Shipping a engine block

I'm going to post a v8 bare engine block on ebay what would be the best way to back it to ship it fedex?

Originally Posted by Gravitar

The best way would be to put it in a small flat rate box from the USPS. May take a little bit of creative thinking, but anything is possible.

Your actual best bet would be to put it on a pallet and ship it with an independent shipping company.

Agreed. pallet is the only way to go. For the heavy stuff I ship I build a custom made plywood box held together with glue and staples with banding I also provide fork lift or hand truck access on the bottom.

Before ebay was over run with scammers I used to sell and ship a lot of vintage car / truck and tractor parts.

You can use freight quote to get the best shipping price, my Canadian broker I use to export did all this for me all I had to give were the dimensions and weight of the crate. Once trucking was aquired would drop the crate off at one of the depots nearby.

Most trucking company’s pick up and deliver from other company depots.

Never shipped anything this heavy so ours going to be a learning process. Would a LTL carrier be cheaper than fedex freight?

Originally Posted by kcscrapper

Never shipped anything this heavy so ours going to be a learning process. Would a LTL carrier be cheaper than fedex freight?

Most of the heavy freight I've shipped my customer picked it up at the depot on the receiving end, I've never used tail gate service. All my stuff ships LTL, if your exporting you'll need a broker and an export / import license which in Canada is free. I use a broker from Winnipeg, she sends all the required documents as PDF files with helpful information on filling them out as the language used on those forms is enough to confuse a person not familiar with the legalese.

The biggest hurdle I had was finding a customs classification for milled cat comb, but was fortunate that someone had already applied for a customs classification with one being granted. If your shipping a commodity that does not have a classification you'll have to apply to customs to assign one.

It was a learning experience for me, but all said and done not at all difficult to do.

I suspect your shipping within the continental USA and her possessions, which is a snap not having to bother with all that paper work.

Give me a call and I will try and help you out. I have shipped some engine blocks for one of my customers. Can get my number on Scrap Buyers and Sellers page under freight services.

Originally Posted by gorven

Give me a call and I will try and help you out. I have shipped some engine blocks for one of my customers. Can get my number on Scrap Buyers and Sellers page under freight services.

KCS...this guy is the bombdiggdy when it comes to helping move freight. He helped me get a young airman out of a bind shipping a quad motor from Arizona to Florida. you will not regret making contact with him. BroJer

Do not contact a freight carrier directly. They have no incentive to give a good rate. Find a broker. Like insurance; the brokers rep for a number of freight companies, which compete for their business. U-ship.com is good also. There are private carriers and major brokers that watch U-ship for business. I found my current broker, or maybe I should say he found me through an item I posted on U-ship.

Originally Posted by kcscrapper

I'm going to post a v8 bare engine block on ebay what would be the best way to back it to ship it fedex?

As others have said: make a small pallet. Must be under 150# to go regular FedEx. And they probably require it to be boxed or wrapped in cardboard, I assume to protect their conveyor belts. I've found that shipments of over 100# are sometimes a the same cost for regular FedEx/UPS or freight.

I once shipped a cummins KT 450 dieael engine from B.C. to a buyer in California.

The KT series engines have individule cylinder heads for each cylinder. We got $12,000.00 for a none runner with a good crank.



These are an awesome engine which are rebuilt and converted for marine use.

Unfortunatly I have never found another.

I found a 3 speed short shifter trans for my Dads ’28 Ford coup a few years back. Tiny thing for what it was. I bought a large heavy duty tub from WallyMarts , poked some holes in the bottom, banding strapped it through the holes to a slightly larger skid. Taped the lid on then strapped the whole thing again. I shipped it from New York to LA CA, dock to dock via Fedex Ground. If I remember it was around 85-90#s and it was around $1 per pound. At the time I didn’t think it was half bad. It got there fine in that $5 tub.

Wrap it in heavy plastic then crate it in plywood and strap it down on a pallet or make your crate with forklift access.
USHIP.COM will get you the best rate. Cheap rate quotes are from a business address with a forklift shipping to a business with a forklift.
If you are shipping from residence, you're better off dropping it off at the carriers terminal.

Ok my next question is what do I put for shipping on ebay to do this. Contact seller about shipping and cost?