Car Engine Test Stand

[nev25]

I'm wondering if anyone has ever made an Engine Test Stand.
Would be handy to have to test rebuilt engines before they where placed into the car

[Yonnee]

All well and good, and pretty straight forward with a carby engine, but are you going to make a different stand for every different engine? What vehicle and engine?

And on late model engines you'd need to set up high pressure fuel pump and tank, engine wiring loom, and computer. Lots of current model car also now run body computers too.

[malb]

They are called engine dyno's and they cost a pretty penny. Engine builder who thinks he will get useful test results from unloaded motor will get much experience instead, - rebuilding the thing. The throttle thing only limits the breathing so that the power produced is equal to the total load applied internally and externally. No external load means that they can rev to the point that the internal loading exceeds safe limits and they fail catastrophically.

Back in the mid 70's, I wanted to get a twin cam lotus engine rebuilt for my Cortina, and found a worn one, someone to do the job, and the cash to pay. 8 weeks later I got the "Engines ready, bring cash" phone call, put the trailer on the old mans car and headed of to collect the toy. An hour later, I drove into a bomb zone literally, fire engines, ambos, police.

Yep, they gave my Lotus one last thrash before I collected it and stuffed up bigtime. They were using a choke cable for a throttle and over extended it on a blip, and couldn't get it back to throttle down. In the three seconds before the bang, it climbed from an 1800RPM idle through the proposed 9500 red line and up to about 12500. The next thing they knew, 4 sheets of roofing were off, there was a big ding in the concrete floor, and the shop was full of shrapnel. Not bad for the engine, given that the warranty was dependant on me not taking it over 5 grand in the first 1000 miles, and then progressively working to a 8000 redline over the next 5000 miles.

Nice boys got me a new one from GB in the end, because they didn't want to go down that road again.

[Yonnee]

It would be handy if you were to build one for yourself, to be able to get it started, and run the cam in and check for any leaks before slotting it back into the car. Certainly be easier to fix any leaks before it went back in.

A bit time consuming for a 'One-off' though.