How hard would it be to fire up a TPI engine on a stand?

As far as I can think I will need the ECM and connect all the wiring properly. I may also need a VATS module to make the ECM happy.

Somehow I have to give fuel supply to the engine. What would be the easiest solution for this? Get a fuel pump, hook it up in a can of gas?

Anything that I did not considered?

Would it be easier to get a carb and an intake for it and try the engine with them?

 

it would be much easier to just put it in the car.
yes, youll need the wiring, ECU, fuel pump and coolant.
a regular engine satnd isnt stable enough either, it will tip over.
what are you trying to accomplish? if the engine is still in the car, compression test will tell you a lot. if its out, you can still do basic compression checks, just takes a bit more sweat
if its out you can also get a good idea of the engine condition by removing the oil pan and check out the crank and bearings.
if you need to run it out of the car, see if you can find a shop with an engine dyno.
HTH

 

I have an engine stand that is strong enough and well secured to start the engine on, so that should not be a problem.

I would like to simply fire the engine up and check that everything is fine before taking the car apart and starting to put the engine in.

Wouldn't it be easier to use a carb for this purpose? It does not require all the wiring and the fuel supply for it can be done easier.

 

Yep a carb would be much easier a can of gas electric fuel pump and regulator

 

Thanks. I will grab a carb and try it out with that.

 

I've done this with a carb. I can't imagine doing it with FI, that'd just be too much wiring.
You might be able to find my video on youtube (sonix69), i'm not sure if it's still up. I used a normal engine stand, which I added two legs to, to brace it. I used a jerry can, and the mechanical fuel pump, a car battery, and a garden hose with a y adapter to run water through it. I ran it for 30 minutes to break in the cam (at ~2500RPM), and to check for leaks. Luckily for me, the leaks waited until I installed it in the car (sigh).

 

I made a spare engine stand as I also needed it and tried to prepare it to be able to fire an engine up on it.

The finished product looks like this:


Another picture how it is attached to the engine:


I hope this will be strong enough.