Old Cars Rule!

HOME

RESTORATIONS

TECH ARTICLES

LINKS

First, here is a picture of the old, worn out, tired, leaking 318 that the previous owner said was 'recently rebuilt'…

And here is a picture of the new 360, bored .030 over, with an RV cam, an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake manifold, an Edelbrock Performer 1405 600 cfm carburetor, and OBX R stainless steel center dump headers
[in the mail at the time of this posting]
Mr. Bill thinks his engine should have no problem smokin’ the tires...I agree!

Bill and I oftentimes come up with what we think are really "awesome ideas". Most of the time these ideas quickly end up being dumped when we figure out they aren’t so "awesome'.

Our engine break-in stand is not one of these times…

As the restoration was moving forward we had a conversation about the engine going back in and the break-in procedure. We both voiced our opinions about how bad it sucked to find something wrong with the engine after it was back in the vehicle, and what a pain in the ass it is to have to pull it back out to fix it. This is where the engine break-in stand idea was born.

Yes, we know this is not a new or unique idea, and that there are thousands of them out there. But we wanted to do ours a little differently.

One of the concerns we had was that between us we had six or so engines to build and break-in. Everything from the small block 273 to the big block 440. We did not want to build a different stand for each engine. So the break-in stand would have to be very universal and made to handle all of the engines we were going to build. Then we thought of all our friends in the club and the engines they were building/going to build, and figured we should build the break-in stand so it is able to handle any engine, from any manufacturer...Ford, Chevy, Mopar, VW, four cylinder, six cylinder, V8… no problem, it will handle them all!

So here it is…

Side

Front

Rear

The dimensions of the stand are based on holding an engine as big as the Mopar big block 440.

The two main cross members were designed to easily slide the entire length of the stand, and there are six fully adjustable uprights that easily slide the entire width of the stand. The four uprights attached to the adjustable cross members are for supporting the engine [and transmission with Mopars] and are capable of adjusting to fit any engine up to the monster 440. The two uprights on the front frame rail are designed to adjust to fit any radiator.

In essence, you could break in a Ford 351 engine one day and then break in a VW air cooled the next. All you would need to do is change out the unique uprights that fit that engine.

We fabricated a ‘pod’ which holds the engine gauges, tachometer, switches, and ignition system. Simply hook up a battery, provide fuel [we have a five gallon boat gas cell for that], turn on the main power switch, press the starter button and bingo…break in time!

Bill, Mike, Jerry, Robin, and myself spent a day finalizing the pod, fabricating the radiator uprights, and wiring the stand. Mike and Bill were the electricians, I worked the metal, Robin took pictures and asked questions, and Jerry supervised. It was a fun day with lots of laughs and ribbing, ending when we hooked everything up and bumped the starter making sure it all worked!