Hey guys, I hope this is the right forum for this question... it should be.

I want to buy a set of tools to do work on my car. Right now I have chocks, four jack stands, and a small rolling floor jack, but the jack essentially sucks. It has a very small cup at the end and I don't feel secure using it... it also doesn't get enough height to lift the rear of my car off the ground.

Can anyone recommend to me a good jack to use? Something with a bigger cup at the end, something that has a low profile to get under my car once it is lowered, but gets very high when its cranked up. Basically, mine cost 40 bucks and I don't trust it for holding up my car for the brief time before the stands go in. Also, I'v eseen some have a transmission stand adapter - I have no clue what that is for but, whatever.

Okay, also I wanted to buy an engine hoist and an engine stand. Wondering if anyone could give me recommendations. Of course, ebay has all these things but I'm weary of buying things without doing research beforehand.

Okay guys I appreciate any advice you may be able to give, thank you very much.

 

I've broken those cheapo $15 jacks before. I now have a Craftsman 3 1/2 ton jack that came with 2 heavy duty jackstands. Bought it on sale for $100 for the full setup. I like it a lot and it makes work a lot easier. Its range is 5 3/4-21 inches I think. In one and a half pump, it can bring the jack to full height but only when its not under load. Otherwise, it works great and has a big cup at the end that you can swap out if you want.

If you have more cash, an aluminum jack is nice. They're quite a bit pricier and most go about 17-19 inch lift height for something around ~$160

For my engine hoist, I bought a set from a guy that was selling them on eBay brand new. 2 ton engine hoist, 1250lbs engine stand, and engine hoist leveler for $200 all delivered. Not bad. Sure the quality isn't too great, but hey, its just an engine hoist. I'm probably only going to use it maybe twice a year at most. I asked some people who bought from the seller before and found out a guy had used it to remove his big block 454 V8. So its more than enough to remove a rotary.

I just removed my engine/tranny about two weeks ago. Didn't have any problems.

 

Damn... thanks for the reply...

Do you know if any engine stand works with any engine? You just bolt it on using the engine mount points, right?

 

Technically its possible but I plan on getting the Pineapple rotary engine stand adaptor since it mounts on the side and makes it easier.

http://www.pineappleracing.com/Prod-resa.html

 

that doesnt look to sturdy though

 

You'd be surprised. It's plenty sturdy! I have first hand experience cause I bought one and used it when I took my engine out. Thing has the engine mounted solid on the stand. Worth the money.

 

I used to flat-bolt the front housing's accessory mounting points to the standard engine stand plate (no arms used). No special adapter required. This worked OK. You can't rotate the engine end over end this way like you can with the special adapter, but I can't see why you'd *need* to. Assembly and disassembly occurs with the front of the engine pointing down at all times.

Now, I just work over a five gallon bucket. Works even better!