I pulled the engine and autotranny last night without a hoist, and without excess danger, for free. The local rental has no breakdown engine hoists any more, and the trailers cost $40 bucks plus the hassle. I did have a place to suspend the engine from the garage roof.

Here's how: Remove hood. Disconnect all the stuff. Driveshaft, exhause, fuel, electrics.
Using a floor jack, raise the front as high as possible.
Chain the engine to the rafters.
Lower the jack slowly.
Rock the engine free.
Wedge the engine in its new position with large lumber.
Raise the jack.
Re-chain the engine.
Lower the jack.
Rewedge the engine.
Repeat as necessary until the engine is free of the car.
Back the car out from under it.
It happens that this height is perfect for dropping it into the back of my pickup, to take the whole thing over to the car spraywash, so I can acutally work on a clean engine for once.
Repeat until free of car.

Glad my friends don't know how cheap I am.
Now I need a bellhousing to hook up that Tremec 5-speed.