I made plates that bolt to the heads. I also made a lifting bar with chains. I can lift a blower motor out of the boat even with the carbs on it.

Lucky enough for me I use air gap intakes. Just use a nylon strap under the carb base. Like said those carb plates scare me with aluminum intakes.

In regards to the manifold plates... we dont use those anymore. We had one fail at the manifold and dropped the customer engine 5' to the ground. The manifold bolts failed (threads stripped in aluminum manifold), since then, we bolt plates to the front and rear of the heads, 2 points of lift and use a leveler...

I made up some straps,they want scratch like chains

I too have alwatws been acared of those tiny 1/4" bolts. Go to the heads, I have never had one bad incident.

I have switched to straps over chains to to keep from scratching.

This is also what I do, works great.

I have a story to tell

4 years ago I was installing blower engines in my 36'. They were orignally merc 500hp, so I lost the stock intake lifting hooks with the blower conversion. I searched the web for some lifting hooks briefly, but decided to use the chain through a bolt in the head like my engine builder did after the rebuild. The bolt used for the oil cooler on the back of the engine, to the head, was too short to add a chain to so we used a longer one. The bolt was about a 1/2" too long, and did not thread the chain tight to the head, I just went with it.


The engine had to be about 10 ft in the air at the top to clear the hull get in the boat. I was using an electric chain hoist that rolled on a support beam 18 ft up. The rollers would always stick when weight was on the hoist.

Got the first engine off the ground, I was up top in the bilge, my buddy was on the ground. The hoist rolled over to the port side of the boat and stopped there, the startboard engine was on the hoist. I pulled and pulled and it would not budge, my buddy yelled from the ground "come on pu$$y, pull it" I got out of the bilge and stood on the edge of the engine bay and gave it the hardest pull I could. The engine swung over to the starboard side, but the hoist did not move. It then swung back to the edge of the port side, and at this time the bolt on the rear of the engine gave way. The engine fell from the spreader bar, and broke the bolt off the front of the engine as well. It hit the top of the hull port side, flipped on its side and hit the floor and landed on the port engine which was on the floor at the time. My friend got out of the way just in time.

We both just looked at each other with mouths wide open. This was not the first time that either one of us had lifted an engine this way, but it was the first time either one of us had seen a 1000lb engine fall from the sky. It seemed like a full minute had passed before anything was said.

I ran down to look at the aftermath, which really did not look at bad as I thought. The hull just had some scratches but not cracks. The starboard engine lost the crank pulleys and sea pump, also suffered a small dent in the exhaust manifold. The port engine lost a dist cap and bent the ignition bracket.

My friend then looked at me and said "it could have been worse, it could have fell on you in the bilge and pinned you to the offshore mounts". Then it hit me, and I started thinking....just two days before this I got rear ended on my motorcycle, and dragged down the road by the SUV that hit me....and all I got was road rash. And on this day I was almost crushed, which surely would have cost me my legs if not my life. I got sick, I puked, began to shake and almost passed out over just thoughts of what almost happened. I consider myself head strong, being this weak was a new experience for me.

Had the run out on the crank checked, replaced the broken parts and bought some lifting hooks that bolt to the heads (can't remember the brand) The hooks had to be removed after the engine was placed because accessories use these sames holes. Installing these engines was about the scariest thing I have ever done after this happened. Both of us were on edge the second time around.

The startboard engine SM exhaust that had a dime sized dent in the corner came back to haunt me. We never pressure tested it after the drop. After about 10 hrs that dent on the oustide became a crack on the inside and took out my 6 psi boost engine quickly.

Many of us have popped engines, but for me this was the first time I did not think about the time, or the money it was going to cost me to repair it. Nope, I thought of the $20 lifting hooks, how I may have lost my life, and how scared I was and will always be of having an engine in the air....most likey for the rest of my life.

Trying to drop the enigine in the boat "plug and play" was my intention. Having to unbolt power steering, and re tighten belts in the bilge seemed like too much work. Getting the oil cooler and oil filter bracket out of the way and trying to bolt them back up after the install seemed like too much work, I will just use a longer bolt so they stay lined up and put the short one back in after right???

My advice, take apart what ever you have to in order to get a good mounting point. No one likes to hang out in a bilge when it is easier to put it together on the ground, but to sacrafice saftey to save time was just stupid on my part. What a lesson, cost me a lot of money, but my friend and I walked away unharmed which is priceless.

We still argue if i was lucky or unlucky that week. The SUV that ran me over on my bike that week, was my ex GF texting and driving at the same time!