I cheaped out and got a 1 ton crane because I tend to work on tiny cars (corollas, miatas, civics etc.) but find that usually once I'm done disconnecting everything and ready to lift the engine out I actually lower the car a bit on the jackstands to give the crane more clearance the yank out the engine, leaving just enough access under in case I forgot to disconnect anything.
But if you talking about dropping the engine out of the BOTTOM, then that's another matter and I don't think that's possible without a lift on most cars.