The Chinese made me MAD

[Jester1]

First the back story. FIL got me an engine stand a few years ago to replace the one I sold when I moved back to MT from CA. He got it at one of those semi all chinese tool sales. Very nice gesture and I appeciated it very much. Didn't have any projects so quietly it waited.

Well time came to pull the BB from my '90 K3500 as it spun a bearing and with 135000 on the clicker I plan on some upgrades. We got the engine out last weekend and I could not find the bolts for the mounting plate because I cleaned the garage, so on the picker it hung. Finally got the bolts and mounted the plate to the motor on wensday. When I started to let off tension when I thought the damn thing was going to hit the floor (I think I heard my wifes spinchter slam shut), I reapplied tension and verbally abused the stand, the motor, and the neighborhood in general. Luckily nothing bad happened and we got the engine safe until tonight.

Now having two days to fume and stare at said scrap pile I came up with a plan to rectify the situation and make it stonger. All the while taking pics with the brotherhood in mind so that you may point and laugh, or maybe do this to your own. I will say after tonight I now know I can take off for 2 weeks work and the bride will not be awakened by the sound of a 454 hitting the deck.

Said pile wensday night.

Take down time.

Measure and layout.

Cut and prepped.

Fitted. Nice and tight.

Making metal melt.

Addition of my own reinforcment.

Making the legs permanent.

Close up. Go ahead and make fun of the welds.

DA TA. Ready for round two. Did I mention I hate Chinese crap?

Haha, didn't even flinch. Take that you little chinese ba$tards!!!

Next the mounting plate. Stay tuned and I may post up that repair. It may be the weakest 1/4" plate I have seen, but I have some ideas. (note get the plasma from the shop) See ya.

 

[tRustyK5]

I hate junk that is engineered with a safety factor of under 1.0...nice job bringing it up to snuff!

 

[RIPPEDK5]

sweet improvements..

I always hate how the motors tip downwards. makes me nervous

 

[diesel4me]

I have a 6.2 with a busted crank hanging off a similar cheap china 35 dollar engine stand ,it only had 3 wheels and was barely able to roll without tipping over,even with a small block stripped down on it--so I bolted another hunk of square tube across the front and added another caster wheel to make it 4 wheeled...the engine droops like your 454 does,and I questioned the crappy tack welds holding the "ring" anound the part that slides into the pipe and bolts to the engine,they only made 3 inch long tack welds instead of a continuous weld all the way around--but they haven't broke yet--its been sitting outside a good 2 years I bet...

 

[sweetk30]

all mine get welded up were thay bolt together with that junky hardware . as even with good hardware thay flex to much rolling around the floor.

weldem up and wow thay work so much better. also put just a little grease on the shaft for the motor block adaptor so it wont bind up trying to turn it in all the china lead based paint.

 

[Stomis]

I still wouldnt trust that stand with the leg design. I mean people that are pigeon toed have trouble walking so why would you apply that design to an engine stand

This is the stand I have. Not the brand or color but the design.

I love it to death. When me and my dad did a small block many moons ago he was extremely afraid of buying a cheap stand so we wound up with this design thats rated for I think 1400lbs.

 

[Bent77]

Note on the pic Stomis showed how the collar that the tube/bracket assembly from the motor actually has a degree of back lean, thus coming into square or still slightly back with the weight of the motor.

 

[Jester1]

In the redesign I actually added 2-2 1/2 degree back lean on main post for that reason, you may be able to see it in the last pic. I also lined up the plate socket with some lubriplate grease.

The one I sold in cali was like the pic stories showed and would love to have it back, but as I said FIL bought this for me and would rather put the cash into the engine for now. Besides I need to buy a parts washer again soon.

I may redo the legs on it down the road but this is one of those ,oh crap, got to hang to motor now situations. Once the teardown of the block is complete and off the machine shop I may redo the legs. For now it's safe and I have to get the rv ready for two weeks on the road.