Probably the sketchiest engine lifting rig I used is one that I made from necessity. I made up an A frame from pipe, that we used to take to the yards that we would carry to the car put both sticks on the ground, leaning over the car. Then run a chain to keep it upright at an angle, and connect it to either our truck, or another car in the yard. Then carry in a chain fall, and put it in the apex of the A frame to lift the engine out. You had to pull the A frame with the chain, and be careful not to go past center, and end up with everything on the ground. Fortunately we never went past center when using it to pull an engine.
You had to be careful to get the engine over the core support, and then lower it while turning it sideways. It was crude, but it worked for a car that you couldn't get a wrecker to. If we were loading it in the truck we'd use another chain to tilt it past center and set it on the back of the bed. Or we'd set the engine on an old tire and drag the tire and engine out with a chain hooked to the truck, then set up the A frame again to load it into the truck. If I had to do that today, it would probably take me 2 days to do it.....LOL Back then (1976) a friend, and myself would pull the engine in a few hours, and be on our way.
Back then the guy that sponsored my race car would give us an engine out of his yard, but we had to get it out, and loaded by ourselves. He probably just wanted to see us struggle.........
