Engine is finally in!!!..... UPDATED 8-23-11

Nice

You did a nice job!

looks very nice John , i really like that wisbone set up

67460 wrote:You did a nice job!

I didn't do much. I started it almost 2 years ago. I just got tired of staring at it and finally payed someone to finish it.

I got the new oil pump mounted and modified the pickup for proper pan clearance. Now I just need to stick the new oil pan on it, bolt up the trans and see how it all looks installed with the headers. Hoping to do that sometime this weekend or next week. I'll take pics when it's all mocked up.

Got the engine and trans in it tonight. bolted on the headers too. Going to figure out the driveline angle tomorrow night. Trans tailshaft needs to come up a bunch. I'll post some pics tomorrow night

Pictures or ban! Looking forward to seeing it.

This is all I have right now. The headers are hanging real low! Looks like they will come up nice and tight to the floor once I raise the tailshaft up in line with the rear pinion. I'm trying to get the car as low as possible to give it a good stance. I'll see tonight how it all works out after I draw out the drive line angles on the floor.

Looking good John, keep it up!

Got the engine and trans in where they need to be so the driveline is all lined up. Tacked in the motor plate tabs and started fabbing up the midplate tabs. I had to ditch the factory rack setup and will be putting in a Pinto rack. The header collectors hit the factory transmission crossmember brackets so I'll be fabbing up a new crossmember mounted off of the subframe connectors. This crossmember will be higher up in the chassis and should clean up the bottom of the car. The headers are not much lower than the oil pan and are tucked up nice to the floorpan. They clear the trans pan too. Hopefully I can plumb a set of 4" exhaust pipes and some race bullets in there somewhere too.

The engine sits so low in the chassis and fairly level that it looks like I can use a much shorter cowl hood.

Looks good but how easy will plug changing be

what headers did you use John ?

Looks good but how easy will plug changing be

I'll have to stick a socket and wrench down there tonight to see about the plugs.

what headers did you use John ?

Nick, the headers are a set I bought off the old site a number of years ago. They look identical to the swap headers that Dynatech sells. Not really sure though. The part number doesn't seem to match any brand on the market today.

I didn't think I'd be able to get the engine as low as I did in the chassis and NOT have the headers on the ground. It worked out good though since the rear pinion is so high in the car. The tall tires really require the front of the engine to be low and the trans tailshaft to be higher than usual just so everything lines up. The more I raised the trans and the more I lowered the front of the engine the more the headers tucked up nice to the floor. I'm going to stick the carb spacer and carb on there tonight to see just how much cowl hood I don't need.

I would've loved to slide the engine all the way back to the firewall but I would've needed to cut off some of the cowl's flange and rework a few other things. I think it's still further back then some of the swap kits out there today. The trans crossmember is all the way back and that's with a glide so I think I did OK.

Looking good John, can you post some pictures of the trans cross member and the mid plate tabs.

Didn't get any undercar shots since I took the headers off to make room to fab and tack weld the midplate tabs. The driver's header came out from the top with no issues. I'll have to jack up the car to get the pass side out from underneath. I also plan to cut the header flanges between the tubes to make them all individual. That should help with installation... Looks like access to the plugs on the driver side will be fine and the pass side will be tight but doable.

I haven't made the trans crossmember yet either. The stock one is still in there with a factory GM mount and a piece of 2x2 to raise it up. I also used a Skinny Kid Race Cars front plate that is made for the factory engine offset to the pass side. The plate when bolted to the tabs pretty much centered itself in the chassis. I used a single bolt GM mount and drilled a hole dead center of the factory mount to center the trans too.So the drivetrain is offset to the pass side while the pinion is centered in the car.

I welded some angle running forward to the bottom of the factory sway bars mounts. I used this as a shelf to set the engine plate on to hold it while I mocked everything up. The mid plate tabs already have some short sliders on them to hold the plate durung the engine install. I'll do the same to the motor plate tabs once the engine is out and the angle is cut out.

Here's some pics from tonight. Please excuse my nasty tack welds !!!




Passenger side mid plate tab





Passenger side motor plate tab




Driver's side motor plate tab




Driver's side mid plate tab




Transmission mount







The trans tunnel was already gone when I got the car. I trimmed some to clear the trans as well as one header tube. I plan to clean it up some as well as open the top up some more to get to the top trans bolts from inside the car.






And last here's a few pics with the spacer and carb on. I'll need a small cowl to clear it. Not the massive 6" one I currently have.