KuHL 951

You are making this much too hard, 2 normal men can drop the engine to the ground with a 3rd pulling bolts. Two of us got a full engine with x-member and bellhousing in the side door of my van. Think old Hercules movies for inspiration. If it's in the garage on the stand use a rafter and a come-along.

Zero10

How much work are you planning on doing?
If you're pulling the oil pan, once it's off, insert a 2x4 such that it blocks the crank from turning, without marking up the cylinders, it's pretty easy to find a position that will work. The bolt will come off as if the flywheel is locked then. That's how I did mine, since I had already removed the head, and oil pan before I realized that it needed to come off.
That way it can stay on the engine stand.

Scootin159

I'm pretty much doing a full rebuild (all the way down to new rings / bearings / etc.), so the pan/head/etc. will all be coming off anyways. Once I get them off I'll look into getting the crank pulley off. I'll see if I can do your technique without damaging anything. If I can't then I'll just lower it to the ground & put the flywheel back on w/ 2 PP bolts & the broom handle. I might even give the rope trick a go once I get the cam tower off, but before I take the head off (taking the cam tower off would raise all 8 valves and keep me from bending valves now that the timing belt is already off).

Dal Heger

Pray that some idiot in the past didn't use any locktite on the crank bolt. I still have one crank that is out of the engine, hammered with my IR 600 ft-lb 1/2 impact wrench that didn't even budge it. I'm thinking that crank will soon be donated to the scrap metal pile.

A good air impact wrench is your friend. Beg/borrow/steal one for the job, it'll take 30 seconds at most.

Dal.

Zero10

Dal, did you try heating the crank while you were using your impact gun? Might be just enough to get it off.

The block of wood technique worked perfectly for me. I would reccomend it to anybody else in the same situation.