Ive been thinking of building a couple engine building stands for the shop. I'd love to see some old designs from the days long gone. Lets see em!
@MARTINSPEED Hello, I do not know how far back you want to go, but as teenagers just getting started with our hot rod project, an engine was the first thing we searched for at the local speed shops. Some motors advertised were complete motors, just pulled out of old wrecks. Our local junk yards had plenty of fairly new 57-59 SBC motors and transmissions pulled out of recent “totaled” cars. They were tempting, but the cost was close to the guys at Reath Automotive that had a Flathead complete motor and an SBC 283 motor with three carbs sitting in their shop. My brother had his ideas of what motor and what he wanted to do. So we kept looking and found a long block 283 sitting apart in another smaller neighborhood speed shop. Not many knew of this small shop. So, we made a package deal for all of their parts that made the motor complete, including Chevy Truck heads, aluminum covers, 6 Strombergs. It was less then a complete motor anywhere. We had to rent a trailer to get all of the parts home. The problem started as soon as we got the trailer home. how to get the long block back to the backyard garage, as it was too heavy to carry. My brother had some angle iron scrap pieces and told me to get the hacksaw ready. He laid out the pieces and welded a nice rectangular angle iron frame. Then he needed wheels and the only thing we had were steel roller skates. So, we took those apart and the flat side was welded to the bottom of the angle iron frame. Now, at least it moved. Jnaki The angle iron sides gave it a drop down area to enclose any movement. A flat steel plate was welded into the bottom of the frame. Now, it was sturdy and the skates allowed movement. We had a 2x4 and a 6x6 portable addition to our larger two car garage for cross beam supports. To that we had hooked up a chain hoist for any and all heavy lifting. We used it to get the long block out of the trailer. We found out that the pan/crank area was not enough to sit on the rolling frame. So, we had to prop up the motor with shortened 4x4 beams to match the lowest area of the motor and now, the motor could rest level on the rolling cart. But, we had to strap the motor down with our ropes for no movement when transporting it back and forth. The bad thing was it was only forward and back movement, as there were no rotating wheels available at the time. The good thing was the installation place was all smooth concrete and it was easy to slide the front of the cart/strapped motor sideways to get it lined up for the overhead pulley crane and into the workspace. Note: The original Stromberg powered 293 SBC motor was moved to the two car garage and lifted onto the pulley, off of the cart. Then, the Willys Coupe was rolled into place and the motor was lowered down. After a few months of the 283 SBC racing, we decided to rebuilt a little larger and add some blower spec parts along with a new 671 supercharger. We had just received a new to the market, Isky-Gilmer Belt Drive complete kit for the SBC, along with an Edlebrock manifold. This was the final motor that moved from the backyard garage workspace to the pulley installation location in the larger two car garage into the 194o Willys Coupe on the homemade engine stand on wheels.
The Jalopy Journal
