Space For an Engine Crane
#1
Space For an Engine Crane
This started in pics of your garage thread, and I’m moving the discussion here not to muddy that thread, basically, my original question was:
Continuing the discussion:
And
Honestly, I’m not sure I’m following how you guys are doing this with at most around 2’ clearance… OK, so you get the sucker loose and yanked up out of the engine bay (I’m assuming we’re talking just engine, not engine/tranny), and then what? Do you roll the car back to get the engine/crane out of the way or are you literally doing it from the side, say straddling one of the front tires with the legs of the engine stand?
Rolling it back in my case would be tough, since once the tires hit the last foot of the garage things get steep, FAST and I don’t think that any amount of people could push it back in again.
From the side… I’m not sure it will fit. I’m sure that there will be some monkeying around with boards under the tires to get the legs under the exhaust…, but a bigger issue is that the 2 car garage has the door to the house, off center on the front wall with maybe 5 steps up and I’m not sure that the engine crane would clear the steps, I’m actually pretty sure that they’d get in the way.
I’m only taking the engine from the parts car… the tranny and rear have been turned into molten piles of junk (modified stockers, not worth saving or salvaging/rebuilding). The new car is getting the engine out of the parts car (after I yank the engine/tranny from it), a 4L80e that I’ve built up for it, and a moser 9” with all the goodies.
The biggest reason for not doing it from underneath is that these are 3rd gens (my 4th gen is my “driver” sort of), and they have hardlines (especially brake lines) and linkages that are not conducive to doing it from underneath, they wrap around the engine bay above and below the K-member getting in the way. I’m tempted to try it for disassembling the parts car, since some of that could be cut I guess, and since I want the front suspension out of it anyway, the only problem would be working out the logistics where I don’t have to roll it back in or have it sitting around outside for more then a few hours (long story, I plan on cutting the roof off the car also).
Anyone ever figure out what the minimum depth you need to pull an engine out of an f-body using a standard folding engine crane? How about engine and tranny as one piece? I think I’ve got something in the range of 22-24’ and I don’t think I can do it, but I’ve never had everything pulled out of the way and tried it.
I’m probably going to get stuck doing it 2x this spring (stripping the parts car, and then putting the engine/tranny in the new project car), and I’m wondering if there is any way I’ll pull this off without pissing off the neighbors.
I’m probably going to get stuck doing it 2x this spring (stripping the parts car, and then putting the engine/tranny in the new project car), and I’m wondering if there is any way I’ll pull this off without pissing off the neighbors.
Originally Posted by lethal93ta
my garage is 25x25, I have a 24 inch deep bench in front of the car I could just sneek the engine crane around, I only have about 2 feet in front and in back of the car.
Originally Posted by Irocss85
my old garage was only 21feet deep, and I was able to do it that way. it was tight, but it worked. several cars/eng.s that way. one time I removed eng/trans/cradle out the bottom in that garage too. you have to work at an angle when pulling out, and the eng/trans will actually be comeing out over the fender, not the front nose. know what I mean?
Rolling it back in my case would be tough, since once the tires hit the last foot of the garage things get steep, FAST and I don’t think that any amount of people could push it back in again.
From the side… I’m not sure it will fit. I’m sure that there will be some monkeying around with boards under the tires to get the legs under the exhaust…, but a bigger issue is that the 2 car garage has the door to the house, off center on the front wall with maybe 5 steps up and I’m not sure that the engine crane would clear the steps, I’m actually pretty sure that they’d get in the way.
BTW, if your stealing the eng/trans out of a parts car, then why on earth not remove the eng/kmember/susp. as one assembly? you can have it all out in about 4 hours if you take your time. then once that is all out of the way, make a wooden extension for across the front, and set it down on a couple dollys to roll it out and have a flat bed pick it up from a junk yard. thats what I would do.
The biggest reason for not doing it from underneath is that these are 3rd gens (my 4th gen is my “driver” sort of), and they have hardlines (especially brake lines) and linkages that are not conducive to doing it from underneath, they wrap around the engine bay above and below the K-member getting in the way. I’m tempted to try it for disassembling the parts car, since some of that could be cut I guess, and since I want the front suspension out of it anyway, the only problem would be working out the logistics where I don’t have to roll it back in or have it sitting around outside for more then a few hours (long story, I plan on cutting the roof off the car also).
#2
Originally Posted by sunsetta
Don't worry about the neighbors, they'll get over it or move. You have a job you want to do.
I still can’t figure out how a partially assembled engine stand tucked under the nose of the parts car hasn’t gotten me into trouble recently.
As far as I can tell, for the most part the neighbors are fine with me, it’s the HOA officers that actually live across the county line (our little end of the neighborhood got tacked on to that HOA) that are insane.
#3
11 Second Club
iTrader: (1)
well 3rd gens are even easier to do then 4 gens. lots more space in the eng. bay for pulling the eng. I put the front of the car up on stands, and remove that wheel if its in the way for roling around the cherry picker. you should have no problems fitting the eng/trans assembly out/and back in. I was wondering where you figured you only had 2 feet since Fbodys are around 16-17' something like that. how much floor space are your stairs robbing you of? like I said though. your SOL if you have 2 cars in there, and cant put one outside (or even partially outside) while your doin the actual pulling on both and reinstalling.
not sure what the problem is with temp. putting a car outside your garage is, but sounds like its time to move. I would never live in a neighborhood with that kindo of trouble just from having a car apart in your driveway. atleast not if I had a choice to move or not. I just built a new house last year, and when we were looking at diff. neighborhoods/houses that was a big issue for me. most new houses or neighborhoods are built in "associations". thats where basically there are set rules for the sub. that everyone must follow, or you could get ticketed. and this sounds like that sort of thing. you couldnt work on anything outside of your garage, no trailers unless you got a special pass. and thats only for a couple days, that sort of thing. I said F'that. associations are allowed to tell you if you could put up a fence, and what kind of fence it had to be.
not sure what the problem is with temp. putting a car outside your garage is, but sounds like its time to move. I would never live in a neighborhood with that kindo of trouble just from having a car apart in your driveway. atleast not if I had a choice to move or not. I just built a new house last year, and when we were looking at diff. neighborhoods/houses that was a big issue for me. most new houses or neighborhoods are built in "associations". thats where basically there are set rules for the sub. that everyone must follow, or you could get ticketed. and this sounds like that sort of thing. you couldnt work on anything outside of your garage, no trailers unless you got a special pass. and thats only for a couple days, that sort of thing. I said F'that. associations are allowed to tell you if you could put up a fence, and what kind of fence it had to be.
Last edited by Irocss85; 02-05-2007 at 06:06 AM.