BB- Engine removal - no intake or heads

[Thomas H.]

Re: BB- Engine removal - no intake or heads

William------


I've looked and looked and I've never found one. For a C3 you would need a hoist with a boom about 6 feet long or longer to provide enough reach. That also means the legs of the hoist would have to be at least 6 feet long in order to keep the hoist from tipping.

I tried modifying a 2 ton hoist with a longer boom (the length of HD box tubing for the boom cost me almost as much as the complete hoist). It had enough reach to work and, even with that much boom extension, the ram would still lift the engine (barely), but the legs were not long enough to prevent the hoist from tipping down. To make it usable, I'll need to add "extenders" to the legs and that will require some welding and fabrication.

There may well be hoists out there that can do the job without modification. However, I'd expect they'll be BIG $$$$ sort of things that will cost more than any hobbyist could justify for using it only several times during their life.

You can use the "regular" hoists from the side without having to lift the engine over the fenders, though. Just remove the wheel on the same side as the hoist and support the car with a jack stand. Then, you can move the hoist side-ways on the casters and move the engine forward. You will have to re-position the jack stand at least once during the process, though. It's no big deal, however.

Joe,

I have a hoist that has served me well over the years. It would handle taking the big block and turbo 400 in and out of our racecar without trouble. So when I made the decision to rebuild the big block in my C3, I figured it would work just fine. That was until I saw how much I had to extend the boom (and legs) in order to make the lift. I decided to remove the heads and pull the engine without the trans to lighten the load.

When it came time to put it back in, I had the heads on the engine (easier to torque them on the stand). I made a "test lift" with the boom extended to where it was when I pulled the engine. I did not like the amount of deflection and pictures of heavily damaged fiberglass started going through my head.

I was able to locate some box steel that just fit inside the boom extension. The boom extension and boom overlapped about 10". The tubing was about 4 ft long so I slid about 2 ft into the extension part and the other 2 ft sat inside the boom. There was about 1/2 of clearance inside the boom so I welded some steel to the tubing to take up the clearance.

The next test lift showed less deflection over the boom length and in the engine went without incident.

Tom

[Keith B.]

Re: BB- Engine removal - no intake or heads

Fellow members: 100% sucess, after 43 yrs in the frame the L-36 is out of the car. I used the method Joe recommended in the head bolt holes across from each other, 8 ton lift and after some wiggling from the block to bellhousing she broke loose. Getting the bell/trans supported and block level I pulled the lift from the front of the car backwards. I had the shroud and rad out, so there was lots of clearance.

That is one tired looking greasy engine, now ready to be rebuilt and perform !! Thank-you to everyone for their advice and time !! Keith.