This Is No Joke!!

From : jules

Q: my 16-yo son and i are in the middle of rebuilding the 360 engine on my 85 ram long story which i wont go into here. we tore most of the engine down with it still installed in the truck; then we discovered that the crankshaft needed to be machined. so we pulled the block. attaching the hoist with the heads off was pretty easy just bolt the hoist down with two of the head bolts on each side and lift it out. so now the crank is machined and back in place with new oversize bearings the pistons in etc etc. were well into the process of reassembly and were thinking that it would be a *whole* lot easier to put the entire engine back together on a stand in the garage and hoist the complete engine into place than to reassemble it a piece at a time with the block already back in the truck. just one problem... where the heck do i attach the engine hoist if the heads are already mounted on the engine i have the original factory service manual what a piece of crap -- far and away the worst-written of the eight or nine such manuals ive owned and all that stupid thing says is attach engine lifting fixture. attach it where i dont want to hang it from the heads for fear of warping them or breaking the gasket seal and im just not too comfy with the idea of suspending a four-hundred-odd pound engine from four 5/16 exhaust manifold bolts which is the best ive been able to figure out so far. anybody have any better ideas tia... -- regards doug miller alphageek at milmac dot com .