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Either buy a lift, or use tall jackstands.

Concrete blocks are NOT designed to hold up a car.

Or like I did, I made a 24" high dolly out of 4x4 and a couple old file cabinet bottoms(with casters). Lots of 3-4" screws, construction adhesive, and 3/4" plywood. It raises the rear of my Spyder enough to drop the engine out the bottom.

To raise the whole car I use my Harbor Freight scissor lift, discussed recently in another thread.

I didn't bother raising the front, but I'll bet you could figure something out to hold the whole car. But make sure it's TRIANGULATED in all directions so it doesn't fold and fall down.

Last edited by DannyP

Lots of folks don't remember (or were never taught) that concrete blocks are crazy strong in the correct orientation (with the holes looking up) and have almost no strength at all laying on their sides (with the holes pointed sideways). They also have a top and a bottom-- the webs are fatter on the bottom and taper to the top. Concrete blocks sitting on footers hold the entire weight of a house, and have side loads that are crazy from the dirt pushing horizontally against the block.

They will certainly hold up a car.

The problem comes in that nobody is ever satisfied with one block high, and they dry-stack 2 or 3 of them, generally with zero thought regarding the proper orientation or how the blocks are fastened together. They are also not very wide (8"), so they tend to be really, really prone to tipping over when stacked into a tower.

Blocks need to be protected from sharp corners, which can start a stress riser and crack them easily. A dimensional lumber block sitting on top of the block (like the sill-plate on your house) protects the block.

Once you know that you need go to all that trouble, you start to see the wisdom of just buying jack-stands.

Last edited by Stan Galat

If you're going to use concrete blocks, orient them vertically and set at least two side-by-side on each tier, so they make square pillars. This is good for a stack 24" tall, three tiers. Taller stacks should be even wider at the base. I prefer to use wooden cribbing to set a vehicle up high. I've set all sorts of equipment and vehicles safely on cribbing. My 66 Cadillac sat on cribbing 3' high when I removed the transmission. This was back before cheap two post lifts, when the only other option was a hydraulic lift built into the garage floor, or a pit. I had neither, so I improvised.   

I just had a detached workshop built and the contractor had tons of scrap 2x4s. I dug them all out of the materials dumpster (not too proud to admit).  Gave kids a project with wood glue speedy square and 3 inch deck screws. Don’t recall the exact length of the boards but plenty wide and stable. We have used them to prop up zero turn to change blades. My son uses when working on his 4 wheeler. Feels safer to me than jack stands.

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