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Re: [ihc] Engine stand recommendations



Joel M Brodsky wrote:

Binders,
      Way back before I even started my engine swap I bought an engine
stand...yeah, yeah the Harbor Freight kind.
The kind with the arms too small to fit the bell pattern of an IH SV.  So,
it went to the side of the shop and I made these nifty wooden cradles out
of 2x6 and have been using them, trouble free, for years now.  The question
is, what do you all do to modify your engine stand so that you can actually
work on the engines instead of just swapping things back and forth while
the bottom end is in a wooden cradle?
      I can do any job to a level higher than the crank (heads, manifolds,
water pumps, etc) just can't do oil pumps, pans, and things below.
On my 345, I just used the top four bellhousing holes, and didn't hook the stand to the lower/outer spots. I didn't know any better, and it worked just fine.

After finding out everyone made such a big deal about this, I took a couple pieces of 2x2 square tubing I had lying around, drilled a pair of holes in each, and replaced the "lower" arms on the engine stand with 'em.

These longer arms go to the lower/outer bellhousing bolt holes just fine, and the other two arms are still adjustable and can be mounted to the top center or middle/side bell bolts.

Works just fine.. just like it did before I modded the stand.

Another modification I've had to make is to my load-leveler. The supplied chains are not long enough to reach from head to head AND from front to back over the intake.

A pair of surplus shackles lying around in the scrap pile make nice extensions when you bolt the shackles to the head, and then the shackles to the chain/ends of the leveler.

-Tom



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