I am going to use this thread to share my engine cart project. I have a need to store an engine for a long time (until it's time to work on that project), and wish to be able to start it from time to time. I made a minimal solution that features:
1. High load casters for easy movement,
2. Starter motor mounting bracket for starting the engine without the transmission,
3. Bumpers in engine mounts for vibration suppression,
4. Radiator mount so the engine can go through a full temperature cycle when started.
5. Belt solution that does not need an alternator in place.
I was able to quickly build and assemble this cart and the starter motor bracket that I modeled by the transaxle bell housing cover plate works well. Overall, the vibration suppression turned out excellent, and the engine runs beautifully smooth on this cart.
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As far as the ability to run the engine with no alternator but with the water pump working, it was sufficient to find a shorter belt that can be just stretch fitted (metric belt part # 15290 available from Dayco/Goodyear/...). The radiator mounts could have been prettier but I was improvising there with the material I had in the garage.
To fit a X1/9 engine instead of the Yugo engine, the only two things that would have to be adapted are:
1. Engine mount at the timing side: As far as I recall, X1/9 has a mount with a horizontally positioned bolt through a rubber element. It should be easy enough to delete my M12 rubber mount and adapt the cart for the X1/9 engine mount.
2. Starter motor mounting bracket: As far as I recall, Yugo and X1/9 starters are not identical. The spacing and angles between the three M8 starter mounting bolts may be different (I am not familiar with X1/9 starters).
Note: water pump belt should still work for X1/9 engines that have the larger V-belt pulley on the crankshaft (part # 4405925) and the larger size water pump pulley. A different belt would be needed for other combinations, although a fully loaded engine with alternator or other auxiliaries could be mounted on this cart without issues.
Vuk