Easy Run Test Stand; Out of Business?

[Billohio]

Nice cart you picked up!

[SuperNovaSS]

Seems like a great idea to me.

Jason

[Lynn]

Any downside to using a Marine application fuel tank?

[scuncio]

This is what I used, price was fair.

[Lynn]

I got ready to weld the longitudinal square tubing on. Got to thinking; what if i don't like where I positioned it? Hmmm. Decided to bolt it together. Besides, sitting right next to the drill press and holes are pretty easy with a drill press... if you use cutting fluid and don't wear out your bits.

The two longitudinals are 66 inches long. I wanted a stand that I could bolt virtually any engine to... even if I had a trans mounted.

So far, I have not bought any steel for this project. The square tubing (some is 1.5, some is 1 inch) came from either the giant rolling doors or the door frames that were on my shop when i bought it. Gave away one of the three doors, but no one wanted the other two; so I disassembled them to save the steel frames. Gave away the corrugated tin. It was in very poor shape. Went to a good home; the guy made chicken coops out of if. Even the brake is repurposed. The PO of the building left some parts of an old Delta saw stand. I pirated the brake off of the lower frame and adapted it to this cart. That way, I can lock it down, and didn't have to buy locking casters. I used part of an old muffler clamp held down with a bolt that swivels in place to hold the brake in the "on" position. Forgot to get a pic.

There are three laterals. The largest lateral bar is 3 x 1/4 inch angle iron. Way beefier than I need; but it was free; so why not?
It will support the uprights that will mount to the engine mounts. I have some really beefy 2 inch x 1/4 angle iron that I will use for the uprights.

The other two are square tubing. I think one is 2 inch and the other is one or 1.5. Not sure. Both have 1/8 inch steel plate welded to them as reinforcements, so they are plenty strong.

One of those will hold the uprights that will bolt to the back of a bell housing for engines with no trans. The second one, farther back, will holt a trans mount.

All three laterals are infinitely adjustable. I simply used "U" clamps, similar to muffler clamps to locate them. Less than 3 bucks a piece. Had to spend SOME money on this.
Will be spending plenty on wiring, a tach, fuel tank and radiator. Loosen the nuts and slide it to where you want it. Tighten the nuts.

Yeah, with all this repurposed metal, it is pretty ugly. I doubt I will clean it up and have it powder coated. More into utility on something like this than looks.

I will be buying some plastic plugs or caps for the ends of those longitudinal tubes. Already cut my legs three times today running into them while working on some other things.

This project is on hold until I get the radiator ordered a 4 row for a big block 69 Camaro with integral fan and shroud. Didn't want to trust myself to make a mount for it until I had it here. Will probably set a spare block up on it with bell housing, then with trans to get it set up for SBC. After that, shouldn't be too difficult to make whatever pieces I need to adapt if to Studebaker, MG, Ferrari, BMW, or whatever comes along.

[Lynn]

Haven't worked on this in a while.

I used the base of that Delta table saw stand for the radiator support. I had to cut out the gussets on one end and shorten the assembly, then weld the gussets back on.

The ends that I cut off already had angle iron welded on the ends, so I bolted them to the cart to mount the support to. Added a couple of uprights, and it worked out well.

No pics yet, but I hinged another of the Delta saw stand pieces to the radiator support for the dash plate. Had another piece of scrap tin that was the perfect size. It's painted yellow on one side and green on the other. Any Packer fans here?

Here it is before I mounted the dash. Will try to remember to post pics of the dash tonight. Forgot my camera yesterday, and phone pics suck..... they always come out sideways for me.

I should probably pay more respect to that old block... it is the original 302 block from my Z/28, but the only block I had down a the shop. The rest are in the garage at the house. That nasty bell housing is the original 621 for the LT-1. Just needed something for mock up. Oil pan is also off the LT-1. That's why the sump is so large.

Still need to make a battery mount, and mounts for the fuel tank and coolant recovery tank. Then need to cut holes for all my gauges. I bought a cheap Bosch Tach that has a switch for 4 cyl, 6 cyl and 8 cyl. I have an old set of RAC (made in Japan) gauges that I will never use on a car, so they are perfect for this project.

This thing is SO overkill, but, like I said, I don't plan to use two body carts at the same time, so it is basically free. I have STILL not bought one piece of steel for the project. All scrap. I MAY spring for another set of larger casters; some that lock. I do have the brake on it, but may decide I want the added security of four locking casters.

[Lynn]

Unbelievably, I do not have a 2 1/16 inch hole saw!!!

Guess I have never had to cut a hole for gauges; always used the supplied bracket.

Any recommendations on a quality hole saw?

Not going to waste time hooking up the amp gauge. Besides oil pressure and water temp, was thinking a vacuum gauge, and maybe a fuel pressure gauges; one low pressure set up for carbs, and one high pressure for FI set ups.

Also, just because I already have a spare pair of AFR gauges, I will mount them.

Any other gauges I should consider?

Not looking forward to wiring...

[Lynn]

No reason to get fancy with the fuel tank "bracket". Just zip tied it to the base.

[Lynn]

Here is the panel and frame assembly for the dash. Cut down a couple of small gate hinges, drilled an extra hole in each and attached it to the radiator support.

Cut some 5/8 rebar to length for prop rods. Drilled a hole in one end and tapped it for a 5/16 stud. Drilled a 1/4 inch hole cross ways in the other end to pivot on a 1/4 inch bolt.

I wanted this to be able to fold down against the radiator support when not in use. Takes up less space that way. But, I needed it to fold up and out of the way of air flow, so the "puller" fan could get some air through the radiator!

[Lynn]

I was thinking that I would make some gizmo to retain the prop rods stored in the straight up position; then saw that they hit nothing and were out of the way hanging straight down. So, I just let gravity handle that storage issue.