One of the small projects I decided to take on in the process of cleaning up the garage was making an engine stand for one of the engines in storage within. At this moment we have two SBC 305's, two SBF 302's (one complete, one broken down), a SBF 289, a Chrysler 440 BB, a SBM 318 disassembled, and a number of transmissions. Well engines typically weigh upwards to 600 lbs a piece with all of the accessories hooked up. With that, one can imagine that moving one of these would be a bear to move around the garage when necessary. The only option really was to use the engine crane to lift the engine up and roll the whole works around in order to set the engine down in its new spot. The other option is to build engine stands/cradles for each engine so they can be moved around the garage when need be without the use of the engine crane.
The first engine in question is one of the SBC engines. It's not complete but its enough that it's a PITA to move. It was sitting on top of a tire to keep it upright so its not laying on its side or on any critical component. I also had a couple of homemade stands that were made specifically for the SBC block. I figured I can build onto these stands and produce a rolling platform that will properly cradle the engine. I figured I could attach a some 2x4's to the stands to make a base that would hold the stands then attach some heavy duty caster wheels that can hold the weight of the heavy engine. The first thing I had to do was get the engine crane into position and hook up the balancer to the block so I can lift the whole works up to attach the two frame/stand pieces. This was rather easy, just hooking the two chains on the balancer to two bolt points on the cylinder heads at the front and back, using grade 8 bolts so as to ensure that the chains won't break free. Once the balancer was hooked up I was able to lift the thing up. The two frames were made with off the shelf angle iron that was welded together with three mounting points to hold the frames at the engine mount holes on the lower sides and two on the bell housing bolt holes. With the frames bolted up to the engine block I can move on to the next step, making the base out of some scrap 2x4's. After looking at the whole works, I decided that I could get away with just attaching two 2x4's, one at the front and one at the back, linking the left and right corners of the frames together. Rather than building a whole frame that would've incorporated four boards, this method allowed me to get away with just two boards. Since the frames are indeed iron, they would support the brunt of the weight while the boards are really just there to help hold the wheels. I had to drill a couple extra holes in each frame to be able to run some wood screws through to hold the boards to the metal frames. There were already a couple of holes in the frames but they were larger, for 5/16" or 3/8" bolts, so I had to use fender washers to be able to secure the narrower wood screws through these larger holes. The last step in this process is installing the caster wheels. I picked up eight casters from the store, all metal, including the wheels themselves, rated at 300 lbs a piece, so they will be more than able to handle the weight of even a complete engine collectively. As with attaching the 2x4's to the frames, the casters were attached to the 2x4's using wood screws with washers as well. Once these were secured the whole unit was pretty much done. With that I lowered the engine on its stand to the floor, taking weight off the chains of the balancer and putting all the weight on the casters. Everything on the structure held just fine and I was able to roll the whole engine on its stand across the garage over to its temporary resting spot in a corner with some other auto parts. As I noted earlier, I had eight casters and used four. This was because I planned on making another stand for a 2nd engine, which at first was going to be the Chrysler 440 BB engine but after thinking about it, I figured that I probably need to invest in more rotating engine stands and just put the remaining engines on these, and maybe make another rolling homemade stand for a SBF or SBM engine so if I happen to get my hands on another engine in the future, I can just stick said engine on one of my homemade stands to roll it in a corner prior to putting it on a commercially made rotating engine stand. I would rather have several rotating engine stands with ready engines that I can put to immediate use. The completion of this little project will go a long way to further organization and efficiency in the garage.
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