Everyone should pull an engine at least once in their lifetime

The picture alone is a conversation.
In many ways it is like every picture ever taken of a UFO - blurred, out of focus, and not quite sure if what you are looking at is real or really happened.
Then again it looks like the picture you see of the three fishermen standing next to a trophy fish caught in a four hour battle before it gave up and was taken to land, only to be hung from a pulley on the dock and the subject of many photos and legendary tall tales.
Yes, this is the 302 Ford engine and transmission of the 1965 Mustang, which through the efforts of Ben, Benjamin, Uncle Steve and Uncle Dan, fought for four hours before it eventually lost its grip from the car and was loaded onto the back of a trailer to be taken one day soon to a reputable mechanic that can give it a second life.
No, it should not have taken that long, but the greater part of the battle was removing the cables and hoses and clamps and nuts and bolts and screws associated with the engine compartment.
We elected to remove the engine and transmission as one unit because it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Additional efforts included separating the two headers from the exhaust pipes, removing the radiator, removing the transmission mount, supporting the trans with a floor jack and removing the two engine mount bolts.
We then took the better part of an hour trying to get our chains and hooking plan together, as we wanted it to be strong and safe, so really this hour did not count.
Once we got started with the pull it began to move but we had to loosen one header from the engine as it was binding. We still felt great resistance and learned that the two lines that run from the bottom of the radiator to the transmission were disconnected from the radiator, but not from the transmission, and this was a major problem. We disconnected those two lines and our battle was over.
This was without question a major advancement in our efforts to fully restore this ride. We have three years until Benjamin's 16th birthday, so we are off to a great start with plenty of time.
For now, we have a great fish tale to tell.