Any good tips for firing up motor on engine stand?
Would like to test a supposedly rebuilt engine included with a project car before placing it back in the engine compartment. It's a 1972 318 two barrel automatic with old style points distributor. The tranny is being rebuilt. Never used a home built test stand before. With the starter teeth built into the torque convertor, the first problem will be how to engage the starter motor. Do I need to purchase a manual transmission flywheel in order to start the motor or is there another way? Do I need coolant just to run it a few minutes? What's the best way to supply gasoline? Need an alternator and how should things being grounded? This should be fun but will be a first and any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
A. By the time you go through the time & trouble to build a test stand, it would have been less work to install it in the car....
But I digress....
To mount a starter, you will need a bell housing, maybe a spare trans and bell housing, or the important pieces there of....
For gasoline supply, why not just get a container with a nipple, like an old in good shape washer reservoir or something, and mount it above the fuel pump height and just feed it into the fuel pump...
Alternator? Why bother with the whole electrical system. Go with a battery charger. If you are only running an engine, then just hook a battery up to the starter and engine block for ground, then put a battery charger on it and the fast charge should be able to keep up with the coil's demand... (if not, the battery should have enough reserve to keep up before it drains the battery too far)
Use a mechanical oil pressure and water temp gauge...
Note: These are just some thoughts that popped into my head and have not been well thought out, just something to start with and work from there.... Ways of doing it cheap and easy... (the way I like my women... LOL!) :D
