Taking on another project. Engine break-in stand

That plastic gas can right by the engine and battery would cause me some concern.

I have to come up with something for fuel storage. 2-4 gallon would be more than enough so I may practice my tig (lack of) skills. Lots of Holley blue pumps laying around so I have that covered. Also have an unused aluminum rad here so that will be put in service.

Before you get too deep go the a vo-tech that teaches auto maint or a high school. When I taught we had several well built that went through numerous engine changes and rough handling and still worked like a charm. Had a radiator so you could get plenty of break-in time. Students needed that because I would break the engine and they have to fix it. The radiator was very small.

I built this one a couple years ago--after determining that most prebuilt ones were cheap and good ones were out of my price range and either way none had some features I wanted. I have about $400 into it. The 8" casters were expensive, I tried pneumatic 8" tires before, that was a no go. To much weight for them and by the time you got enough pressure in them, they were ready to pop off the rims--plus it rocked--a lot, when you revved the engine.

It is still a work in progress, I modify it as I go along. It is currently set up to run big and small block Mopars, and big and small Chebby's. Also have a bellhousing for a slant six too if it ever arises.

I have been using a Chrysler electronic ignition to fire all the engines run so far--I made an adapter to hook it to MSD distributors. I don't bother with the mechanical fan anymore, I also have a blue pump and regulator to run engines set up for electric pumps. Mechanical pump engines I run through that pump to verify all is operational. I run a volt gauge, oil gauge and temp gauge. My timing light has a tach function on it.

A 1.5-2 gallon fuel supply has been more than adequate for engine break in so far, I have just recently got a dedicated gas tank that I need to mount up somewhere. As far as where to mount the batter, wherever you can find room to do so. I still have to make a bracket/box, but want it not permanetly mounted to the stand.

The exhaust is a couple of 2.5" swapmeet "turbo" mufflers. I have about two feet of straight pipe after them. I use various adapters I made for manifolds that go to 2.5" or just use 2.5" collectors on headers, and I have two 4 foot sections of flex pipe to connect to the mufflers. I just set the mufflers on jack stands.

I also made it high enough to be A)comfortable to work on, and B) if you ever had to drop the pan, you could while it was still on the stand. I also made it so the bellhousing support unbolts and you lay it down and rebolt it on so it is flush on the frame and the radiator yoke also unbolts.

This is by far one of the best investments I have made and has saved my bacon twice before engines got put into cars. One leaked water from a side head freeze plug, the other had a oil leak that was hard to spot from a valve cover in the rear.

sweet stand , i am think of building one as well , would seem to make adjusting and changing parts and seeing how they work so much easier in winter months. Do you have any more pics like of the back and of the front. looking for ideas.

I will post a couple more later for you.

That looks pretty good. I still want one of these. Starts as a run stand, but front section with controls, radiator, fuel comes off easily. Set up so it can be used for loaded k-frame under the car installs also.





http://www.speedhunters.com/2014/06/aaro...ches-of-awesome Speedhunters...

Well worth the price

That,s the same stand I built very good design.

I ordered the metal on line Sunday and its cut and on its way today. With the holiday UPS says I should have it on Friday.

I went a little different route with mine. Space is a premium over here, and I didn't want to have something else to store that would take up a lot of room. I made up some brackets that sit on the legs of a cherry picker. They take up almost no room and are very easy to set up on the hoist. Here are a couple pictures:

As promised, a few more pics. Some of these were when I was building it still. The 383 was the first engine I built the stand for and ran.

As you can see, the front legs just float on the bottom of the stand and are adjustable, I have 3 different sets of mounts so far, they just slide in the top and I run a bolt through to set the required height.



This shows the rear. The rear plate is drilled for various bellhousings. I actually use the front of a automatic trans case that was cut off being for the BBM and SBM as Chrysler bellhousings are a small fortune. I scored a harder to find big flywheel Chebby bellhousing for a song at a swap meet, they are normally a hundred dollars too. Goal here is to keep the parts as cheap as possible unless your going to run 5 engines a week on the thing.







With a BB Chebby on it, but you can see the blue pump mounted on the side. Also seen is the exhaust I use.

When you used the 727 AT bellhousing, what do you use for a ring gear? A standard flywheel maybe?

Brian

On the fly wheel, you can use a stock flywheel or a jw flexplate for a powerglide there's always some for sale pretty cheap after the cert has expired on here and R/J.

Wow, that engine stand set attached to the legs of the hoist looks like a marketable idea! Anyone have a SBC block I can borrow before the people at Harbor Freight see this?

Something I noticed after receiving a set of those plans from Ebay was that it's designed for motor mounts straight across from each other. I believe our Mopars have one a little farther ahead than the other. It's still doable, it's just something you'll have to address. In the links to videos that he sends there is one big block Mopar running on one of his stands. I has an adaptor to mount the starter and torque convertor with no bell housing. That looked a little scary to me.