Engine stand for 3.0 Busso - advice required

[shiny_car]

Hey

Can you guys confirm that a conventional engine stand - like below - is suitable for the 3.0 V6 in my 75? That is, are there 4 suitable bolt holes (presumably at the rear of the engine after removing the bell housing/flywheel) to secure the engine to such a stand? And what size bolts?



Thanks. And yes, the engine is coming out for some work! 

[Sheldon McIntosh]

Don't mount an Alfa V6 on one of those stands, whatever you do.

[shiny_car]

Cheers Sheldon. I'll be in touch.

I've read about stands that are either custom made, or modified inline-6 stands, that can bolt to the engine mount positions. But I haven't seen a source to offer customised mounting brackets to suit the Alfa engine.

With a conventional stand...

From the alfagtv6.com forums, I found this:



Plus this, from alfabb.com forums, using M10x70mm bolts:



So it seems do-able, though not as secure as the double-sided attachment stands. The engine is of course top-heavy, so trying to rotate it on a conventional stand could be hazardous and require some care.

[colcol]

Get yourself an engine stand with a large mount head, that is the sqaure bit that the bolts attach to and long arms that attach to the engine, then you can shift the centre of gravity about, so that when you rotate the engine, it doesn't try to tip the stand over.
I have found the cheap engine stands have small arms and heads, to save on metal.
When the heads are large and the arms are long, you can shift the engines centre of gravity so that the heaviest bit is in the centre and you can rotate it with ease and safety.
Also the longer arms can allow you to offset something so you can access bits of the engine, so you don't have to undo anything to get at a piece of the engine you are trying to rebuild.
Also look at other things, like rebuilding a gearbox / transaxle and how it would handle it.
This sort of good gear coming out of China is so cheap now, it makes me wince, when i see what i paid 30 years ago, Colin.

[shiny_car]

Cheers colcol.