Craziest/Stupidest/Most Intersting Way You've Moved An Engine?

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318duster73

318duster73

The OTHER village idiot
Joined
May 2, 2012
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Location
Mary Esther, Fl
Complete engines, blocks, cars, anything, what's your story?

Moved a couple of small block blocks, heads, etc. today... Through sand... On an appliance dolly. Alone, because my partner was 1: Afraid to get her hands beat up, and 2: Probably couldn't carry a cast iron head to save her life!
 
The one I remember the most was that I didn't move the engine, I moved the trucks.
I was too young and din't have an engine hoist, so I jacked up the front of the truck and put wood block under the motor then unbolted everything drop the front of the truck back down.
Then with the motor up off the mounts and everything disconnected I had to remove the whole front end and hood so I could could push the truck back and then do the whole thing on another truck to push it up under the motor that was on the blocks to bolt her all back in there then drop it down and finish it up.

13 years old, no hoist, no local friends that could help me (Not even to push the trucks around and get them lined up with the motors propped up on blocks in the yard.)
When I needed to move one I would get a 2x4 and start prying behind the tires and adjusting the steering wheel as I went to get them into place.

2 days later I had a running 1946 Ford pickup with a flathead V8.

True story

I had zero help but shitloads of time when I was young. :)
 
chain fall and a big old oak tree next to the barn to pull a 440 out of a newyorker to put it in the Dart
 
to move engines and heavy stuff from my back 40 up the shop......

i get a hood off a late model car ...the roundy kind, flip it upside down lower the engine on top of it with the yard hoist.....hook a chain to the hood latch....other end of the chain to the back of the Dart .....and sled it to the shop

my arms are toothpicks and i cant carry heavy stuff very far so i had to get creative over the years
 
Ok, let's see ya top THIS

When I put the 340, which I bought from a junk yard, in my 70RR, it still ran, still had a 440 in which would eventually go into my 64. So I pulled the trunk lid, and got a bunch of cardboard, old mattress, and stuck that 340 right in the trunk!!!!

Few years later, junked an old Landcruiser wagon, and sold the Toy six to a guy just down the road. So I rigged an "A" frame off the "dock" bumper on my 73 Ford Courier LOL with chains tied back to the front corners of the bed. Big 'ol engine hangin' off that thing like a wrecker. Worked "swell" at 20?? mph down the road couple of miles
 
I bought a complete 340 and 727 off of a friend. He said he would deliver everything. The heads, intake, manifolds, and trans were off of the motor, but the bottom end was still all together.
Well, he shows up in his '73 340 Dart Sport with everything loaded in the trunk! He backs up to my truck and proceeds to unload all the 'small' stuff first. The last thing in there to unload was the short block and it was over in the right side of the trunk. I was trying to figure out how were were going to lift it out of there, and he says 'I'll get it', and proceeds to pick it up out of the trunk and set it in the bed of my truck! :wack:
He's a pretty stout old boy!
Dallas
 
MOBodyman said:
, and proceeds to pick it up out of the trunk and set it in the bed of my truck!
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I once picked up a Chev SB short block, carried it out of the Treasure Island hobby shop, across the street to the parking lot, and dumped it INTO the trunk of my buddies 65 Chevelle, but I don't think I could have picked it up from "DOWN" there, LOL>
 
Used this old little red wagon to move around and use as a stand freshening up this little 2.0 Datsun motor. Worked reall well actually as the engine was pretty small.

L20BFor521.jpg
 
I've used my old skateboard many a time, for moving engines around my yard or garage (hafta lean the engine one side or the other to make turns..lol) Also, the Pick-A-Part near my house used to have a May 5th sale day, which you could buy everything you could drag up to the window for......I dunno....$250 or something like that. We would get an old car hood, turn it upside down, load a bunch of blocks and heads on it, then strap ropes on it and drag it up to the window like mules. LOL
 
4 bare cast iron blocks, 3 chevy SBs, one chevy BB. Moved me and a friend with our bare hands from the ground to the back of a fullsize pickup truck...3rd friend with the BB. Easily the dumbest thing we've ever done.
 
if i was by myself i would walk them to wherever they needed to be.on the trans side of the engine.you know tilt it push forward tilt other way push forward etc. it worked,never got hurt doing it this way.or the famous cut the top off a shopping cart,asa, to you a buggy , lol any engine will be movable with a couple of boards across it....:dontknow:
 
To remove a motor once, I positioned jack stands under the front spring hangers, undid the k-frame bolts and tilted the whole body back on the jack stands and rolled the engine and trans out under the front on a wheeled trolley. Simple physics.
 
