I am planning on dropping the engine out the bottom of my Mazda 6 with a Maxjax. Is there a preferred solution for what to support the engine with?
Some possibilities: Lift table http://www.harborfreight.com/1000-lb-capacity-hydraulic-table-cart-60438.html
Motorcycle/ATV lift http://www.harborfreight.com/1500-lb-capacity-atvmotorcycle-lift-61632.html
I usually lower the engine with a floor jack and lift the body with the engine crane. Once its on the ground, I either drag it out from under the car by hand or tie a rope to it and drag it out with the truck. Slides better if it stays on the jack or if you have plywood under the car. Pulling an LS3 this weekend this way because the front of the Camaro is just too friggin tall.
The wheels? Once unbolted, and disconnected - lower it onto the wheels/tires and lift the body off of the drivetrain. It works for air cooled 911s and a Focus SVT. YMMV.
I've built a dolly with wood and casters before. The trouble with most engines I'd that they want to tip over, so some amount of customization is necessary to prevent that.
Cheap furniture dollies work. Or a stack of old tires on a pallet.
The lower you can drop the engine the less you have to raise the car. This is how I did with my Celica. Wood movers dolly and chain fall off beam in rafters.
Careful using a random 2x6 beam like that (assuming that's what you did), I'll hazard a guess that you were pushing your luck there. Much better to attach to a beefy perpendicular beam spanning several of the ceiling joists.
hobiercr wrote: The lower you can drop the engine the less you have to raise the car. This is how I did with my Celica. Wood movers dolly and chain fall off beam in rafters.
Be aware of your car's new center of gravity once you disconnect the heavy engine and start lifting the body up. You might need ballast to keep it from falling off the lift.
When I did my RX-7 engine that way in a driveway, I used a ratchet strap on a strut tower crossbar support and dragged it out from underneath. After watching WRC service videos, I believe the draggery would have been greatly facilitated by a big lunchtray like piece of plastic.
I have a Harbor Freight furniture dolly at work and a large selection of chunks of 2x4 for shimming. A HF furniture dolly is rated to hold the weight of, say, an F-body LT1/LS1, but it really doesn't like it. Which is why my dolly is known as Ol' Saggy.
hobiercr wrote: The lower you can drop the engine the less you have to raise the car. This is how I did with my Celica. Wood movers dolly and chain fall off beam in rafters.
Wow. There's a risk taker.
Those trusses were definitely not designed for that.
I used this to lower the engine, transmission, K-member and front suspension as a single assembly out of my Camaro.
Opel GT engine comes out the bottom. I had the rear wheels on ramps and tall jack stands under the body towards the front and used 2 floor jacks to lower engine/trans then slid it out on an old creeper. To reinstall, basically reverse except I mounted the engine crossmember to the engine and used 2 floor jacks, one on each side of the crossmember and a hydraulic jack under the trans. Allowed for slight tilting to fit up.
In reply to BrokenYugo:
4x4 beam run across 6 trusses. Have also done it with just an engine hoist lifting the front of the car.
You'll need to log in to post.
