Going to be close...

I managed to find some bolts today that I could use to bolt the engine to the stand. The stand was from Ebay - 50 quid delivered, which I thought wasn't bad. In this pic I've already removed the fuel injection. You can see that the engine is not very tall - it's mostly sump you can see in this pic:



Took some time to get it bolted onto the stand though. Soon enough though, more bits started coming off. It was very easy to strip down actually:



Took some other pics with a metre rule in place. It's hard to make out the actual numbers with the resolution that uploaded to photo storing sites give you, but hopefully it can be seen how compact the engine is for a 5 litre:







With one head off, it's even easier to see how short the block is, and how thin it is in terms of it's casing. It's not a big engine at all:



However, once this head was off, I had something of a surprise. The engine has already been bored +40. This means that the pistons are 1/25" larger in diameter than standard. You can see this by looking at the piston crown:



Clear as mud, it says .040. Now this is going to be close. +40 is the maximum these engines can be bored, so if the bore is worn at this size, then the block is scrap. If I'm lucky, I'll get away with a hone to get rid of any glazing, and I'll be able to put +40 pistons back in. Fingers crossed.

I also looked up the engine code. Looks like my engine was made sometime in the early 1980s, so must have been one of the first fuel injected ones. Judging by the shape of the sump, it came out of a Ford Bronco.