Here is a PM I just to someone about to reinsert an engine. It might give you some insights.
Over the years, I’ve experimented with skipping some steps. That always leads to more time, frustration, and scarred nuckles.
I recommend you remove everything at the front. Radiator, fan, drop the anti sway bar at the body mounts. You can possibly leave the condenser hoses attached, but try to move it forward to give your hands more access.
Copied below
With the trans attached, it’ll be heavy in the rear, so a mid-hook and front-lifting strap won’t actually do much for you.
The cast-iron 2Ls that I more often work with have a “bridge” cast into both the front and rear of the cylinder head. I attach my very strong fabric strap through these. The rear bridge is a good balance point if/when you want to be able to level your engine, such as when it’s fully inserted into the car, and you want to raise the rear of the trans without needing to use a floor jack.
So, I’d recommend moving the steel strap from the middle two head studs to the rear pair.
The weight on the front strap will actually be quite low, as the balance point will be close to the rear-mounted steel lifting strap.
I often run my long fabric strap around the cylinder head, under the exhaust studs and intake manifold, then through the two “bridges”, running both legs of the strap through the hook on the adjustable balancing bar. I tie the free ends of the strap at the hook to prevent the strap from sliding through the hook unintentionally. You can sort of duplicate this by running your strap around the ex studs and intake manifold, then up through the rear-mounted lifting strap. I also think you’d be fine just using just the rear mounted lifting strap and water pump. OR crank behind pulley, but possibly bundling the two strap legs above the water pump to raise the swinging point.
There is a magic combination of fabric strap lengths at the front and rear, with the front starting out shorter than the rear. My balance adjuster has only so much range, and at one point you’ll want the engine and trans hanging near vertically to clear the trans tunnel/firewall. Another good reason to “bundle” the two front legs of your fabric strap (or high quality rope).
I do my removals and insertions with the car nearly level front to rear. The rear-high approach was adopted by people without a balancing bar. Being level allows me to hop up and down easily to adjust something. Plus, with the tail high, you will have trouble lifting the trans high enough with the balance bar to hop down there and just bolt up the rear support.
furthermore, I use my air impact gun to operate the balancing bar. I can stand at the front of the car, making small adjustments in the balancer, hoist height, and rearward motion of the rolling hoist, and cleanly and smoothly insert the engine, lifting the rear at the end, with only rare and soft contact between the engine and car.
For my cars, the hardest point is getting the front mounts to sit down in position, but even there I’ve learned where and when to use a pry-bar.
