Engine stands , advice please

I got one off e-bay , made in China , was not up for the job , but at £50 , plus I got £25 refund , a few bit’s welded in it was ok , I then made it into a engine stand/ test bed for the XJ6 engine , to work on and change parts over , and get running before fitting , then sold it on for £150 :rofl:



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Gary, couldn‘t find the original drawing, here some measurements. Feel free to pm if any questions.

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Martin, Thanks very much for submitting these drawing and photos. I hope to make one of these soon.

Don’t buy the Harbor Fright one that Pat showed with the 2x4 support. It can tip over side to side. I had a couple close calls with the XK mounted.
The xk engine is well within its weight limit. But the stance is too narrow in the front - imho.

The legs are 1 3/4 inch ID square tubing. Extension tubes will fit inside and extend outward. That way it doesn’t take a lot of floor space. I put the wooden brace to support the engine weight although probably not required.
Pat H

I used the common 4-wheel version marketed by HF, Northern Tool, Pittsburgh, Tractor Supply and others. The capacity rating is 1000 pounds.
I only rotated it for the lower block work. I never rotated it once the head was on, no need to really.

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I have one of those cheap import stands from Harbor freight. Worked ok with a full XK motor but I felt it was on the edge of safety. It must sag a good 2” or so when loaded with my motor, and it’s springy as heck. I made a longer rotate bar and ver carefully adjusted the Mount orientation to prevent a tip over when rotating the entire assembly.

I searched and found a nice old OTC stand on CL for $75. It has the same rating as the HB stand but is easily twice the weight of the HF stand with 50% larger/thicker parts. It has almost no noticeable deflection with a 600lbs XK motor attached, the motor doesn’t bounce, and it has a much wider ‘T’ base than the $50 HF unit. The casters are also much better quality

Suggest you guys keep an eye out for these older and stouter stands and grab them when they come up for sale.

Bolt strength: IIRC, four 3/8” bolts are good for over 10,000lbs of static load (tensile)

John

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I have two of these USA made Ex-Cell engine stands. I bought the first one about 25 years ago, I think at Sam’s Club. That’s a Dodge 440 wrapped in the plastic.

My thoughts exactly
cheers jim

Those 3-legged stands are a death trap. I dumped a porsche engine over, thankfully into a box, and nearly tipped it a couple other times. HIGHLY UNSTABLE

There is one that isnt: it’s my old one that @Craig_Balzer has.

Your point is a valid one, for nearly any other 3-cornered engine stand.

This is Paul’s old engine stand – the2x4 in photo is extra security

I had a 3 wheel stand once and tried my Mark V engine on it, didn’t feel safe rolling it around the garage, came too near to tipping, maybe ok for small 4 cylinders but not a big 6, gave it to my brother for his MG Midget engine.

Looks more robust than HF
Jim

I kept my XK engine on a cheapo Harbor Freight stand for 5 years. No problem.

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Nah. Depends on whose 3-wheeler it is. Two Dodge 440 big blocks. Same stands I used for several XK’s. Been rolling these two stands around for 20 years.

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That looks the same as my XJ6 Engine came on Mike , guy I got it off said he had it for years on the stand , kept moving it about , we moved it about 30ft to the van on the stand , so he did not have to take it back I gave him £25 for it :grin:

I posted this before. The HF stand has open ended square tubes that will accept 2 inch OD outrigger tubes which I like because they can be removed when the stand is not in use and save floor space

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I’m using one with the two legs spread apart and can’t get it close enough to the engine hoist to work. Ended up putting the engine stand on blocks so i could get it close enough to fit the wngine on the stand. PS used the SNG sideways engine mount. Much better than worrying about the engine sticking way out on a HF stand.

Sorry, I’m no help. Just sold mine for that very same reason. Bought a 4-legger from Summit. Please don’t anyone tell me how unsafe it is - I promise to be careful. :sunglasses: