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I've been looking for an affordable engine test stand for a while now and recently purchased the Larin Mobile Engine Testing Station from WalMart (yes, WalMart!) for $234 delivered.
After several weeks of travel, I've finally had the time to put it together.
My primary observation is that the instructions are less than worthless. These make Ikea instructions look like fine literature.
The instructions refer to labels on parts ("A", "A1", etc), but pretty much nothing is labeled. I spent about 15 min studying the assembled photos and laying the parts out on the garage floor and it finally made sense. Actual assembly went pretty quickly after that. These photos should help others who want to get one of these. Note in the third photo the only labels I found on the parts.
Here are the rest of the assembly photos. The Chinesium gauges have possibly the smallest copper wire I've ever seen. You need to fab your own wire harness to the starter and senders, but the kit does include sending units. There is no provision for a radiator, but the kit does include garden hose fittings that connect to your radiator hoses. That's fine for a quick test, but the constantly flowing water doesn't really let the engine get to operating temp. I'll likely fab radiator mounts. Haven't put an engine on it yet, but I plan to run the 455 slated to go in my 67 Delta soon. The mounting system for the engine is actually pretty clever and should be adaptable to a wide range of engines. The fuel tank isn't mounted in these photos but holds about one gallon.
As far as water temp from garden hose, What I did on my 4 speed jetfire was to seal the hose into the water pump inlet and hose on the outlet to ground. I just adjusted the water flow to a slow stream. I was surprised how well I could control the water temp with the flow from the hose even thought the water pump. I was able to let it go to 200 and back down as low as I wanted with the flow. I let it run at 170 degrees for about an hour like that.
I bought the same one two weeks ago online from Walmart. I had it shipped to the local store so I would be able to make sure the box wasn't tore up. I have Amazon Prime but I read the reviews and people were complaining about ripped boxes, missing parts. I trimmed the pipe mounts so I can use Cutlass engine mounts. I'm thinking about fabbing up a radiator/electric fan setup. I'll probably start up a already broke in engine to see how the cooling system works. If all goes good, then try a 20 minute camshaft/fresh engine break in. I always wanted one, better late than never.
This is just WalMart trying to be Amazon. The items are drop shipped from the manufacturer's warehouse. Can't beat the price, however. I suspect that I'll probably weld the frame together next time I have my MIG fired up. Right now, there are just two long tension bolts that hold the base together.
I bought the same one two weeks ago online from Walmart. I had it shipped to the local store so I would be able to make sure the box wasn't tore up. I have Amazon Prime but I read the reviews and people were complaining about ripped boxes, missing parts.
Yeah, I was a little concerned that when mine showed up, there was a hole in the box and the two long tension bolts were sticking out. Fortunately, nothing was missing.
I trimmed the pipe mounts so I can use Cutlass engine mounts.
Yeah, I figured I was going to have to trim those to get the 2261/2328 mounts to fit.
How does the engine attach to the stand?
Is everything a bolt on or do custom fabbed modifications need to be made?
thank you
There is a lot of adjustabiliy in the mounts. The two uprights in front in the photo above fit into the standard Olds motor mounts. As noted above, you will need to trim those tubes slightly to slide into the 2261/2328 style mounts. The crossmember that supports them slides forward and backward, the bases for the uprights slide in and out, and the uprights themselves can be adjusted up and down with a series of bolt holes.
The support behind that with the two straps hanging down supports the rear of the motor. Those two straps can either bolt to the bellhousing face of the block or to the trans mounting holes on a manual trans bellhousing. The crossbar that the straps hang from has a series of holes, the straps themselves have a series of holes, and the uprights can adjust up and down. All in all, lots of adjustability.
I hope you have better luck with the Test Stand than I did with their 3 ton floor jack. It never worked right from day one. I should have returned it to Tractor Supply. It wouldn't go up unless you applied slight pressure to the saddle. Eventually I bought a rebuild kit and found a seal pinched. I installed the kit and it worked for about two days and then it went back to doing the same thing. I'm guessing the machining tolerances were wrong.
I don't like that the engine is mounted in that position, tail end forward.
Any problem with switching the positions of the motor mount bar and the bellhousing mount bar so the headers can go on correctly?
The price can't be beat.
I have this same stand that I bought several years ago and really like it. Yes, I also had to assemble mine by looking at the pictures like Joe did. I replaced the gauges with American Mechanical ones, and added a vacuum gauge. I didn't really like the water hose thing so I added two pieces of angle iron upright onto the frame and mounted a radiator with electric cooling fans so as to get it up to running temperature, watch to make sure the thermostat opened correctly and let it stay there for awhile to break everything in. I have had the Chevy 454 you see in the photos on it and also a Chevy 409 with no problems, real heavy engines.
I don't like that the engine is mounted in that position, tail end forward.
Any problem with switching the positions of the motor mount bar and the bellhousing mount bar so the headers can go on correctly?
The price can't be beat.
The engine support bars can be swapped to orient the motor either way, however the engine neither knows nor cares which way the headers are pointed. Consider the fact that if you bolt the header to the RH head with the collector facing the front of the motor, you could simply swap that head to the LH side of the block with the header still on it and the collector would point to the back of the motor. It doesn't matter.
