Engine Test Stand

[chaggard27]

Ok so I have a couple of engines in my storage that I am unsure of how well or if they run. I had the idea of building an engine test stand to be able to hook them up and let em rip. I have done quite a bit of research and planning in my head and I have run into a few problems I know I will have to overcome. One being how to mount the starter since it will be on a modified engine stand and will not allow room for a tranny to be mounted. I was thinking of making a bracket to mount it on...thoughts?? Also the other question is with the wiring. Would I be ok to run this with any ecu and wiring harness our would I need a 2g and a 1g seup? Basically I am asking if I had it setup say a 95 and then just had the harness to swap to the 1g cas sensor and maf would I be ok? Has anyone thought or done this before? Input will help and I will for sure make a write up once I get started on this.

 

[Usatuff]

This may help you with a few designs and other things!

Roll Your Own Engine Test Stand - Mustang Monthly Forums at Mustang Monthly Magazine

 

[chaggard27]

Thanks for the link. I am not too worried about the build plans since these engines are small enough to put on a regular engine stand without worry of it falling over. My main obstacles is with the technical side. As far as wiring minimul...ie..minimum required to run the engine as far as sensors and plugs. I answered my Q about the 2g ECU running the 6 bolt...that is called a 6 bolt swap

 

[donniekak]

You can't use a regular engine stand, because you need to mount a flywheel, and transmission bellhousing to start the engine and keep it running right.

 

[chaggard27]

I would have the flywheel on the engine. The engine stand is just the base. It would be modified to fit around the flywheel. I dont see why you would need the bellhousing though since there would be no transmission internals attached. I would mount the starter with a custom made braket to avoid having to have a spare bellhousing.

 

[Usatuff]

Well I started my car with only the injectors, coil pack and cam sensor plugged in

 

[chaggard27]

Thats what I wanted to hear!! I was unsure if I would need the temp sensor since that controlls the warm, cold starts. But if it started with those only then I will try that and then just add from there. Thanks again for the reply!

 

[Usatuff]

Yea I had none of the temp sensors hooked up, speedometer cable, o2 sensor, reservoirs, bcs, non of that was hooked up. the maf was unhooked too but ran like crap and would die

 

[chaggard27]

Yeah I may try and test a few and see what the minimul would be to keep it running so that I can test and make sure there are no real problems with the engine. But even just with it firing and then later dying would say that it works. Cant wait to get this thing built haha. Just need to get a wiring harness which I think I will get this weekend at the local junkyard

 

[BoredDSM]

I wouldn't feel to confident putting an engine on a stand and just running it. There should be some basic precautions. Motors do blow up so why would you want to put it on a stand where it is easily exposed and anything could go in any direction. Also with a running engine thats enough vibration and force to vibrate any engine stand into the floor within the matter of seconds. Even though a stand is rated for 1000 pounds doesn't mean it can hold the force and vibration an engine produces, which is why they were designed with multiple mounting points and braces.

Just my .02.

 

[1990AWD]

You could run the engine with only the bare minimum but wouldn't that defy the point of seeing how WELL they run? And if you only want to find out if they will run at all, just tear it down, and look at the internals. How well it runs depends on the electronic stuff on these engines.

 

[chaggard27]

That is a valid point. That is why I was planning on modifying the engine stand so that I could either mount the front and rear mounts on the 6 bolt or the engine mount as well on the 7 bolt. Do you think that would be sufficient? Maybe I will set up a few walls too just in case it blows up...I had an oil pump blow up in my face and that left residue in my pants....I dont even want to imagine an engine going

You could run the engine with only the bare minimum but wouldn't that defy the point of seeing how WELL they run? And if you only want to find out if they will run at all, just tear it down, and look at the internals. How well it runs depends on the electronic stuff on these engines.

Well I basically want to know if the internals are good without tearing it down. Since these are core motors I have gotten from previous jobs. Also I want to know as far as resale on if they run and have compression. I could tear it down but wanted to have a way to test without tear down since I dont want to have to invest money into gaskets and whatnot to put it back together. That would be the customers responsibility. Basically I want a way to show a customer that an engine will start before they purchase it for a project or rebuild.

 

[BoredDSM]

Honestly I would try and use stock motor mounts with polyurethane bushings and mount that to a frame. That would be the most efficient way of mounting it and also the safest. I just couldnt see an engine stand doing it because of the shear weight of everything bolted on. Figure a short block weighs 200 pounds, now imagine a cylinder head, exhaust manifold, turbo, intake manifold, fluids, and all other accesories to mimic if the engine were in car. It gets up there and then everything in motion I would say build a nice solid steel box frame construction for ease of use.

 

[chaggard27]

The only problem is that I would need the tranny bolted up to use the stock mounts. I was trying to set it up with the engine only. I have had the whole engine with intake, exhaust, turbo, and all accs on the stand before with no problems. Of course with it running and vibrating I would want the extra support but without the tranny hooked on it is a little more difficult.

 

[kicker91laser]

I built one of these a few years ago, I'll see if I can find any pics of it.

Here are some pics of the stand I built a few years ago, it uses an awg 1g bellhousing: I had the safc in there at the time, I will probably wire in a com port so I can hook up dsmlink. I still need to finish it up with cleaner wiring, battery box, com port, better fuel plumbing, and some larger casters.

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[chaggard27]

Thats exaclty what I was talking about!! I like! So did you mount the bell housing to that metal plate on the frame? Also did you use the complete wiring harness when hooking everything up or did you leave out like the boost silenoid and all those emitions things? Do you have 2 ECU's plugged in?

 

[kicker91laser]

Yep, I bolted the bellhousing to the plate, there is a bunch of stuff that is not needed in the harness to make the engine run, bcs included. If you have any more questions feel free to ask.