The two 71/2-inch adjustment...
The two 71/2-inch adjustment sections of tubing will be drilled next. Steve measures down 11/2 inches from the end of each section and then uses the same procedure as described above, except he drills only a single side of the tubing. A 3/8-inch shoulder nut will be welded on top of the holes. After all four pieces are complete, he deburrs the holes using a belt sander and round-file.
• Use the thickest 1-inch and 3/4-inch-square tubing you can find. Usually 14-gauge steel is preferred for the 1-inch tubing, but lighter gauge will still support an iron head.
• Aluminum square tubing should not be used in the build: It isn't durable enough to bear the weight of cast-iron heads. If all you have are lightweight aluminum cylinder heads, it's still more expensive to purchase aluminum stock and requires accomplished welding skills to ensure a successful build.
• Steel and iron retailers are usually significantly cheaper for square tubing than large retail hardware stores. A good example is the 6-foot, 14-gauge section of 1-inch-square tubing, which costs just over $7 at the steel-and-iron retailer, while the hardware store charged over $13 for a 4-foot section of 16-gauge tubing.
• Due to the weight that the cylinder-head stand might have to bear, it is not recommended that you "braze" rather than weld.
• In order to load a cast-iron head to the stand, it's much easier to place the cylinder head with the combustion chambers on a flat surface, flip the head stand on its side, adjust the width, and thread in the bolts for the head. Bring the stand to the head rather than attempting to hold up that much weight and thread in the bolts. Once complete, it's easy to push the whole assembly onto the legs and put the head in the position that you want.
• A second set of nuts can be welded to the outer portions of the left and right legs. These are a great place to store the 2-inch-long bolts that are used to bolt the heads to the stand when it isn't in use. (This is another great idea from Floyd Hand, and a revision to the stand that will be easy to incorporate.)
• Painting the stand is purely for aesthetic purposes. For those of you who want to paint the stand to make it look better, if you don't own a sandblaster, simply wipe the metal down with grease and wax remover, and spray paint it.
• Build or buy a set of cylinder-head stands and store your "spare" cylinder heads on the stand, wrapped up tightly with plastic. Cylinder heads should never be stored face down in the corner of the garage nor left to collect dirt and debris that might one day turn your collectible head into a rusted paperweight.
• Don't ever be temped to display your cylinder heads over the fireplace mantel. They may look great to you, but your wife or significant other may give both you and your ornamental display a quick boot to the garage.
Cylinder-Head Stand: Testing And Uses
• In order to test the functionality of the cylinder-head stand, we rounded up as many different makes of cylinder heads as we could find. In addition to two Pure Pontiac D-port iron heads, we successfully mounted an LS1 cylinder head, as well as a small-block Chevrolet and a big-block Ford (460) head. The Chevy head was the smallest, while the Ford head was the largest. Every head tested was able to be rotated through the full 360-degree arc and there was ample room under the stand.
• We learned that the proper procedure for getting a head set onto the stand is to slide the head stand width-wise up to the head, get each of the 2-inch bolts finger-tight, and then fully tighten the two adjusting bolts down before using a 9/16-inch wrench to lock the heads into the desired position. All the cylinder heads tested had a minimum of two parallel accessory bolt-holes and used 3/8-inch bolts. Although the LS1 heads were designed for 10mm bolts, the smaller 3/8-inch bolt worked fine and didn't damage the threads.
Next, Steve will cut the final...
Next, Steve will cut the final piece-a 24-inch-long section of 16-gauge, 3/4-inch- square, steel tubing. It will fit inside the 1-inch tubing, and can be slid back and forth to support a head as short as 15-inches wide (two 71/2-inch sections times two) or as wide as 35 inches (assuming the 24-inch section is bolted down 2 inches into each 71/2-inch adjustment section of tubing). A traditional Pontiac cylinder head is approximately 193/4-inches long, while an LS-series head is only 1/4-inch shorter.
For this project Steve chose...
For this project Steve chose to use his Miller Millermatic 252 MIG welder, set at 19.2 volts with a steel wire for welding. The first items to be welded together are the two 51/2-inch legs and one 71/2-inch support and adjustment section. David uses a carpenter's square to ensure that each section will be straight, and then Steve tack welds the section in. Once done, Steve will tack weld the 11-inch upright (shown) in a similar fashion.
Steve centers the shouldered...
Steve centers the shouldered 3/8-inch nut over the hole in the support/adjustment section and clamps it down. He uses a 1/4-inch piece of steel plate to center the 11/2-inch-long steel collar (1/4-inch protrudes on each side of the square tubing) and clamps it as well. Here Steve is shown tack welding the shouldered nut. Due to the heat of welding, he had to use a small round-file to get the bolt-hole that was initially drilled to line up properly. Even on the second side of the stand, where he inserted a bolt through the nut and clamped it down, the heat from welding distorted the hole enough that he had opened it up. (Bottom line-open up the 3/8-inch holes you drilled into the support beam a small amount to account for welding distortion.)