The Mock Up or Replica Engine

I would have never thought I would buy a mock up engine, or maybe better known as a replica engine or even known as a plastic engine. I first saw the use of a mock up engine on a ’68 Mustang fastback build, The Mystique. As remarkable of a “tool” it is~ I don’t think I’d ever need one, that is until I started on my ’59 Chevy Apache build!

This 59 Apache had a 230 cu.in. inline 6 cylinder. It just goes to show you, one can install an incorrect engine in anything! I have never installed an engine to where there were no engine supports! To a pro, it’s not a problem, but to me, it was discombobulating~!

This blog is about the mock up engine or replica engine, not so much the engine supports or the actual engine install, but necessary to show why I bought the mock engine and its benefits.

I purchased my Mock engine from WWW.P-Ayr.com online, however there are other sites to buy mock parts, I believe Summit Racing has a few. Upon receiving the mock engine, I was like a kid with a new toy! It is the neatest thing! It only weighs about 30 lbs! In addition I bought a light duty engine stand from Harbor Freight tools for about 40 bucks to mount the mock engine to in order to store it, and for dressing the plastic engine! I used to dress dolls! ha ha! Other accessories can be purchased such as an intake manifold, and harmonic balancer, and yes, I bought these too!

An Important note:  I have an engine lifting plate bolted to the intake as you may can see. I spoke with Payr.com about this, and is it OK to lift the Mock engine by this method? They advised not to, not with an exclamation point though! So I generally do use the lifting plate, but with less accessories on it, or back it up with tie down straps just in case the little bolts where the carb would go fail. The inserts are tough, but I don’t know how just tough they are. I’d hate to see my cute plastic engine fall down!

An additional tool to the arsenal?

Why would anyone want to spend his/her hard-earned money on one of these? Why would anyone spend money on a MaxJax lift? Why would one spend money on an expensive air compressor, or a large expensive tool box?

Here, I’ve dressed my mock up engine with just about all the bolt on things this engine is going to have minus the carburetor.  You can see in the background, my real engine that will be going into my truck! It is a beautiful engine and I don’t want to scratch it up!

I have installed this mock engine in and out of my truck~ I have forgotten how many times! I really didn’t need to use My Little Mule (see in my tools) to drop the Mock engine into place, but though the Mock engine weighs very little compared to the real thing, there are no engine supports to support my mock engine! So my Little Mule will hold it up for me!

Here I have the Mock engine being supported by My Little Mule, trying to figure out where I’m going to put my engine supports, and what kind of engine supports to use.

Clearance issues! I cannot imagine having to install, temporarily, my real engine to check for clearance issues. My real engine lift is bulky, heavy and a pain to maneuver with the engine crane!

Aren’t my shorty headers pretty? ; )  Ok, I did have to be a little cheap on the transmission! I’m using a TH350 automatic transmission. I just couldn’t ask my husband for another 250 bucks for the mock tranny! I was this close to pushing the button to buy it, but I” just couldn’t do it captain!”

The underneath view~  while the mock engine is hopefully where the real engine is going to end up, revealed that the engine was too high, and I had to modify the engine supports seen here 1″ lower. gag! So, take out the mock engine, modify the engine supports once more! See! Necessity!

Just seeing how the shorty headers are going to fit into the picture. I bought these shorty headers from Ebay.

In the end, the real McCoy is going to look absolutely gorgeous under the hood of my ’59 Chevrolet Apache! oh, the picture below? That’s the real engine! ; )

I hope you enjoyed my little blog about this Mock up engine! I have no connections with the manufacturers of these unique “tools”, I just feel, YOU, my fellow car enthusiasts friends, may have needed the nudge to buy one of these cool tools to make life just a little more pleasant! I may just make a coffee table out of mine when I’m done!  ; )  Dne’