Notes from latest Engine/Trans removal with Quick Jacks

After an issue with my transmission at a DE event I found it necessary to remove the engine (Again). This time I decided to put a few notes together about the lift setup and a couple of gotchas. I have the 7000lb TL QJ and a 996 C4S. 1) To get the most height at the rear of the car its necessary to use the smaller rubber adapter in front and the SUV adapter in short mode. I also use lift pucks in the jack points. ENSURE the QJs are the same distance in front of the tires on both sides. This helps ensure the locks are in sync In order to get this setup to work put short or tall rubber adapters in place, whichever you can fit under the car. I make the car lift to the rear and the rear tires need to be almost against the real QJ pivot point. I use a set of PT4x4 lumber and do a quick lift of the car and slide the 4x4s under the rear tires and drop the car again. Then I replace the rear adapter with the SUV adapter and lift the car to full height. The car is very stable in this position. If you use any of the rubber adapters in the rear there is insufficient room to remove the rear underbodyt shield or the chassis stiffeners. 2) after removing the rear bumper cover, you'll have to remove the upper rear heat shield to maximize your clearance. BE careful with the bolts holding the heat shield to the bumper. Ive gor 2 inserts that are spinning and ended up using an air saw to remove them. Those dont drill out easily and probably easier to just drill and tap new holes. 3) I use the 1000lb Harbor Freight lift table. My measurement of engine + lift table is 35.75 inches. The height to bottom of opening is 35 inches. I found removing the throttle body gives about 1/4" free space and some hoses may need to be finagled to get the engine in and out. Before dropping the motor on the table cut a piece of tool box tray liner and put on the table. It works way better than that cruddy rubber pad they give you. The harbor freight lift table is capable of lifting the engine and trans together.. If you push the handle up against the bumper the rear of the table goes past the bell housing. I also got the Harbor freight scissor trans jack and I put on the tail shaft. However. it's just a little too short and needs some height adjustment with some lumber. This makes it a lot easier to get the transmission mounting bolts slid in and out. Next time my notes tell me to get a set of radiator hose caps for the water pump, metal lines and any other open holes in the engine. That darn pink antifreeze just never seems to stop dripping. Also, next time I'm going to do a better job finding somewhere to strap the engine down on the table. This motor has no where that you wont crush something when putting a tie down on it. If you're brave enough then maybe the long SUV adapter would work, I'm just not comfortable in that much rear to front angle. Ive done this twice now and have never felt the car was ever unstable or that anything was going to happen. Since I do a lot of work on my own and i'm old, I may invest in the crossbeam adapter.

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Thx. Good info. Any photos?

Sorry, no photos. I work in a single car garage with not much room to get photos. Here is a shot from this summer during g my tip to 6mt swap. The downward angle in the front is clearly visible.

Great work. Thank you for sharing. I've been wondering if Quick jacks were sufficiently high, or if I should keep saving up for a mid rise lift. This is helpful.

Dropping the engine/transmission on my 04 996, I was able to drop and remove it with just the large rubber blocks, using the harbor freight little transmission Jack (red and white Jack in the pic), and the motor cycle Jack. the only issue was needing to remove the little rear mud guards and diagonal braces with the car still in the ground, and a wheel lifted off the ground (to remove the mud guards you need to remove the fender liner to get access to the upper screw holding the guard on) the heat shield was removed, but it was trivial -Eric

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I used the same transmission jack. I had of the motorcycle Jack's that I used to remove a mini clubman engine. I liked the table better between the 2.

I did a 964 engine drop on jack stands and made a custom engine-transaxle cradle to do it. Worked great, but once I got it on the floor the engine was too tall to roll out from under the car. I ended up putting a hole in the garage ceiling to attach a come-along and lifted the tail of the car to get the engine to roll out.

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I may be wrong, but I thought the table didn't go as low as the motorcycle jack, and that was my biggest concern...... -Eric