How do I hook up my slant six motor to an engine stand? Problem solved.

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cruiser

cruiser

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Hi All: Sorry if this is a pretty basic question, but I've never put a slant six on an engine stand before. I know that there are four bolts that connect from the stand to the back of the engine. I've attached a photo of the back of the motor. Questions:
1. What size of grade 8 bolts do I need to get to connect the stand adapter to the back of the engine? Length? Pitch?
2. What holes on the back of the motor do I run the bolts into? I'm assuming that I shouldn't use the starter mounting bolt holes. (See photo).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated - thanks!

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See if this helps. Keep in mind, this engine is on the stand upside down. You can see you use the two bottom most holes and go all the way through with nuts on the other side. Then for the top, which is on the bottom in these pictures, you use the two top most bellhousing bolt holes. The last picture shows you which slots in the head to use on the top and bottom. But as I said, keep in mind this engine is upside down.
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There you bees. If you need more, just say the word. Oh and WHY are you messin with a slant six on an engine stand? I thought your slant 6 was a beautiful dream.
 
RustyRatRod said:
There you bees. If you need more, just say the word. Oh and WHY are you messin with a slant six on an engine stand? I thought your slant 6 was a beautiful dream.
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Rusty: There appear to be spacers between the engine and the attachment fitting on all four bolts. Is this correct? What size and length spacers are these? And yeah, my slanty is a dream but somebody is giving me a spare one.
 
Like shown above, use a 4-caster engine stand, DO NOT use a three caster stand, it WILL fall over when moved...
 
cruiser said:
Rusty: There appear to be spacers between the engine and the attachment fitting on all four bolts. Is this correct? What size and length spacers are these? And yeah, my slanty is a dream but somebody is giving me a spare one.
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Those are made onto the engine stand head. I've never seen an engine stand head not have them. Does yours not have them? I can measure them if you want, but they are welded on as part of the arms on the engine stand.
 
RustyRatRod said:
Those are made onto the engine stand head. I've never seen an engine stand head not have them. Does yours not have them? I can measure them if you want, but they are welded on as part of the arms on the engine stand.
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Yeah, you're right. The stand has them.
 
I’ve got a 360 on a wooden dolly as well, normally it’s secured with a ratchet strap but I needed the strap.
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Lots of good advice to be had above, but I thought I'd add a few things I learned the hard way.

For sure use grade 8 bolts, nuts, and washers. You'll probably have to fiddle with what length as the "spacers" you asked about are different by manufacturer. It only took me a half dozen tries to get the right bolts to fit my stand. :rolleyes:

If you are buying a new stand, make sure it will actually bolt up to a slant. I had two of them (one was mine, one was a buddy's) that would no way no how bolt to a slant. The arms were too short, and the slots in the head were such that there wasn't enough adjustment to reach the bolt holes. My current stand is a Cadillac-level beauty, mostly because I was in the right place at the right time and it was very nicely priced.

There are many ways to skin this cat, but here's mine on my stand. Like RRR's photo, clearly this is upside down in this shot. I used the two lower bolts on the engine, and then the next two going up towards the top of the engine. One mistake I made with my old three-wheel stand was just bolting it up with no thought to the balance point. I had most of the engine sticking up (the crankshaft was even with the rotation shaft on the stand), and when I added the head and rolled it over to do the oil pan, it came within a whisker of tipping over - I was only saved by an alert friend who was standing there and caught it. Notice in this photo, the center of mass on the engine (including the head) is centered on the rotating shaft on the stand. This stand has a geared crank to roll things over, but a balanced load is best even if using RRR's style stand.

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Here's a close-up of how it's bolted up.

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And this is when it's upright, still fairly well balanced.

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Don't know about slants but with the LA small block the more ya bolt on it gets heavier keep that in mind...once the heads are on its top heavy just be careful...watch where your feet are if it tips etc.
 
Thanks for all the good recommendations. I went with the 1000 lb. four caster stand from Harbor Freight. And thanks for the excellent advice on how to attach the head piece to the engine, especially considering the center of mass of the motor. Great advice!
 
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