engine stand

[BobHorvath]

I had to get rather creative in order to support my 3000 engine on my engine stand. has anyone else had problems and/or solutions?

 

[HEALEYJAG]

I had a standard engine stand that I borrowed from a friend..with the legs pulled out as far as they can go , had no difficulties..

Pete

 

[GregW]

I had to get rather creative in order to support my 3000 engine on my engine stand. has anyone else had problems and/or solutions?

I didn't have any trouble, I would stay away from a stand with only three wheels. Could you be more specific with what problem you are having?

 

[BobHorvath]

The stand plate and the holes in it did not line up with bulkhead pattern in the block.

 

[Patrick67BJ8]

The stand plate and the holes in it did not line up with bulkhead pattern in the block.

I have a 4 wheel engine stand and the stand plate has 4 arms that attach to the engine plate and are movable to be able to attach to the engine stand plate. Are you missing these arms?
Patrick

 

[BobHorvath]

I have the arms and when applied the rotating axis is way off the cg of the engine and the crank flang will not pass through with out suspending the engine and moving one of the arms while the engine is fastened at 3 points with the arms. The pattern of the bellhousing adaptor plate has a tough time lining up with the arms in place. I ended up useing 3 of the arms as spacers for the through bolts and the 4th as an arm extention.

 

[Barryp]

I too was very concerned about hanging one of these behemoths on an engine stand. What I did was removed the movable arms from the stand plate and bolted the plated directly to the LS engine mt holes. Three of the four bolt holes fit, and with a little modification to the plate you can catch the fourth with a long bolt that goes through the center hole of the stand plate and tube. This way you can access the front and rear of the engine at the same time, and you don't have a three foot 500lb moment arm.


Barry

 

[Randy Forbes]

While I haven't done this yet, as I've not needed to build a Healey engine since I thought about it (knocks on wood...)...

My plan is to take a pair of the 3/4-wheeled HF-type stands, and eliminate the tubes for both forward set of wheels; essentially the two (2) stands would be facing each other (follow me so far?) with a tube connecting the two (2) stands together.

Now you'd have to fabricate your own mounting pads, but instead of grabbing the engine from the backend, the pads would bolt to the engine mount bosses.

You'd also have to figure out the offset, to balance the engine fore/aft in the stand, so you could easily rotate it.

The main advantage would be the ability to have access to the backend, so the plate, flywheel, clutch and all could be bolted up while still on the stand.

If anyone goes ahead with this before I do, please post up some pictures.

 

[dougie]

I've had my race motor in and out a half doze times in the last couple years and always use this motor stand, https://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=32916 without any problems. It does take 2 people to spin it 180 degrees, but at 500lbs.+ I think this would be the case with a Healey motor on any stand.

Dougie

 

[GregW]

Hi Doug,
I have a stand very similar, I just didn't get it at HF. I was able to rotate the engine by myself. The main reason probably was I greased where the mount slides into the top of the stand.

 

[dougie]

I'm forwarding this info from Richard Mayer. The trick is to mount the pivot center of the stand above the crankshaft center (with the engine in the upright position), so that the engine will rotate smoothly throughout 360 degrees. But, the correct distance between the pivot center and the crankshaft center depends on whether you have the head on the engine. BTY, these are a set of Richard's custom race
headers mock-up in the picture.

Dougie

 

[Johnny]

I had to get rather creative in order to support my 3000 engine on my engine stand. has anyone else had problems and/or solutions?

Hello Bob, lets talk about what you're trying to accomplish first. If you're providing a place to store the engine there's all types of engine "stands", most home made and work just fine. If you're talking about something to hold the engine while you tear down or assemble that's different.

I learned this step from the MG folks; while in the car remove as much as you can, head, exhaust manifold, intake manifold, carbs of course, starter, generator even the transmission. Once out of the car you place the motor, which by now is a lot lighter, on a sheet of plywood, yes, just lay it on the floor. You would be surprised how easy it is to work on an engine just laying on the floor. You can roll it around to access anything. Take out the pistons, rods, and crank and you really have a lighter engine. In fact, I picked up the block and put it in my jeep to take to have it boiled out.

Just one idea that works.

 

[BobHorvath]

Thanks to all. I Am doing a very freakish type of over-haul. Last year I tried to clean up the cylinder walls with a hone and re-ring the std pistons. I also lapped in the valves and placed in new and better valve stem seals. Rocker assembly was re-built. All of this went well and oh by the way the engine was still in the car. I also replaced the std. rod bearings in an effort to increase the oil pressure. Here is my big mistake; I re-surfaced the oil pump end plate thinking that this too would help increase the oil pressure. Ran the Healey all last summer and decided to replace the oil pump after seeing the oil pressure situation worsen. TOO LATE! Scored the rod bearing journals. The rest of the engine performed well oil consumption went away, plugs kept clean and compression was all even @ 130#s (I live @ 6300msl). So this winter I decided to get after the crank and while leaving the top end alone. Kept the engine assembled pulled the carbs, starter, generator and mounted the motor on my stand W/O the bell-housing adaptor plate. I pulled the rocker assembly and took everything off of the crank. Thankfully the pistons, still with the head attached, did not fall into the combustion chamber. I know most will think I am crazy and I am but I enjoy how complex it is to work with myself.

 

[Barryp]

Bob,

Here's a pic of another alternative.


Barry

 

[BUNDYRUM]

Hello BobHorvath,

I can understand completely what you are trying to achieve here and why.

I don't think you are crazy, at least you do understand enough about yourself to enjoy how complex you are and how much you get from working with yourself.

Best regards,

bundyrum.

 

[BoyRacer]

Barry, I considered doing a mount like that. Mike Salter made up plans for doing exactly the same thing, which I obtained from him. I just never got around to getting it fabbed up. I was also a bit concerned about all that engine weight being supported by those four holes (motor mount holes) so close together on one side of the block. On the other hand, I like the idea of pivoting the block that way. Keep us all posted on it's ease of operation!