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................................-- 4 Engine 2 Transmission Stand --
Over the past year (2008) I seem to have been collecting engines and transmissions and running out of space in the shop to store them. I had 1 engine on blocks and 2 engines on roll around stands and the 3 transmissions stored on milk crates and a roller platform. I decided to make a stand that would hold 4 engines and 2 transmissions in the space of 2 engines.
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The two engines on rollers were on legs that I made that bolted to the front engine mounts (this is all chevy small block stuff) and to the bellhousing mounts in the back. The four individual vertical pieces with wheels on the bottoms aren't connected to each other, but all bolt on separately. Since I have a smooth floor this has worked fine. So what I wanted to do was construct a stand that would sit over the two engines that are on rollers. (Sorry for the picture quality)
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I started by making this base out of 1 inch thin wall (.060) square tubing. The two bottom spaces are where the two engines on rollers will roll into. The two automatic transmissions will sit on this above the engines.
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Next I built this upper stand also out of 1 inch square tubing. It will straddle the two transmissions and will support two engine blocks on top of it.
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Here is another view of the upper structure. I made.............
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...... it so that it could be lifted off if I wanted to. This way it is easy to put the transmissions on with a cherry picker if I don't have blocks above it. I could also slide the transmission in and out.
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I put tabs on the upper structure to located it on the tubing of the lower section. The other tabs that ..............
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............ are welded to the lower structure locate the upper part from sliding forwards or backwards on the bottom section.
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Next I made vertical supports that will mount on the top structure and that will hold the engines by their motor mounts. These are 1 inch square tubing and 1/8 inch strap welded in a "T" shape. I would bolt the piece with two holes in it to a block and then the other piece with the one hole would be bolted to the block to locate them and then I would tack them together before finish welding them. These are also what I built for the engines that roll on the floor and just added wheels to their bottoms.
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Here you can see one of these mounted onto a block.
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These plates were made for the bottoms and one will be welded to the upright and the other to the motor stand. I made 4 sets of these by cutting them to length and then drilling through all 8 of them at the same time.
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Next a set of bottom plates were tacked to each upright.
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Then I tacked in a temporary cross piece to locate them and unbolted all of this from the engine and ..............
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............ moved it to the top of the engine stand. Then the bottom plates were tacked to the engine stand and the temporary crossmember was removed.
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Here the left two motor mounts are welded into place the the right two are being welded into place. I wanted all of this to be bolted together since it is easier to put the mounts on the engine and leave those bolts loose so you can lower the motor into place and move the mounts around to line up with the mounts on the engine stand. Once you have all the bolts started then tighten them all up.
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Now that I knew where the engines would be sitting I added some diagonal supports to transfer their weight down to the bottom stand.
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Then I added diagonal braces (arrows) and one up right brace in the middle to transfer the weight loads to the wheels. The wheels all bolt onto plates just in case one goes bad at some point. These are pretty cheap rollers rated at 330 lbs. each. I did add an additional wheel to the center to help with weight distribution there.
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I also added removable crossmembers at the bottom to help when rolling the stand around. They come out, either at the front or rear, when I need to roll a motor into or out from under the stand.
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Here is the finished stand.
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Here I have loaded two 4L80E transmissions with the cherry picker and they are setting on 2 X 4's.
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Here I've already placed one engine block on the top and was finishing placing the second on the top with my car lift. The arrows point to tabs that secure the top structure to the bottom. Tabs on both with bolts through them. They might not of been necessary, but I feel better with them.
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I raised the blocks with a 2 X 2 piece of square tubing going from one lift arm over to the other arm on the other side of the lift. I got the blocks into position on the floor with the cherry picker and then attached them with a chain front and rear to the square tubing and lifted them up and rolled the stand underneath.
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Here is the finished stand. With the two transmissions on it it is real easy to roll. Add the two engines and it gets a little harder, but not bad by yourself and real easy with a second person helping.
The back of the upper engine blocks are held up by a piece of 2 X 4 resting on the back of the upper structure and then the one with the pan has wood spacers under it and the other without a pan has two blocks on each side of the pan rails in the back.
I have about $125 in the stand and two days of work. I'm real happy with it as it has freed up a lot of space in the shop.
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