2x4 engine stand

[Rocket-bob]

I'm getting ready to pull the engine this week and start my rebuild. I looked through the threads on engine stands. I have a three-wheel job that would do the work but wake up screaming at night thinking about my 60 year old engine falling over. What I have seen that looks pretty smart is a 2x4 crate with wheels on it that will hold the engine or engine and transmission combination. Even cooler would be if it were stable enough to hold the engine during a test run after a rebuild.

I built one out of steel a few years ago for a Y-block ford and it worked great as a rebuild platform and as a test stand. That being said, I had a spare engine and lots of experience. I have neither for the flathead. Does anyone have a set of plans for building a stand?

[Young Ed]

It doesn't take much. I would think you could leave the engine dangling from the hoist and make one pretty quick if you had the supplies on hand before you removed it. Mine is just various pieces of wood and some casters I found in the alley on trash night and I have had the engine running on it.

[Don Coatney]

Here is what I did. Bob Toft is my witness. The engine was running when that picture was taken.

[Dan Babb]

That's nice...gives you a lot of access. I made mine with 2x8's. It's very stable. I have it sitting on a heavy duty furniture dolly now, so I can wheel it around and store it.

Just measure the inside width and bolt it together with some lag bolts from the front & rear (drill pilot holes first). The oil pan bolts sit on the top edge of the 2x8's. You need to cut out the board where the oil pan bulges out.

[Merle Coggins]

Supplies include a length of 2x4, some 3" screws, small piece of 1/2" plywood, tape measure, saw, furnature dolly. All things I had laying around the garage. This is the second one I made. This one ended up with Josh (41/53dodges). The first one I made wasn't as strong. It went to Ed (Yound Ed) and I believe he beefed it up and still uses it.

Edited December 5, 2011 by Merle Coggins

[Young Ed]

Yup it looks like this now. I think I added the cross pieces maybe and I know I added the wheels. Works great. Got wheels and pieces laying about to build a second one.

[Jim Gaspard]

Mine. Pretty simple, but easy to move around. Cart was a $25 surplus buy at U-Haul. My welding skills are pretty basic.

[48Dodger]

Gotta take some updated pictures....made this from a bent frame.

48D

[JBNeal]

I squeezed in some flathead time back in June in between tree trimmings, utilizing info I gleaned here, a few sticks of HomeDepot not-so-great discounted pressure-treated lumber, and a mess of leftover thread-cutting 2-1/2" deck screws, and made a few engine stands...this helped to tidy up the place with the spare engines I have out and to get ready to pull the engines that need attention.  I had a spare oil pan in my stash and used it for spacing for the four stands I built...the first one took maybe an hour to get done, the other 3 got knocked out in less than an hour.  The Harbor Freight furniture dolly is still cheaper than buying 4 individual casters, though they are not bullet-proof (found that out moving some heavy furniture for a lady friend into an upstairs apartment when the casters pooped out their greasy ball bearings onto a new carpet...OOPS).  Total cost for each stand was less than $20; most of that was the dolly.

The cut list for this stand is simple:  

2x4:  29" (2)

         18" (2)

         7" (12)

1x4:  10" (4)

I made two of the engine stands with longer runners so I could move those with the forklift if needed...the extra length is for some cross beams I can add for stable movement with the forks and allow me to put the whole stand + engine in the back of a truck for transport to and from the machine shop

 

[Tony WestOZ]

Last time I had a big clean up and moving bits around the shed I made up some wheeled frames for the engines to be stored. I wish this area looked this clean now.

 

 

Never enough stands when you need them as well.

 

 

Tony

 

[RNR1957NYer]

16 hours ago, JBNeal said:

I squeezed in some flathead time back in June in between tree trimmings, utilizing info I gleaned here, a few sticks of HomeDepot not-so-great discounted pressure-treated lumber, and a mess of leftover thread-cutting 2-1/2" deck screws, and made a few engine stands...this helped to tidy up the place with the spare engines I have out and to get ready to pull the engines that need attention.  I had a spare oil pan in my stash and used it for spacing for the four stands I built...the first one took maybe an hour to get done, the other 3 got knocked out in less than an hour.  The Harbor Freight furniture dolly is still cheaper than buying 4 individual casters, though they are not bullet-proof (found that out moving some heavy furniture for a lady friend into an upstairs apartment when the casters pooped out their greasy ball bearings onto a new carpet...OOPS).  Total cost for each stand was less than $20; most of that was the dolly.

The cut list for this stand is simple:  

2x4:  29" (2)

         18" (2)

         7" (12)

1x4:  10" (4)

I made two of the engine stands with longer runners so I could move those with the forklift if needed...the extra length is for some cross beams I can add for stable movement with the forks and allow me to put the whole stand + engine in the back of a truck for transport to and from the machine shop

 

I came to the same conclusion as to the cost effectiveness of the Harbor Freight dolly.  I disassembled the dolly and cut up a 2x6 and steel shelving legs I had laying around. It's not as robust as yours, but I'm into it for the $9.99 cost of the dolly!

[lostviking]

Harbor Freight has a 750lb 1000lb four wheel engine stand for $67. Crates are fine for storing an engine, my spare is on one. But I'm starting to disassemble it so I'm going to buy one of the HF ones. You need to spin the engine and I'm not into laying it on a bench and flopping it around.

 

I think the engine stands are pretty low cost.

Edited October 19, 2019 by lostviking
Had the weight wrong, was 1000lbs :)

[JBNeal]

Ya might want to spring for the 1000# version, I have a 230 on a 1000# stand now and even it wobbles a bit when moving around...the lighter weight engine stands might be too unstable to use safely...though be warned that sometimes the quality of these assemblies isn't always the best

Edited October 19, 2019 by JBNeal

[Tony WestOZ]

Have to agree about going for the larger model.

 

I was never happy with either of my stands (though I was swinging 4 and 6 cylinder diesels off them) so I built my own.

The first was built from the base of a 2 ton engine crane I was given. (The rest was mounted on the back of my ute). I also fitted the bottle jack to give some height adjustability.

 

 

 

The second I went totally over the top.

About 12" adjustability and dose not flex. Very stable.

 

 

[lostviking]

17 hours ago, JBNeal said:

Ya might want to spring for the 1000# version, I have a 230 on a 1000# stand now and even it wobbles a bit when moving around...the lighter weight engine stands might be too unstable to use safely...though be warned that sometimes the quality of these assemblies isn't always the best

I was wrong, it's 1000lbs.