Fabbed Motor Plates?

I am putting a 466-C6 in a '65 Galaxie, and I have read a little about motor plates on Fox cars. I dont know alot about them, so a little help would be appreciated.

I was thinking of making a pair of 1/2" aluminum pieces to bolt to the front cover or heads and to the front crossmember. Make a steel wrap for the crossmember to bolt the aluminum ones to. Then going to the trans mounting flange at the block and make a pair of then to go to the frame, like 4 plates with two bolts at each end. I could use steel at the back and heat and bend them to bolt to the frame and attach at two bolt holes at the tranny. Then run a standard crossmember with a rubber mount like stock.

Then I could try a set of cheap truck headers that have a little more pipe coming out before they bend, with 2" tubes and 3 1/2 collectors, with all of the frame stand and mount stuff removed. I don't know if thiis would fit or not because I don't have any mock up pieces. But has anyone here done such a thing? If you have could you post some pictures regardless of the car. Maybe my son and nephew can look them over and see.

I would like the engine as low and far back as possible if I have to fabricate it. If I am going cheap, I'll just use a Crites' kit if I can find one used.

Bill, first of all, welcome to the 429/460 BBF site, and I'm sure you bring with you knowledge you share over at the FE site. Also I must say I'm NO chassis expert (that's a long stretch) or probably one to offer another advise about chassis setup or performing work on a chassis. So I assume the following text is just my opinion!

First, could a C4 be part of your project? As to the "motor plates", 1/2" seems a bit much, but each to his own! Another though, has the Galaxie had any bracing to the already huge frame or is it a "chassis car"? IMO, simply installing "motor plates" without the remainder of the frame being re-enforced, those "motor plates" and/or their attaching points usually take a beating! Crites offers a Ford 385 Series engine installation kit and headers for a project such as yours, as I'm sure you know. I do understand the extra room available when factory engine mounts are removed. Maybe you can use the factory mounting locations and fabricate another design that would occupy less of the engine compartment while offering a solid mount.

As you know, when adding "motor plates" between engine components or engine and transmission, other areas need to be addressed to correct installation. I also fear the mounting points that offer (usually accessory mounting) small amounts of material (heads, iron or aluminum) may not be up to the task of detaining the engine torque, in seperate (two front, two rear) mounting plate applications.

In closing if I may, front plates are nice if their fabrication is not a major undertaking, although those rear plate can be difficult on a automobile with it's factory mechanisms!

As I said, just my $0.02.
Dave.

Unless the chassis is VERY stiff, tripod mounting is the best bet. Forget the rear motor plate and simply use a front plate with a polyurethane trans mount, 1/4" steel or 3/8" aluminum should be sufficient. Mount it behind the water pump ahead of the front cover making a sandwich using the water pump mounting bolts; (they are 5/16" however, there are 11 of them).

Its just a stock frame, Thanks for the responses. By tripod mounting, do you mean just regular stock type mounting with pedastals and block side mounts? Or using a front motor plate and a trans crossmember?

What gave me the the idea was my '65 F250 4X4 with a 390-4speed. It has a factory front cover mount plate that attaches to the front cover with 4 bolts and then a regular mount like a trans mount under it to a crossmember (you have probably seen this setup on a dump truck or an F500 or up because they used it on the pre-67 4X4s and the F500 up), and then it has two pedestal mounts at the bell housing that bolt the bell to a crossmember. There isn't a crossmember under the trans, it just floats around back there.

Thanks for the help guys.

Bill

Tripod mounting is exactly what it says; 3 points of mounting. Now, those three points can be from just about anywhere as long as they have significant enough spacing between them and one mounting point is NOT solid.

Side mounts OR a Front Motor plate is "Tripod".

I think a front plate and a trans crossmember with a rubber mount would free up alot of header room. I think an aluminum trans, especially a ribbed case C6 would be strong enough, with the plate mounted to the sides. The front part of the frame on a '65 Galaxie is pretty beefy compared to the rest. You could make a 90° steel piece that goes along the sides and plated over the top and under the bottom of the frame and bolt the plaate to. 1/4" steel for the side pieces, and a 1/4" steel plate C4002 from Competition Engineering plate behind the water pump maybe? http://www.campbellenterprises.com/parts.php?type=search&query=twr708

Then just a stock trans cross member with a regular mount, maybe urethane? I would also convert to manual steering ans manual brakes since the engine will only be making a little over 5" hg of vacuum

I have a set of Crites FE slip fit headers that I could cut up and make fit with a set of 460 flanges. Ideas, they never stop. Get the length before the first turn the way I want it, and use pieces of the Crites tubing to sweep the rear 4 tubes in toward the front a little with and the front ones to the back so they don't go under the cross memeber and they all come out about 36". You can get some J bends from Summit if needed to fill in any places, and some 2" tube too. It might come out about the same cost as a set of boxed headers. I plan on putting about 16"-18" of 3.5" in as reducers befire dropping to 3" and an X pipe. What do you think?

I made this one.

richter69 wrote:I made this one.

I wonder if I could cut it to fit physically underneath a water pump instead of between it and the block? Just use the timing cover bolts? My truck is holding that FE and NP 435. iron bell with four 3/8" bolts that make a U bracket with a regular trans mount under itand a pair of side mounts under the bell. Nothing under the trans at all.

I really like that one. I might make it that way because its lower, and the water pump needs all the room it can get.

there are 6 of the waterpump bolts used, also have one bolt with a spacer going into each cyl head, I am using a midplate thats very secure, no tranny mount.

richter69 wrote:there are 6 of the waterpump bolts used, also have one bolt with a spacer going into each cyl head, I am using a midplate thats very secure, no tranny mount.

On your front plate? I got out the magnifier and blew the picture up really big. It looks like to the upper tubes to the front cage brace. I can see the water pump bolts now. I wonder if it could be flanged to go over the water pump there instead of behind it? If you cut say the top 1 1/2"- 2" inches off the plate and welded them to the rest of the plate and spot faced it to go on the six bolts of the pump. That is slick! I like it.

Is the crossmember at the trans just as good, or would the mid plate be better? A C6 hanging there seems like a lot of weight, of course it would be alot on the bell with just a cross member too. An electric remote pump woould solve some problems too, along with the belt drive like yours. reallly well done! Its got the wheels turning in my head.

Yeah the plate was an oversized blank I bought, doing it this way you can have it any configuration you want..............not have all the extra holes and such.

richter69 wrote:Yeah the plate was an oversized blank I bought, doing it this way you can have it any configuration you want..............not have all the extra holes and such.

I could use a stock cover and pump or go the way you did. I would likely use the stock cover and an short T-bird pump. The mid plate vs the crossmember is something to still be sorted out, but I am sure that won't take long with the great advice i am getting here.

I don't know if this would apply to this or not but would you want to do some kind of brace to stop the engine/trans from moving back and forth? Something simple like some small tubing and a couple rod ends? Have fun.

radir 68 wrote:I don't know if this would apply to this or not but would you want to do some kind of brace to stop the engine/trans from moving back and forth? Something simple like some small tubing and a couple rod ends? Have fun.

Yes, in my setup the lateral limiters bolt to the tailshaft on the tranny where the mount would go and extend rearward to the driveshaft loop.

richter69 wrote:

radir 68 wrote:I don't know if this would apply to this or not but would you want to do some kind of brace to stop the engine/trans from moving back and forth? Something simple like some small tubing and a couple rod ends? Have fun.

Yes, in my setup the lateral limiters bolt to the tailshaft on the tranny where the mount would go and extend rearward to the driveshaft loop.

I like it. You have a nice setup there. Good old American ingenuity!