Running engines with no tranny, can it be done?

[oldcarnut]

Just wondering if someone had several engines laying around and wanted to run them all or wanted to test one before buying.  Would it be possible to drop them in a engine bay or set on a stand for fuel, water, and electrical with just the flywheel or TC connected to crank up and run or does it need to have the resistance of the tranny?  What about breaking in a new one? Hadn't seen anyone do it before but is it possible without causing harm?

[Troy]

You should be able to run it with just a bell housing/flywheel attached (have to have something for the starter to engage).

Troy

[Cooter]

I have done it, but only with a manual flywheel as mentioned. Chevy really had it down on this, with the starter bolting to the blocks.

[randy73]

What engine?

I would not do it with a externally balanced engine.

[John_Kunkel]

As mentioned, you need the flywheel or converter to engage the starter but you still need the weight of the flywheel/converter to dampen out the firing pulses. A converter can't be run by itself (the insides will flop around) so the only alternative is a bellhousing and flywheel.

[RallyeMike]

You can build an engine test stand without too much effort. This one is my buddies, made from uni-strut bolted together. A junk flywheel with good teeth can be found cheaply, though a bell housing might set you back a little. It doesnt take much to wire it up with a couple of switches and a choke cable for the throttle.

For engine break in, it can be hard to get the cooling robust enough, so what I do is just open the radiator petcock and stick a hose in the top = No cooling problems for break in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDl0VKd9PkU&feature=youtu.be

[oldcarnut]

Thanks for the link.  Do you have a rear shot of it.  Looks simple enough.  I saw you wiped out a cam by the notes "1972 Dodge Charger: Rebuild break-in of my Indy head 383 road race engine after wiping out the cam."   What happened?  Was that done on the stand the first time or while you were running it in the car.  Just curious.  If anyone else has a stand for running engines, post them up! 

[RallyeMike]

Sorry - don't have any good pics of the stand. I used an old flywheel and Lakewood Bellhousing with a stock starter.

The cam? I flattened the lobes by running Mobil 1 not realizing they had dropped most of the good stuff out of it that kept flat tappet cams alive. That's why the engine was pulled, gone through and broken in on the stand.

[Lee A]

If you do it be careful when we were kids we did that with a 396 and when we raved it up it flipped over and started a fire in my friends dad shop he came out and was just hollaring at us lol