Used a backyard swing set and a block and tackle as an engine hoist once. Actually worked pretty well. Once the engine is up high enough you simply push the car out from under it.

Putting the engine back in without a movable or adjustable ( except for up and down) hoist was very interesting, though. We actually do "get by with a little help form our friends".

...another musical reference, MT. ;)
 
My 1st 67 Barracuda, pulled the 273 with chain fall and a big old oak, placed the complete engine on a sheet of plywood with a hole in one end. Chained the board to the back of our sears garden tractor and preceded to pull it around front to the garage.

Hit a stepping stone in the yard and flipped the tractor over. Dad said get up we got to turn the tractor back over, not, ARE YOU ALRIGHT? Funny now, but not at the time.
 
This wasn't a motor . But it sure drew a lot of attention going up the highway taking it home to my shop. Inlaw wanted it gone from his garage or he was going to drag it. I just had it blasted and all of a sudden he had a list of things He wanted me to do for letting me use his lot for a company to do it. Thats me in early 80's
 
Back in the poor boy days with just a hand full of tools to my name I used to flip cars over on their roof and drop the motor/tarnnys out on a couple of mattresses with an old metal bed spring on the bottom. It seemed like I would manage to always forget the body ground strap. Then tie every thing down to the metal bed spring, hook on it and drag it all. Those old metal bed springs are great for knocking high grass down in open areas.
 
forgot about this,changed an engine in a jeep for a cemetary with a backhoe they used to lower the caskets in the ground....was a dead engine.....sorry that was bad....lol
 
OK YOU WIN!!! LOL


Oldmanmopar said:
This wasn't a motor . But it sure drew a lot of attention going up the highway taking it home to my shop. Inlaw wanted it gone from his garage or he was going to drag it. I just had it blasted and all of a sudden he had a list of things He wanted me to do for letting me use his lot for a company to do it. Thats me in early 80's
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Used to work at a motor shop. Every motor that we loaded for delivery was done by hand, bolts in the bellhousing area and anyplace on the front. Gloves/rags and heave ho. Now I use a tractor to lift heavy things......and for parking the trailers. Much easier to wiggle them into there spots then using a truck. Use a tarp for dragging tree trimmings down off the hill to load on a trailer. Once used a hand truck to install a motor/trans from the bottom. Having a bad back means getting creative when it comes to lifting. When digging the holes, by hand for our fence post we encountered more than one rather large rock. Aint no way any one is going to manually lift a 500 pound rock from a hole. Couple of ratchet tie downs wrapped around and the tractor solved the problem. Would be lost without the little tractor.
 
Oldmanmopar said:
This wasn't a motor . But it sure drew a lot of attention going up the highway taking it home to my shop. Inlaw wanted it gone from his garage or he was going to drag it. I just had it blasted and all of a sudden he had a list of things He wanted me to do for letting me use his lot for a company to do it. Thats me in early 80's
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Sir....please do not take this the wrong way but you are the King of Hillbillies in my book.......This is a perfect example of you gotta do what you gotta do....
 
Not an engine but one time when I was repairing a hardwood floor in my house and had no money, they were tearing down a house a block away that had wood floors. When they ripped out a big section I hooked a chain on it and drug it down the street to disassemble for the flooring. Worked good but the police didn't think it was "appropriate".
 
67Dart273 said:
Ok, let's see ya top THIS



Few years later, junked an old Landcruiser wagon, and sold the Toy six to a guy just down the road. So I rigged an "A" frame off the "dock" bumper on my 73 Ford Courier LOL with chains tied back to the front corners of the bed. Big 'ol engine hangin' off that thing like a wrecker. Worked "swell" at 20?? mph down the road couple of miles
Click to expand...

Yeah, done that too. Haven't driven down the road like that though. (yet)

View attachment 100_0554.jpg
 
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