Gonna be getting a shortblock shipped out to me, and I don't know what to do in terms of moving it into the garage. What did you guys do when you got yours?

Would the driver be able to hand truck it off the truck into the garage? What do you guys think a shortblock weighs? 400lbs? Can a handtruck handle it? One of the heavier duty tubular ones?

I've just never done this before and want to plan this out beforehand.


EDIT: Just realized this should have gone in the engine swap forum, if a mod could move this, that would be great.

 

A couple of buddies could handle it since it should be on a crate. Hand trucks might work if the tires are pumped up enough. A short block shouldn't be over a couple of hundred pounds.

The better choice would be a furniture dolley. I moved a piano down the road about 12 houses once with one.

 

The truck driver isn't going to unload it for you. Some will with a forklift for a fee ($75 is what I've heard). A cherry picker may do the trick. But, don't figure on them standing around forever while you figure out what to do.

 

My engine was shipped from Jegs to a local freight company and when it arrived in my area, they called me to set up a delivery time. At that time, I requested they use a truck with a lift gate. We had the guy back up to our pickup, roll the crate onto the gate and gently set the gate onto the forward edge of the tailgate. Rolled it into the rear of the pickup with his pallet jack and that was that. We have a set of hooks in our shop doorway where we can back up to and use a comealong to pickup the engine and set it down inside the doorway and/or attach it to an engine stand.

If you have a garage, you may be able to have them backup to it and set the engine down in the doorway. You'll be on your own from there. Garage cherry pickers are fairly cheap, so if you can get your hands on one, it'll help you LOTS. You must have a concrete floor for any of this to work though.

 

A cherry picker is the easiest/laziest way to do it I guess. Two fairly strong guys can handle a shortblock no problem though. Me and my buddies have done it plenty of times. 2 of us even managed a short block 454 one time. As a matter of fact, years ago my dad ordered me a complete long block 350 that was bolted to a pallet. We picked it up at the Yellow freight terminal, and they loaded it into my friend's pickup with a forklift. When we got to my house, 4 of us managed to slide it to the end of his tailgate and gently lower it down to the driveway. But yeah, for a shortblock, if you and one of your buds can't handle it, you need to spend more time at the gym, and less time on here! Lol. In fact, I just had my neighbor help me lift my L98 block/crank back up on the engine stand a couple of weeks ago cause I was too lazy to put my cherry picker together for such a small task. I'm kinda getting to be an old man now, so I usually opt for the cherry picker these days, unless I'm in a pinch.

 

Haha, thanks for the info guys. I actually spoke to the guy with the block and found out it was 250lbs. For whatever reason I was thinking more along the lines of 400lbs. But 250 is manageable, I have handled worse at work, this shouldn't be a problem getting it to the garage. I just wasn't sure about freighting to door etiquette, but this helps.

 

A single guy should be able to wrestle around a shortblock-smallblock without ripping yer arsehole out!

When i got my new shortblock i gave i managed to pack it inside the shop by myself. Though i dont reccomend you do it alone, packing it by yourself is a very good way to blow a nut!

If you have a hand truck or pallet jack your set. Even better, if the driver is a nice guy its nothing to pack it with 2 guys...

 

A few extra bucks in the drivers pocket might help with that also.

 

Unless the drive is an azz he will give you a hand geting it off the truck. When my hood came in the driver helped me cary it the 200ft down my driveway. It wasent heavy at all but it wasent easy carying that big box solo.