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[aaronjb]

Buy an engine stand. Makes it alot easier to work on.

Yeah, this.

If you want to work on the engine, an engine stand is a god send .. although be careful if you flip it upside down (the engine, that is, on the rotating stand) that you have enough grunt to turn it right way up again knowing (now) that you are one armed webby, you'll want a second pair of hands (er, pardon the insensitivity!).

I once made the mistake of assembling a VG30DETT on a stand right way up - heads on, manifolds on, turbos on the manifolds, and then pulled the pin out of the stand to flip it.. Well it certainly flipped, that's for sure. Could I get it right way up again on my own? Could I balls!


If you just want to store it, though, build an engine cradle like this: http://www.alltradetools.com/catalog/579-604-thickbox/647009-heavy-duty-engine-cradle.jpg 

Or .. build a fancy cradle with provision for a battery, radiator, small fuel tank, ECU etc and you can build a test stand that you can run the engine up on..


BTW, personally I think long term storage of an engine on an engine stand (as in one of these: https://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/ces-750a-engine-stand ) is less than great as they're a little unstable and wobbly. Well, it was with a great big iron v8 on it, anyway. An engine cradle is easier to move around as the centre of mass is down by the wheels..

Although I'm pretty sure Mr Gixxer has been storing an LS V8 on my engine stand for some time now..

[biggriffin]

Buy an engine stand. Makes it alot easier to work on.

Yeah, this.

If you want to work on the engine, an engine stand is a god send .. although be careful if you flip it upside down (the engine, that is, on the rotating stand) that you have enough grunt to turn it right way up again knowing (now) that you are one armed webby, you'll want a second pair of hands (er, pardon the insensitivity!).

I once made the mistake of assembling a VG30DETT on a stand right way up - heads on, manifolds on, turbos on the manifolds, and then pulled the pin out of the stand to flip it.. Well it certainly flipped, that's for sure. Could I get it right way up again on my own? Could I balls!

..

 did similar, rebuilt a 3.0L 24v straight 6, new chains, head polished, etc new shells, looked very pretty.
 thought I'd move the stand over a bit, gave stand a push, over it went,,crash bang wallop.
Broken timing case,smashed cam cover,broken dizzy, and a smashed tea mug(full).

[aaronjb]

At least mine didn't fall over, that would have been the icing.. just ended up upside down on the stand - that'll teach me not to put the oil pump pickup & sump on first, eh!

I have nearly dropped an engine on an engine crane though - crane at full extension with an extension bar in (I'm sure that's H&S approved, naturally) and if I stepped off the back of the crane it started to tip over  ended up sticking a couple of bags of cement on the back of it so I could get off and work at the other end of it!

[Webby the Bear]

H ha some interesting stories there lads!  Assume Aaron that you couldn't swing it back round to normal cos of the extra weight with the heads n stuff? Lol

[aaronjb]

Yup, with just the bare block it was easy to roll over, but with everything on to make it a long block it was very top heavy .. well, bottom heavy once it had upended!

I learnt that lesson and now have an extra long handle for the engine stand!

[Webby the Bear]

Good stuff mate lol i'll keep this in mind!!!

While i got the sump off for strainer / pickup cleaning is it worth popping a couple of bearing caps / shells off and do some measuring?

and one last question (sorry) the flex plate on't back is a bit rusty. do these have to be machined like flywheels?