I don't like that the engine is mounted in that position, tail end forward.
Any problem with switching the positions of the motor mount bar and the bellhousing mount bar so the headers can go on correctly?
The price can't be beat.
I really like the way the instructions show mounting it, and I did it that way for these reasons:
1. The radiator hoses are away from me as I stand behind the control panel when the engine is running with pressure on them.
2. The radiator is away from me and the fans are blowing the heat away from me.
As you can see in my photos, I turned the exhaust to blow away from me also. If you have exhaust manifolds that are center dumps, making the exhaust go away from you is easy.
Very seldom do I go to Walmart "but" I was looking for a start up stand on Amazon. I read the comments about parts missing. Hmmm, Walmart ads keep showing up about this engine test stand. I could pick it up or have it shipped. I had a problem with a heavy green house/busted open box/missing parts from Amazon, so I liked the pick up option from Walmart. I was in and out in 10 minutes and they loaded the undamaged heavy box. I was surprisingly pleased with how good/easy it went. I'm betting Walmart just got a dozen orders from this thread.
Well, the good news is that the Chinesium test stand did not collapse under the weight of a 455. I'm taking bets on how long before those solid rubber tires flat spot, however.
I spent yesterday wiring the gauges. They basically give you the gauges and sending units and a key switch and nothing else. No big deal, it's like wiring the dash on a kit car. I naturally have misplaced the instructions by now. The key switch has four numbered terminals with no other markings, but it didn't take long with the VOM to find power, acc, run, and start. The gauges have three terminals, labeled power, ground, and sender, so no big deal. Get it wired up and turn on power. Oil press gauge pegs and temp does nothing. I tried alternately disconnecting and shorting the sender wires, since the gauge should alternately go zero and full scale. Nada.
I'd read several reviews of this unit where people had complained about the gauges and just replaced them with better ones. I was going to do the same, but then wasted an hour not finding my box of gauges...
Figured I'd just go to Harbor Freight today and get their cheapo gauge set (yeah, more Chinesium gauges). Overnight I was thinking that maybe the gauge terminals were marked wrong. Three wires, six possible combinations. Didn't take long to find out that the power and sender terminals were marked incorrectly and reversed. Simple fix, 60 psi oil pressure priming with the drill. Temp gauge goes from zero to full scale with the wire open and grounded. So far so good.
Now to piece together a working starter and distributor. You'd think I'd have that stuff laying around. Actually, I do, but it's faster to put one together than to find the ones that work.
Saturday I was at a friend's and I was telling him about the test stand I got for $234 from Walmart. I looked it up on my phone to show him. Walmart showed a $610 price! Amazon still has them for around $230. Ever since I showed him the startup stand I've been getting ads from Northern Tool of this stand for $545. They know everything!
I went to Pep Boys site, even though it said "unavailable" I attempted to order one. It wouldn't do anything. Reminds me of a story. A man goes into a butcher shop and asks, how much is hamburger? Butcher says, 4 dollars per pound. Man says, the butcher shop down the street sells it for 3 dollars per pound. Butcher says, then go buy it there. Man says, I can't, he's out of hamburger. Butcher says, when I'm out of hamburger its 2 dollars per pound.
That Amazon price is great. I have Prime also. Heavy stuff is always tore up that's why I liked Walmart's store pickup. I would have bought a second stand if I could have got it for $154. One can never have too many toys.
I realize that my post is not about a Larin eng stand, but I thought that I would add my home made stand.
I can run most any type of engine on it and have ran a 350 ci carbuated chebby motor, a fuel injected motor(loaded now) and a 454 big block.
The mount attach legs are fully adjustable up/ down and fore and aft.
I must admit that I have more than the cost of the Larin stand, but most of the cost was in power coating and Auto Meter gauges.
I have not had cause to put an Olds engine on it yet (thank goodness)
The stand is from a highly modified (by me) set of E-Bay plans. Cost of materials was under $125.00 less power coat and gauges
Last edited by My2nd 69 442; May 30, 2017 at 12:11 PM.
I've used mine a few times now. I'll say that the three most useful mods I've made are
1. Taller, rubber tire casters from HF so the legs of my engine hoist slide under the run stand
2. Replace the crappy Chinesium gauges with real ones (I used AutoMeter that I got at Carlisle)
3. Plumb a water flow valve in line with the water inlet fitting so I can dial in the temp without running back and forth to the faucet for the hose.
I just checked and you guys got good deals. Walmart is now $432, Summit is $433 including shipping, Amazon is $330 plus $103 for shipping for a total of $433 and is not eligible for Prime, and Pep Boys and Northern no longer have them. As Kennybill mentioned, Pep Boys still list them but you can't order them. Looks like $433 is the going price.
I worked around the low caster wheel problem. Instead of using a picker I wheeled the engine stand over to my 2 post lift. I used the longer lift arm to get it off the engine stand then lowered it onto the startup stand. It worked pretty smooth.
I made my own from an industrial cart my dad garbage picked (because he thought i could use it) lol. I bought some steel and scrounged scrap at the body shop i work at. Works well. Not the prettiest but I have used it 5 times in a year so far. Everything folds into the cart and the cart fits under my bench with the handle removed.
