I assembled a 263 on a Harbor Freight engine stand (on sale at $79.99) rated for a ton if I recall correctly. It is designed to bolt to the bell housing with four adjustable arms that bolted to the stand's rotating plate. I thought the front legs were too short to avoid overbalancing the front of the 263 when assembly would be nearing completion. So I made up a 1/2 inch steel plate with holes to match the back of the 263 block, and others to bolt to the mounting plate of the stand. That put the rear of the engine block about 11 inches closer to the post of the engine stand.
This worked fine, except it went from difficult to impossible to rotate the mounted engine once it got full of its innards. I solved that problem by wrapping a sturdy rope around the crank pulley and hanging the rope from my cherry picker. The cherry picker took enough of the weight to allow rotation. Looked a bit ridiculous, but worked just fine.
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