Your Engine Stand, Improved.

Here’s another Quick Tech Tip From the Garage of Tom Zuloaga. If anyone has ever had an engine or a short block almost fall over because of a three-wheeled engine stand, this tip could save your life. The problem stems from most of the older engine stands, and alot of the cheaper new engine stands having only three casters. Adding another caster will dramatically increase the stability of the engine stand, especially with a fully dressed-engine. We are going to need one 2 1/2″ heavy duty caster and a 12″ piece of 2″ x 2″ x .120 wall square tubing. There will be some minor welding involved.

The single front caster on many older engine stands is not very stable when moving an engine around. Some newer inexpensive engine stands are also designed the same way.

Only one steel heavy-duty caster is needed because we are going to re-use the caster that is already on the engine stand. The piece of square tubing can be bought at any steel supply house for a couple of bucks. I like to use a 12″ piece since it will not be in the way when working on the engine. I prefer to miter cut the ends at a 45 degree angle for aesthetics and to keep from tripping over a square edge.

The caster on the stand is held on with a 1/2″ stud, so a hole is drilled on one end of the square tubing. The new caster will be held on by welding it to the other side of the square tubing as it is a different style of caster, but will do the same job.

The paint on the end of engine stand is ground off in preparation for welding the new end-piece on.

With the casters attached, the end-piece is lined up and tack welded to the end of the engine stand. The stand should now be placed on the floor and any adjustments made to ensure all four wheels are flat on the ground before final welding

The end-piece is welded on fully on all four sides. The welder being used is a Lincoln HD -3200, 110 volt/135 amp MIG unit available at Home Depot. It works great for projects like this and can be bought for about $500.00.

The end-piece is fully welded on and the engine stand is now ready for anything you can put on it. The total cost was under $10.00!!

For more information or questions about this Quick Tech Tip please contact Tom Zuloaga.