Building any type of Mustang requires safe practices. Because of it’s weight, lifting an engine in and out of an engine compartment is one of the most dangerous task you’ll do and this brings us to the topic of this month’s Restomod Daze. One evening my cell phone rang. It was my good friend George Galoosis calling to see if I was watching Overhauling on TV. It seems that they were lifting an engine and it fell off the hoist. Since I didn’t see it on the show, I don’t know exactly what happened. But George felt it had something to do with the fact that they were using an engine lift plate. Now, everybody who knows George knows that he hates engine lift plates. He just doesn’t see how four little 5/16” studs that are screwed into an aluminum intake manifold can safely hold the weight of a 450 to 600 pound engine without breaking the studs or pulling the threads out of the aluminum intake manifold. I say, hogwash! I’ve used engine lift plates, home made and mass produced, without ever dropping an engine for over 30 years. Ah, another instance where 2 friends make fun of each other over something that they both feel they’re right about. Does that sound familiar to you?

For those of you who aren’t sure exactly what an engine lift plate is, let me explain. Engine lift plates are designed to bolt to the intake manifold using the 4 bolts that hold the carburetor in place. To use them, you simply unbolt the carburetor from the intake manifold, leaving the intake studs in place, and bolt a lift plate in it’s place. It’s that simple. Lift plates usually have more than one set of mounting holes in the base so that the same plate will fit many different intake manifolds. They also have different places to put a hook or to run a chain through so that you can make the engine tip forward or backwards depending on if the engine is front heavy or rear heavy. I have always found engine lift plates to be the best way to go; easy and safe to us.