gaskets at the front and back of the pan (at the bearing caps) will also fuse together after a time. And who knows if someone used some gasket adhesive at some point in the past.

A putty knife could help, but might take a while to get through anything. I usually go around with a hammer & screw driver and tap it in between at a few places until I see movement, then use a pry-bar between the pan and block somewhere. I know I could mar the block or pan, so you'd have to be careful, but sometimes those darned things don't want to budge otherwise.

Glad to see you found what happened, that's a very surprising failure mode for this engine, and that engine looks really clean. Perhaps someone over-revved it accidentally. Depending on what got smashed around when it broke (it might have cracked the block, damaged the crank, etc.) it might be more cost-effective to just replace the short-block. They used these in Rangers & Bronco II's well into the '80s so there are loads of them in junkyards.

If you want to try to fix this one, and happened to want a piston / rod assembly from a '78 II I have a short-block sitting on a stand in the corner of the garage I kept just for spare parts (in case I similarly wrecked an engine part with my turbo). I could yank one out without too much difficulty and send it to you for the shipping. The engine was not running when I removed it so I can't guarantee their shape until I pulled one out, but I'd let you know before I sent it. I also don't know if would be proper match for yours, as you mentioned it wasn't the original engine. But just let me know if you want it.