Well, just bought a small cherry picker, so now I'm ready to pull my 239 flathead (after 7 weeks of doing nothing on the truck). It seems that most people prefere pulling out the engine with the tranny still attached. I probably go down that route as well. But what would be a good way to attach the chains of the crane to the engine? The manual shows a special tool, using two brackets that are bolted into the heads. Any other suggestions?
regs,
bart

 

First thing to consider is how heavy the flatheads are; around 600 lbs the way you'd pull it (flywheel still on, etc). To get it out with the trans add another 150 or so. That is serious lifting! To lift it up and over the fenders it will be way up in the air. Is your cherry picker really good enough to do that, or is it a cheap chinese one? You probably need it on longest reach, and with that amount of weight, that high, you have to be really careful!! Make sure the picker is rated for at least 600 lbs at the longest reach.

It is usually not a huge amount of work to remove the entire front end sheet metal. For sure I think you want to pulll the radiator to get room to move the engine forward as you pull. The more you get out of the way, the less lifting (height) you need to get it out. With the sheet metal out of the way it can almost come stright forward, maybe a foot lift. Much safer!

Brackets on the head bolts or on the exhaust ports are the prefered attachments. The head bolts are the best. To put a bracket under them, use an impact wrench to break them loose. Hand wrenching is likely to break the bolt off in the block. Obviously your brackets need to be strong!

 

I bought the "Load Leveler" attachment when I bought my cherry picker. It hooks to the motor with 4 chains and has a crank to shift the weight front to back. I'm sure they have them where you bought your cherry picker. It worked good.
__________________
XFM...

 

thanks for the advice. The front sheetmetal has been removed totally, so I do have enough space to pull the engine forward. I will call the shop to see if they have a load leveler. The cherry picker has a maximum capacity of 2 ton, the innermost position can pull 1000 lbs. (it's a cheap Belgian one, not a cheap chinese one). Because the engine+flywheel+tranny is so heavy, I might just pull the engine, sounds to be a lot safer (I don't have any experience pulling out engines). By the way, I forgot to mention it's a 1953 F100.

 

Correction: the outermost position of the cherry picker can pull 1000 lbs! sorry for the mistake.

 

It's a whole lot simpler with the sheet metal gone! If you want to do anything to the trans, tho, pulling it with the engine is a lot easier. Even if you just want to clean it. And putting the tranny back up to the clutch is much simpler outside the truck, especially when the splines don't line up! Since you don't have to clear the fenders, I'd consider pulling them together. It sounds like your hoist is stout enough. I'm not familiar with those new-fangled '53's but as I recall they have completely different mounts than my '52, so hopefully some of the younger crowd will chime in with some tips...

 

For me, it depends on the transmission. An automatic is easy to remove and replace with the engine in place, a standard can be a real pain. I mostly leave the transmission on the engine.

It is easy enough - just remove one of the top bell housing bolts and slip a short lengh of chain through it (sometimes you need to buy a longer bolt). With that chain holding the back of the engine, and two other chains hooked or bolted to the engine in the front left and right, you will have no problems.

If you use a head bolt make sure it is threaded in far enough not to pull out, and that you don't bend the bolt. You will be ok if the head is still on the engine.

When I was a kid around a wrecking yard we would wrap a chain around the engine behind the pan, and another through the exaust manifolds and lift the engine/tranny out using the wrecker.

There are lots of ways to do it, big thing is not to get under it and keep your toes out of the way incase you do drop it.

The load leveler talked about eariler makes it easy to adjust the angle of the engine, but you can do the same thing by moving the hook on the cherry picker either towards the back or front of the engine.

Good Luck