LSx Test Stand

Because I have too many things sitting around and wanted to condense some of it I started making an Engine test stand last week.

Take 1 part Trailblazer front clip, 1 part old battery cart, and weld it all together.

I started hacking before taking pictures, but this is basically what the cart started as. It had a bunch of rollers to support larger batteries and a rail, which you'll see re-purposed later.



I was originally thinking I'd hack away most of the Trailblazer frame and graft it into the cart, but ended up going the other way.

I carefully flipped the clip onto the wheel barrow to move it inside as I have a stress fracture in my hip and the doctor doesn't even want me walking...



The one set of casters fit nicely up front on the sway bar mounts



The other set I hacked a section out of the frame to recess and weld them in on each side.



This side I already hacked off the strut towers



Dropped the TB radiator into the stock lower mounts and used the cart rails as an upper radiator mount as well as a place to put guages and the starter board I had made up to test fire the 5.3 from my Blazer.









Slapped the LQ4 4L80 into it and built a transmission mount. It bolts on to the back of the frame. I'll have to build a rear engine mount when it comes to testing an engine by itself.





















I'm keeping my eye out for a small fuel tank to mount below the front cross member. With that and a Fuse Block from a full size I should have a plug and play test stand.

wow look at that!

Looks awesome. Can't wait to see it fire up!

Also, surprised Ryo didn't hate on the departure angle.

This thing is definitely not leaving the cement with an engine on it. Rolls so nice empty, but load it up and it isn't quite as much fun anymore haha The departure angle of 2.3° is probably plenty for the use case.

if anything, i would like to point out the spinny vs fixed casters are backwards from a load control point of view.
grocery cart casters are done backwards too.

I chose that location because of packaging constraints. Didn't even consider the weight distribution. whoops! I think once I get it setup for an engine by itself it may rarely have a transmission on it anyway, so probably not a huge deal.