jovial_cynic Posted January 28, 2007 Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 I've had my engine assembled and ready to install for a couple of months now... but since this engine is the first one I've ever built, I'm a little worried. It's a lot of work to get an engine installed in the car and wiring it up, so if the engine fails, I'll have to unhook it all and pull it again... As a solution, I've decided to build an out-of-car engine bay. It's basically an engine stand that'll allow me to run the engine while it's out of the car, allowing me to make whatever changes I need to make before it goes into the actual engine bay. I had some scrap metal from a weight-lifting set sitting in my back yard, so I cut it up and welded it together to make a frame. Since I have a spare front cross-member, I'm going to weld up a mounting bracket for the cross-member...that'll save me the trouble of measuring, cutting, and welding a mount for the engine. Here's a picture of the base of the frame welded together, and here's a picture of the frame with the cross-member sitting on top of it. That's not where the cross-member is going to go, since that round tubing probably won't support the weight of an engine. I just stuck it on there to get an idea of how much room I'd have for the engine. I didn't have time today to get the cross-member secured to the frame, but I'll likely get that done tomorrow. Fun. I'll also have to built a mounting place for a small fuel cell, the battery, the radiator, and maybe a panel for an instrument cluster... etc., etc. Pretty much everything I need to actually fire the engine up. Quote Link to comment
Bleach Posted January 28, 2007 Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 what engine, is it an L20b you rebuilt? that's a good idea. for the fuel I would think you only need a glass jar or something like that. Just run a line to a manual fuel pump and that'll get it running. This of course depends on what engine you built. Quote Link to comment
jovial_cynic Posted January 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 No, not an L20b. It's a frankenstein motor... Z22 block bored out .75mm over, L20b crank, Z22e pistons, Z22s rods, and L18 head with big grumbly shadbolt cam (510 lift/280 duration). And yeah -- for fuel, I wouldn't really use a fuel cell. Too expensive for this project. I dunno about using a glass jar, though -- I actually want it mounted, since the engine might cause enough vibration on this frame to shake things up a bit. Quote Link to comment
Jason Posted January 28, 2007 Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 Hi Josh, you've gotta take of video of the start up, this should be awesome! Quote Link to comment
jovial_cynic Posted January 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 Will do. I've got to finish building the frame before I can fire anything up... but that shouldn't take too long. :) but yeah -- pics and video coming, for sure. Quote Link to comment
Icehouse Posted January 28, 2007 Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 Nice Josh, I know how tuff your engine bay can be ;) Its great to hear about your engine, I know you have put tons of research and time into this one. I'm excited to hear how it goes :) Quote Link to comment
jovial_cynic Posted January 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 The only thing I'm worried about is the head. I pulled the head off that L18 we installed together... that engine ran, but it smoked like crazy. The smoke was either from bad rings or from bad valve seals. I cleaned up the head really good, but I didn't rebuild it -- I just cleaned all the 30+ year old carbon build-up off of it. If it still smokes when I run it on my stand, I'll know it's the head. If not... woo hoo! Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted January 28, 2007 Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 If you push a couple of feet of nylon rope down the spark plug hole, then turn the motor over, by hand, on the compression stroke till its snug, you can remove the valve springs and replace the guide seals. This way you don't have to remove the head, or worry about using the compressed air method. The seals aren't very expensive, and you may have to do it later anyway. It should be way easier to do with it on your engine stand. Quote Link to comment
Jason Posted January 28, 2007 Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 Bryon taught me the rope trick Mike, it works well. You could all sorts of stuff on the head with this trick! Quote Link to comment
jovial_cynic Posted January 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 If it smokes, I'll give it a shot. It seems like a good idea. Quote Link to comment
Icehouse Posted January 29, 2007 Report Share Posted January 29, 2007 If you push a couple of feet of nylon rope down the spark plug hole, then turn the motor over, by hand, on the compression stroke till its snug, you can remove the valve springs and replace the guide seals. This way you don't have to remove the head, or worry about using the compressed air method. The seals aren't very expensive, and you may have to do it later anyway. It should be way easier to do with it on your engine stand. I've never took apart an engine. I'm confused :( Does the rope hold the valve from falling into the cylinder? Quote Link to comment
jovial_cynic Posted January 29, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2007 From what I gather, it's just stuffed into the cylinder, so when the valve is supposed to drop, the rope keeps it from going down. Nylon is soft enough to prevent damaging the spring... Quote Link to comment
