I absolutely despise cherry pickers and have eliminated those damn things from my shop years ago. I had an overhead chain hoist on a track built into the ceiling of the shop in Minnesota, that was about as nice as you can get. Those trusses were designed around snow loading conditions, so hanging a 1000 lb lump of iron off of them was a drop in the bucket compared to 2 ft or more of snow. My current shop was not built with snow load in mind, so I purchased one of these overhead A-frame's from Northern tool. Makes pulling engines much easier than a cherry picker, and it rolls smoothly, even with a bunch of suspended weight.
That said, I always pop the hood off, disconnect the trans and pull the engine straight up and out. If the trans needs to come out, it goes out the bottom. Core support stays in, I think I even did it once with the rad still in (I don't recommend...) Normally takes me about 2 hrs, from cracking the hood, to engine on the stand.
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