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Picked up a low mile 440 today.

Well a minor update. I got the heads torqued down, cam and lifters installed and threw some paint on it. Mocked it up and took a picture.. Don't mind the tiny air cleaner its just to keep crap out if the carb. I have the rocker shafts soaking to clean them. Also I need to install the valley pan and the hold downs. Ordered new head expansion plugs. They should be here soon. By the way rockauto has a good price on champion OE style spark plugs. I ordered a set of those a fuel pump and a set of oil pan gaskets for the windage tray.

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Easy off oven cleaner and a good long soak in the parts washer yielded decent results. Before, during and after.

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Was bored waiting on parts.. Started to work on the run stand.. Got a little done. But still have to figure out a little bit on it. The stainless steel cart rolled right over the top of the front wheels of the engine stand. So that makes for easy transition from and to the run stand. I still need to figure out some bracing and how to bolt the front motor mount support to the stainless cart. May drill holes all the way through it and bolt to the cart that way. Don't laugh its all just junk steel I had laying around.

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Well, here we go. By the way I hate this engine stand. Here are some pictures I took today. found some edelbrock stuff we took off the Roadrunner. I cleaned it up but it still looks like ***. Also, my head freeze plugs got here today. Bought a set of Hp manifold bolts just to discover one was missing.. Good job EBAY.. Anyhow I'm down to a few items left to do. T-stat 2 water pump bolts and valve cover gaskets. Oh yea forgot to mention plug wires..

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Anyone know if the harbor freight 2 ton engine stand will hold these pigs up without sagging like a set of old mechanics balls?

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Well here are some pictures of what I have going on with the run stand. Ran into a couple small issues that need to be corrected. The rear flange on the starter side the tab I made needs to be flipped to the front side of the starter due to being in the way of my starter plate. Also I have to replace the front engine mount tabs I was told the tabs would break off if I didnt use all 3 tabs. So I have to re-engineer that part.

My garage is a complete mess.. Don't judge. :) I have 3 projects going on and no time for any of them. lol

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Over all height to the top of the carb is roughly 48 inches.. Not too bad over all. If anyone needs the front engine mount measurements I have a template I made and can take a picture of the dimensions. Just in case you cant read them upper 2 holes are 18 1/2 inches center to center and the 2 lower holes are 15 1/2 inches center to center. The 2 inch measurements are what they are apart upper and lower.

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Well was dicking around trying to work on the engine run stand portion of the thing today. But noticed how the starter plate that I bought was super close to the SFI flex plate. Not sure if its going to hit the torque converter bolts when I dig it out of the shed.

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Just checked it with the old flex plate and the holes used by the torque converter are the outer most holes. So I think I have to modify the starter plate to not hit the flex plate bolts. Fan funking tastic...
 
Are you intending to start this engine with just the torque converter and no trans? Bad idea. I predict broken parts if you try it.
 
Do you suggest a manual transmission flywheel to run this on the stand?
 
Why and what would break? I have an SFI flexplate and a non weighted torque converter. I don't believe there will be a balance issue.
 
Why and what would break? I have an SFI flexplate and a non weighted torque converter. I don't believe there will be a balance issue.
You have the full unsupported weight of the torque converter hanging off the flex plate. You have eliminated the support provided by the input and stator shaft. The flex plate wasn't designed to cope with such a situation and will be too flimsy. You should use a manual flywheel and bell housing or build your run stand to use an automatic tranny.
 
You have the full unsupported weight of the torque converter hanging off the flex plate. You have eliminated the support provided by the input and stator shaft. The flex plate wasn't designed to cope with such a situation and will be too flimsy. You should use a manual flywheel and bell housing or build your run stand to use an automatic tranny.
I absolutely agree. ....don't run it like that....someone could get hurt...

Jeff
 
I was looking at everything today. And was thinking of the options. It looks like there will be enough room to fit the trans and all on the roll cart. I will have to build another bracket for the transmission. I never really thought about the torque converter being something not that stable. Good advice guys. I'll engineer something and go from there.
 
Unless I can find a used flywheel that would be an easier alternative. However I will press on and make the trans bracket. Hopefully it will be easy to do.
 
No AC unless whatever I find to stuff it in has it.. I havent been able to find the right car yet. Well, at the right price.
 
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