Bleach Posted January 29, 2007 Report Share Posted January 29, 2007 its like a little compressed pillow for the valves. good idea. sounds more reliable than compressed air. If you accidently push on the valve with just air holding it up they may fall in. Quote Link to comment
jovial_cynic Posted January 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2007 I made some more progress on the stand. The only thing that I don't like about the stand is that it's a little too wide for the engine hoist... which means I have to scoot the hoist as closely as possible and just scoot the engine onto the stand I built. That's a lot of work, so I may end up cutting the stand to make it a little more narrow, allowing the hoist to fit over it while lowering engine down. Here's a couple of pictures with the engine/tranny sitting on the stand: Picture 1 Picture 2 Picture 3 The front cross-member isn't actually fixed to the stand; it's just sitting on some support beams that aren't yet welded on. I'm still just sizing everything up. Quote Link to comment
Cuts metal like mad Posted January 30, 2007 Report Share Posted January 30, 2007 lookin good jovial, wtg. Cool idea too. Are you gonna put some rubber feet on it or anything? Quote Link to comment
71-521 Posted January 30, 2007 Report Share Posted January 30, 2007 There ya go...mount some monster tires on that thing... Quote Link to comment
jovial_cynic Posted January 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2007 Probably not wheels... maybe some casters or something. l'd need a way to lock them pretty securly, though. Quote Link to comment
71-521 Posted January 30, 2007 Report Share Posted January 30, 2007 MKlotz: What did you use on your cherry picker? I think he had some locking wheels on there... Quote Link to comment
jovial_cynic Posted February 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2007 No pictures available today. I did get some extra work done on the frame, though... although I wouldn't exactly call it progress. The track on my engine hoist is 26 inches, and the width of the frame I built was 32 inches. So... I cut the frame down a bit and re-welded it up, and it currently sits at a comfortable 25 inches, giving me an inch of play for the hoist. I would have taken pictures, but my camera batteries haven't been charged. I'll grind down my welds tomorrow and get some more built up and post some pictures. I'm using an arc welder, so the welds aren't pretty from the start like it is for you fancy shmancy tig and mig welder users. :) Quote Link to comment
Icehouse Posted February 1, 2007 Report Share Posted February 1, 2007 My fancy shmancy welder is from Home Depot aka not very fancy.... Quote Link to comment
jovial_cynic Posted February 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2007 :: shrug :: I used to own two different mig welders - one 110amp harbor freight mig/flux welder, and one 175amp millermatic. I liked them, but I never felt like I was really welding with them. It felt like I was drawing with a crayon... easy, but not so refined. I'll take a buzz-box over a mig any day. I wouldn't complain about having a tig, though... Quote Link to comment
jovial_cynic Posted February 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2007 I just had a thought. While cutting and rewelding up the stand, I had to set the engine aside so I could do some work. I noticed that my engine, no longer sitting on the frame, was sitting just fine by itself while mounted to the front cross-member. As in... it doesn't look like it really *needs* to be mounted to a frame to fire the engine up. It's making me wonder if I really need to go through all of this trouble. Hrm. Thoughts? Should I just abandon this project and fire the engine up with it just sitting on the front cross-member? EDIT: I just got back in from looking over the project, and I think I'm going to keep going with it. If the engine is just sitting on the cross-member, there's not a convenient way to connect the radiator, battery, fuel container, etc., etc. I could just leave everything sprawled out on the garage floor, but that's pretty lousy. I think I just need a change of focus. Originally, the focus was to build something that'll keep the engine upright and secure while running. Since that's already handled via the cross-member, the focus now is to make it convenient to use -- by building mounts for the radiator and other misc. necessities, it'll be a much more useful tool. Quote Link to comment
jovial_cynic Posted February 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2007 I welded up the bottom portion of the radiator support. I debated whether to mount the radiator directly perpendicular to the frame (coming up at a 90 degree angle), or if I wanted it to protrude forward a bit. I went with the latter option, allowing the engine to sit a little further forward on the stand. Here are some pictures: Picture 1 Picture 2 Picture 3 Picture 4 Quote Link to comment
]2eDeYe Posted February 3, 2007 Report Share Posted February 3, 2007 Nice work, if you get a little further you can test all your new motors on the same stand before install...you can even do break-in before install :D Quote Link to comment
jovial_cynic Posted February 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2007 That's the plan, actually. I'm using a stock front cross-member right now, and outside the engine bay, it's easy to flip it around for front/rear oil-pan issues if I go with any 'exotic' engines... Alternatively, I may sell this one when I'm done with this particular engine and build another one. Who knows... Quote Link to comment
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