I bought a 96 Camaro Z28 as a roller. The previous owner had pulled the engine, tranny, etc. and then got laid off and needed some cash, so I picked up the car for cheap. Now I need to get the engine back together and in the car so I can drive cause spring is coming!!! Apparently he pulled the engine out the top, because the cross member and suspension are all inplace on the car. Should I drop the cross member to put the engine back in, or go over the top? Do you need to remove the front clip to get it in from the top?

 

In/out the bottom is way better.

 

So your advice would be to drop the crossmember, assemble the engine, and lift it all back into place?

 

Definitely better to do it that way.

Sucks that he took it out the top (discharged AC)

 

Yep, sucks that he even started on the project, car only had 71K miles on it. Block is clean still cross hatching in the cylinders. Real clean. If it hadn't been disassembled, I would have left it and started with headers, exhuast, etc before cracking open the engine. Not looking to race it just to cruise. Of course I wouldn't have been able to pick the car up for $1500 if he hadn't tore it apart.

 

Agreed alot better to go out botom. It will save time compared to out the top too

 

Why would you have to discharge AC to pull out top? I have taken mine out top several times never discharged AC.