Leads and Acquisition

How did I acquire the engine?

The first lead that Andy had was to the manager of a local bowling alley.  The manager sent me to a local attorney - Smitty L. - whom I fortunately happen to know.  Smitty and I share the same profession (for better or worse). Over a period of about 9 months I emailed him, he responded, I forgot about it, he had other tings to do....

In a nutshell, we both have too much to do.  Finally, we wound up on the same page and he sent me a message from his aunt - upon whose property the engine sat - "Make me an offer."

That I did.

She accepted, and the rest is history.

People ask how I removed the engine.  It wasn't really that hard - it was just...heavy. 

William P, a good friend, helped me to cut a trail from the road to the engine.  That done, I brought my tractor with a front end loader and with permission of the kind folks at the Spanish Lake McDonald's/convenience store, parked the trailer and unloaded the trailer.
(Thanks, Adam W and Howard M for trailer loan!)

The first step was the removal of the flywheel and crankshaft - the tractor made it easy. We removed the bearing caps and flipped the flywheel onto a 5/4 inch piece of plywood and skidded it out of the woods.  The base was next.  Using the front end loader, it was easily lifted and dragged out. 

Loading it was another story.  At this point, another friend, Mike S., showed up and helped me to load the engines into the trailers.  Finally, we hauled them and the tractor home and returned the trailers.

Done.  Engine is home.

Now what?  Ah, that's another story...