This utilitarian find presents numerous opportunities for continued use in the shop following its main duty. The engine run-in stand from TRC Racing can also double as an all-aluminum table and a full-size roll-along parts cart. It isn’t just for the hobby builder, though; this well-designed cart would definitely be at home in just about any engine shop. Think about it like this – what happens if you spend a weekend or longer bolting everything into your car “just so” and then, upon initial start-up, you find that you’ve got a bad rocker arm that chucks needle bearings in the bottom end of your new engine? Or a thrust measurement that’s not correct eats up the bearing and your new crankshaft in the process? Now you’re stuck pulling the engine back out of the car, wasting another day or two or three in the process, all while you could have inspected everything from the get-go. 

If you’ve ever built an engine in the garage, you know that it’s always a shaky moment of truth when you get it placed between the framerails of your hotrod, wire it up and turn the key. How about if you had the opportunity to bolt it to a stand, complete with radiator, cooling fan, transmission mount and wiring, and were able to go ahead and push a button to test it out? This 6061 aluminum piece gives you the ability to check things out without installing the engine into a car, which is a definite plus, especially if you’re working with a tight engine bay like a Factory Five racer or the like.

The full-boogie package will set you back one Ulysses less than $3000 – plus the ride, of course. Not only do you get the stand, which includes a set of 8-inch, 900-pound capable polyurethane wheels, but you also receive a Griffin aluminum radiator with electric fan, RCI fuel cell, steel adjustable engine and transmission mounts, a set of gauges in an aluminum housing and all of the attendant wiring and switches that are ready to go. Just stick your engine and transmission onto the mounts and fire away. It even comes with a sweet pull-handle to make maneuvering the heavy engine and trans combo around the shop a simple task. According to the manufacturer, Terry Charles, “I designed it in such a way that it can be dismantled and assemble the table right on top it, and you can even remove the table section and use the bottom half as a dolly by adding a piece of wood.”

We can foresee the tabletop portion of the design being used for fabrication, and there are a number of other uses we can think of to put this bad boy into practice. We could talk about it for a while longer, but click the video link at the top of this page and find out all about it for yourself.