Hmmm what would the wood block be doing?

Making the hand brake cables tighter than you could pull them by hand?

Interesting. Btw, I didn't mean it hijack this thread so next time I will post a new one. Rasta pretty much has the general idea anyway. The thought was to use the wood as a wheel chock (hint), put it in gear, handbrake, etc. you got a free lunch my friend!

You don't even need to do that. You can do it with out putting the car in gear, etc...

Remove ignition coil wire, take your 24mm socket and a breaker bar, position the socket and breaker bar on the crank bolt on the driver side so it is not touching the ground, but is close, then crank the motor. Use the piece of wood if you are not on solid ground, or you don't want your breaker bar to get marred.

To help illustrate Matt's approach, here is a picture of him working on his truck:

http://tatfoundation.org/man_under_truck.jpg

lol. That guy has it better than me!