I would like to know if anyone has ran their engine on a engine stand or on the ground blocked up. My engine is done but the car engine bay and new floor installation is not completed yet. and I would like to break in the cam.
Thanks, 63GT

i think dave mueller has done it. he sent me some pics (back before my old computer crashed) and he had a pretty slick setup. i think he used an old bellhousing to mount the starter, and he fabbed a cradle/dolly to support the motor. also a set of basic gauges for temp, oil pressure, etc. i forget how the cooling setup was done. i've seen these "running" engine stands at swap meets, usually guys who sell engines have them to run for potential customers.
although it looked like dave fabbed the whole thing from scratch (and executed it beautifully,) i always thought an old k-member could be used for the front mounts, and a simple bracket could support the rear around the bellhousing with minimal work.

-james

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Thanks James,
That's what I was thinking of. An old k-member and find a bell housing and set it up that way.

Yes, I have seen this done too. In college we had 10 3800's on rolling carts, all you had to do was hook it up to the ecm/starter unit.

I have run engines "out of car" many times. I made a stand out of an old K-member but found that it was larger then I needed, that made it hard to work around the engine. Later I welded some eyes onto a dolley and made a roll-around running stand.

For cooling, I hook a garden hose to the engine and meter cold tap water into the waterpump heater return "bib" to keep it cool. You will be surprized at how little cold water it takes to keep it cool. (use a long radaitor flex hose and connect the water thermostat outlet to the water pump inlet. Hook-up a pulley so the water circulates "round and round".
DD

I think a 60's style truck bellhousing with the low starter would be good for this as it has mounts on either side. The only problem I see is this bell housing requires the flywheel to be installed from the bottom AFTER it is bolted to the engine. (that was fun to figure out the first time) You would need the 11"? flywheel and an old style 3 bolt starter.

Back in the 80's we ran all kinds of stuff hanging from a engine hoist.
(WE LEARNED THE HARD WAY NOT TO DO THIS)

for cooling I would use a rad with longer hoses and an electric fan.


just some ideas to throw out there


bondo

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