Having been on holiday I've now got back to work.
I stripped the rear suspension to fit a pair of Mk2 struts but found the shockers were knackered so instead bought a set of four KYBs. The rears are fitted and polybushes done + black smoothrite 8)
I am going to try to fit the engine from underneath to find out if its possible. If it is it will mean it is possible to remove the engine and box together in future because, as Paul found, once the gearbox mount is welded in the box won't come out upwards. The only snag is that to get the engine in from underneath the suspension mounts need to be off cos they overlap into the bottom of the engine bay!
Although the engine was running sweetly it had some oil leaks, so I've replaced camshaft and front crank seals and cam cover gaskets. The cam covers were so clagged up I reckon it wasn't breathing properly so fingers crossed now its all been cleaned top and bottom.
I had picked up a new water pump off ebay recently?40 and new cambelt?3.75 so fitted those. The scaffold tube in the picture, after facing off on the lathe, was the perfect size for fitting all three oil seals.
To avoid having to cut a notch in the rear crossmember I am relocating the rear oxygen sensor into the downpipe just below the manifold so in the pic you can see the blanking plate to close the hole in the manifold. You can also see the casting which supports the driveshaft with the redundant rubber mount removed and the casting tidied up.
Next is fitting flywheel, clutch and gearbox, rebuild driveshafts and then try lifting car onto engine with 10mm clearance front/back :?