Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

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Well, I have decided to postpone my fiberglass adventure until this weekend, when i can take the body outside for some grinding so I don't screw up the shop too bad. But today I made a little score at work.

The marina next door to ours sold, and they are going to level it next week to put up storage racks, so they told us to come over and take anything we wanted. Being the scrounger I am, I got a nice steel stool to put at our welding table, but I also picked up a rolling steel cart that they used to move heavy stuff around. It measures 2 x 3 feet, and has 4 heavy caster wheels under it, and probably will hold a thousand pounds.

I have decided to make an engine test stand out of it so that we can test run any engine we build before we slide it into the actual car. It will be a lot easier to fix problems or leaks before it is sitting in a nicely painted frame, and I can have an engine all tuned and ready to run when it goes in.

I am going to make it so that I can bolt in Chevy, Ford, or other make engines with just a crossmember change, and will probably build a rear engine plate with various holes to match up with any bell housing pattern. I have some old gauges (tach, oil pressure, water temp) and will probably use a 3 gallon marine tank and a battery too. Not sure if I will put a radiator on it, or just plumb in a garden hose type arrangement. If I do the radiator, I will probably mount a box fan in front of it to keep the engine cool while breaking them in.

If any of you have done one of these, and have any suggestions, I would love to hear from you. A friend of mine built one out of 2 x 6 lumber one time, and it looked and worked great.

Here are some pix of the cart I picked up.


Don