Engine Test Stand from Scrap and Junk

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Keystone

Keystone

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About a year ago I bought a small log splitter that came in a steel shipping crate. I thought it would be a good candidate for the frame of an engine test stand, so a couple months ago I made it happen.

Here's the crate when I brought the splitter home:
1 - Splitter Crate.jpg


First step was to take the corner pieces and reattach them as the caster mounts:
2 - Caster Brackets.jpg


I tried to reuse the fasteners from the shipping crate wherever possible, so here's bolting on the casters, which where in the scrap bin a work. I checked with maintenance and they didn't mind me taking them. One doesn't pivot very well, but they were free.
3 - Casters.jpg


Next I scavenged some more angle pieces off of the other crate frame to use as the lower mounting points.
4 - Lower Framework.jpeg


One small problem I ran into was the side supports on the crate had ends that were swaged flat. I found it wasn't too hard to reshape them back into angles using the press.
5 - Side Supports 1.jpg


6 - Side Supports 2.jpg


7 - Side Supports 3.jpg


Continued...
 
Next was figuring out the mounting for the front. By the way, this is a LA 318 that came with a 904 I bought. I cleaned up and reused the spool mounts.
8 - Front Mounting.jpg


I don't get the chance to weld too often, so I get a bit rusty, but it comes back quick enough.
9 - Welds 1.jpg


10 - Welds 2.jpg


For the rear of the engine, and also the starter mounting, I used a bellhousing and flywheel I got from early 90's Dakota in a junkyard nearby. $75 which also included a pair of old gauges I found.
11 - Rear Mounting.jpg


Once the mounting was complete, this is figuring out where the battery should go. I was originally going to use a spare underhood wiring harness I had, but decided after taking this picture to go with the starter/battery wiring from the 5.2 Magnum I'm rebuilding, which is what the test stand is eventually going to be for.
12 - Harness Wiring.jpg


Continued...
 
For the control panel I had a pair of scrapped drawer sides, again from work. We make thousand of cabinets a day, so a lot of this stuff gets scrapped for scratches and minor blemishes. I also drew up a rough layout on CAD to help me figure out where to place things. * No idea why it rotated this? *
13 - Control Panel 1.jpg


This is what things looked like installed. The ignition box and ballast resistor were leftover after I converted my blue car over to HEI, the coil came with the LA, and the other electrical parts I had in my collection of stuff from doing Industrial Controls engineering work for 30 years.
14 - Control Panel 2.jpg


Here's the back side:
15 - Control Panel 3.jpg


To attach the panel, I used a pair of drawer guides. Not the sturdiest, but it did the trick.
16 - Control Panel Mounting.jpg


This is the finished product:
17 - Complete.jpg


Total spend was $75 for the bell/flywheel, and another $2.80 for some fasteners I had to buy. Even if you had to buy the casters and the electrical parts it still wouldn't be too much. Not having to buy any steel really helps though.
 
Love it, very cool, I made an engine stand and a welding cart from the shipping crate that my hoist came in. Didn't think about making a run stand at the time, nice work!
 
Thanks the likes everyone.

I used to be a little intimidated about doing fabrication type stuff (or even making things from scratch) because it was so different than the un-assembling/replacing/re-assembline repairs I was used to. Just get a rough plan together, it doesn't even have to be 100% complete, and go slow and do the measure twice, drill/cut/weld once thing and it's actually not that difficult. It really was an enjoyable project.

Honestly, the hardest part was getting the bellhousing out of the truck. The junkyard is very basic, and you're pretty much on your own for everything. Meaning, go scrounge around for scissor jacks, old wheels to wedge underneath as you lift it in stages, cardboard and whatever you can find lay on, etc. All the hard work aside though, it was still a lot of fun.
Junkyard Dakota.jpg
 
Purchase a log splitter and get a DYI engine run stand free!
:lol:
Good job. A couple more pieces of steel for a radiator support and add a tach. Home run!
 
rumblefish360 said:
Purchase a log splitter and get a DYI engine run stand free!
:lol:
Good job. A couple more pieces of steel for a radiator support and add a tach. Home run!
Click to expand...

Thanks! And yes, by the time I'm done rebuilding the Magnum I'll have a rad to put on there. I was curious to see if that old LA ran. Not sure what to do with it though because I only needed the trans. This is bringing it home:
Resized 318 & 904.jpg


Maybe I'll offer it up for sale on here for cheap.
 
A friend, his son, and myself turned this …
567FAFD6-740F-4E0B-9285-07C88FB3BB31.jpeg


Into this…
5BA919AA-E762-45ED-AECA-A4069EC8BF32.jpeg


It was as a Smith machine (squat rack) that was at my fire stations gym. None of us are fond of Smith machines. Free squats are actually safer. I new exactly what the metal was going to be used for before I even disassembled it.

We used these plans….
60889E42-33BA-4751-94D2-943920186D83.jpeg
 
Very cool! I love makin something from nothing or something that would ultimately be thrown away.
 
Nice work keystone!

I started my V8 'test-stand' a few year ago and now I've seen this I will attempt to finish mine too?

How's about a V8 food blender...

topgearv8.jpg
 
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