Why Did We Make an Engine Stand Specifically for Subaru Engines
We made an Engine Stand to help alleviate some of the burden we have been having storing Subaru EJ and FA flat four-cylinder engines. At first our plan was just to make something practical that we can use around the shop however, things escalated fast once word of this stand got out on social media.
The TunerRack engine stand for Subaru boxer engines is a solution born out of our frustration with engines taking up valuable space and being hard to maneuver in our workshop. Given the weight and dimensions of engines, their mobility became a challenge, prompting us to create a compact engine stand specifically designed for Subaru engines. Compatible with the Subaru EJ, FA, FB flat boxer engines.
We initially designed these stands for personal use but after receiving numerous requests from interested individuals upon sharing images of the prototype, we decided to move forward with production and develop a manufacturing plan. Since we already run a CNC shop, we decided to dabble in a little welding. Having had extensive welding experience, the guys at the shop were eager to start building something new.
Our initial goal was to be able to sell these stands for as low of a dollar amount as possible to get it into as many Subaru shops and DIY garages as possible however, due to the continues increase in material costs we had to move our original product price estimate from $150 to $200 bucks. Hopefully, if enough people buy these stands we will be able to reduce the raw material and manufacturing costs thus reducing the price further and helping shop guys and gals save their hard earned money.
The first thing we did is use the prototype that I have made in my home garage to create a CAD file. My man Elmer (our in-house Engineer) took care of all the tedious design and engineering work. We 3D-printed some prototypes to insure proper tolerances and angles.
The next step was to source all the materials. We ordered all of the metal tubing from Industrial Metal supply in Sun Valley California. Ordered the castors from Caster & Industrial Supplies in Sun Valley and got all our hardware from the good old folks at River City Fastener & Supplies. Once we had all of the item dimensions, we ordered some packaging which came from a couple of different suppliers that we have an ongoing business relationship with. Due to the fact that the item was not a standard size and is quite large and heavy the packaging ended up costing us a pretty penny.
Once we had all of the components we started cutting and welding all the tubing, periodically checking each part for accuracy and quality. We even took some fully packaged stands out of their boxes just to make sure the components can be assembled as intended. We occasionally encountered some minor difficulty threading the nylon lock nuts onto the caster studs through the stand legs but ultimately we chose to keep using that style lock nuts because of their superior resistance to loosening compared to other types of nuts.
Once all of the components were cut and welded, we drove them over to the local powder coating facility called Preferred Powder Coating in Santa Clarita CA. Once they were powder coated about a week after we picked up the finished components, we got them back to our shop and started packaging them and getting them ready to ship. I was even tasked with making a video assembling one of these stands on camera. I would have preferred to make the video at our shop however, our shop is very noisy place so I had to settle for making the video in my home garage.
As I tried explaining in the video this stand is NOT meant to replace the conventional rotating engine stand. It is just a low-profile engine stand made to be used with popular Subaru engines that can be easily disassembled and stored. Also, unlike conventional engine stands that bolt to the back of the engine using transmission bolts, our version bolts directly to the stand using the factory engine mounts as it would bolt to the vehicle subframe/cross member allowing easy access to the back of the engine. That's why our stand is the perfect tool for tasks like clutch replacement, flywheel installation, main seal replacement or simply for convenient storage.
If you are interested in picking up your own TunerRack engine stand please visit: https://www.tunerrack.com/products/tunerrack-boxer-engine-stand-for-subaru-vehicles