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Engine break in test stand

Don Dulmage writes:  Christophe Schwartz from France is a former owner of a 1962 Plymouth wagon and former member of the 1962-1965 Mopar Mail List Clubhouse. He has since sold the Plymouth to a fellow in Austria.

Christopher is now working on a Charger and twisted my arm enough to build a Mopar big block for his car.

I just finished the engine for the Olympia Charger and wanted to run the cam in before shipping it to him.

I built a wooden cradle with 2 X 10 spruce, made some uprights to fit the motor mount ears, then bolted it in with the pan rail sitting on the 2 X 10’s and the bolts for the ears in their normal position.

I put two 500 pound strength ratchet straps under the cradle and cinched them to the long motor mount bolts.

Make sure to strap the cradle top to your bench or stand as well. I had a ratchet strap (underneath the bench and back up the other side, as seen in the photos, below).

I made some fittings for the radiator hoses from 1 1/4 plumbing adapters and plumbed the bottom hose to my water tap with a 50 foot garden hose and restricted the upper hose outlet, so as to have a slight positive pressure in the system without it going too high. (The house water system pressure would be too high otherwise.) I turned the tap on until I had a good steady flow of water running through the engine (thermostat removed) with the ignition control box bolted to the engine power steering bolt boss and the rest wired in with clips and a transmission and torque converter installed so I could run a starter.

I crossed the starter contact and the Mopar engine barked to life. I was able to run it satisfactorily with no problems sitting on the bench and even gave it a few hard pokes at the throttle to see of it was alive (and it was!).

After four runs at good length I shut it down and drained everything for shipping.

The engine test stand had minimal cost and it worked perfect.

I could have run the water pump with a belt and some pulleys and if I was going run it any longer I would.

Oh yeah, I had an old rusty set of A body, B engine, fenderwell headers in the basement someone gave me, so I had them bolted on backwards pointing toward the garage open door for the test. It worked for me....
Mopar big block Engine break in test stand Engine break in test stand
Engine break in test stand Mopar big block Engine break in test stand
Mopar big block Engine break in test stand Mopar big block Engine break in test stand
Mopar big block Engine break in test stand Mopar big block Engine break in test stand

Thanks Don!   smile!

Gary H.


April 5, 2006



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