no hoist no garage space

So i've got a civic that needs a new engine (89 si). It's sitting in across town my mom's garage right now , which has no engine hoist or room to store one. She has been patient so far, but I'm sure she would like her garage back. The civic has gotten to the point where it has become a workbench for another project, and somebody brought that up as a backburner project red flag. I'm going to bite the bullet and just job it out, but I'm wondering what yall would do / have done in my situation.

I know it's not necessarily the GRM way, but I think it will be worth the money to have the car running again instead of sitting for another year+ . Maybe with AC this time. mmmm.

ps i might just be venting pps may i suggest widening the 'topic name' dialogue box?

a few 2x6's with some threaded rod and nuts + drill + come-a-long... then again unless you have all that crap laying around you can buy/rent an engine hoist for a lot less...

Does your mom have any small trees in the yard?

How much does renting an engine hoist cost? Am I going to need a truck to transport it to my place?

my father took a 351 out of a '68 mustang with a come-along rigged over the steel I-beam in the ceiling.

hood off, engine goes straight up as high as you like, push car back, set on desired movable cart or whatever.

im planning on doing similar to take the outboard off my boat to reinforce the transom soon.

drc wrote: How much does renting an engine hoist cost? Am I going to need a truck to transport it to my place?

i dont know about renting one, but i occasionally see them for even cheaper then this http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93704

I rented a hoist a couple of times and borrowed one from a neighbor a couple of other times. Cost about $25 a day to rent one. Its a pain to pick it up and then return it on time since these jobs don't always go as planned. I finally went out and bought one from Tractor Supply for about $125. Should have come with the load leveler, but didn't and i got stuck buying one later for $35. It folds up pretty small when not in use. Well worth the moola.

I completed an engine swap in a '91 CRX by lowering the engine out of the bottom of the car.

I jacked up the front end and properly supported it with jackstands, placed a floor jack under the engine, unhooked everything and lowered the engine out of the bottom.

Then, I slide the new engine under the car, lowered the body as far as it could go and jacked up the "new" engine a couple of inches to get the mounts installed.

Never used an engine hoist.

^ That's the VW Beetle method, just at the other end of the car.

does the old/new engine need to be kept together? could always do it a piece at a time. tranny->head->sb and reverse for install. might be more of a pain that way but it's at least an option.

I used to pass by a house quite often in which somebody was doing an engine change on a Civic in the driveway. He did it from the bottom and it seemd to go OK. However, I always cringed because this thing was way up in the air on jack stands.

Got my Harbor Freight cheepie on a sale weekend for a C-Note. I see them on cragslist al the time and they fold up pretty nice.