Can you guys tell me what I would need ahead of time for the big costly stuff. Engine Crane, and Engine Stand, is that it? Do I need to buy some other sort of chain attachment that goes between the crane and engine?

 

When I did the engine swap in my 240 all I used was a engine hoist, a craftsman jack, and a bunch of jackstands.

 

Engine lift, a couple of floor jacks and jackstands are nice to have. A friend or 2 is always a big help too.

Yes you might want to get more chain to put onto the motor, but you really dont need a load equalizer for an fwd install.

 

You can get an engine sling. Basically a chain with a middle piece that can move to equalize the load. A load leveler is optional but can make things much easier.

You will need jackstands and an engine crane at a minimum. An engine stand makes things 1000x easier. Obviously you will need a floor jack too.

For the chain, get some thick chain, thick enough to where the hook of the engine crane will fit through the chain.

 

As for the Engine Balancer (Horizontal metal bar with 2 chains dangling on either end), I have a choice of either 18 INCH or 22 INCH.

Where do I measure the VG engine to get the correct size?

 

the equalizer makes things easier, but you don't need it. I have one and wound up pulling it off when I do about half my engine swaps.

 

I didnt even use one when I put the ls1/t56 combo in the RX7. The rx7 chassis was already pretty high off the ground so it went in pretty easily. If the custom cradle had fit better I would have had the engine in, in 15 minutes.. but instead it took 5 trys untill I finally figured out I needed to stretch the mounts appart from each other. Trust me no need for a load leveler

 

Thanks guys - will take your advice, maybe i'll just save the money and exclude the balancer. Question -

1. Have you found any guides one the net to tell me the steps? I have a guy that's coming over that did it for his corvette before, but I'm concerned this is way more complicated.

2. Once I get it out of the car how do I attach it to the engine stand to work on removing the exhaust manifolds? It looks like it holds it sideways?

Basically, I need to remove all the exhaust manifold front & back studs, and I want to use the hoist instead of doing the work under the car. I want access to do the heating and probably rent a stick welder to weld nuts onto the studs to back them out once I remove the manifolds. I tried a stud remover tool that sort of grips around but I couldn't get it to work, I think it was SAE and it kept slipping for the header pipe flange studs.

 

I mounted mine onto the stand through the engine-to-tranny bolt holes.