While I am waiting for the Accel thruster DFI to come in (back orderd till May 5) I need to make a nice easy way to get the engine onto my truck and then to the engine dyno. I am making an upper cradle and a lower cradle as well. I am almost done with the lower cradle but I needed to get the upper one done so I can lift the engine up to finish the lower one, kind of like the chicken and egg game.
  I designed the upper cradle so that it clears the blower and bug-catcher and does not "swing" and also bolts and unbolts pretty easy. This it takes about 6 minutes from start to finish to bolt the upper cradle on.  There will be a .500 steel plate acting as a spreader bar and the chains from the spreader bar will "pickup" on the D-rings. I made sure my welds were hot and had good penetration. I tacked the bars together with the TIG machine as not to make flying sprarks while over the engine. Then un-bolted the top "box" and did a full weld and added the D-rings. As you can see the spreader bar will be pulling on the D-rings from the corners as not to put a twisting force on the upper box. The materail used is 1.5 square 11ga(approx 1/8" wall). The plates on the heads and the angle are 1/4" thick.  Total material for the upper and lower cradle will be 90 bucks with steel left over. I will post pics of the lower cradle when I am done.

T.J.

as usual, very nice work.  You ever thought about opening a shop?

Every Day I think about it. If I lived out West in AZ or Cali I would do it but not much of a market for this stuff out here. I do some side work now and then for Mustang and turbo guys but that is about it.
Thanks.
T.J.