pushing the engine back?

[Alexis]

One of those thing thats been getting to me. How much better would a truck handle if you pushed the engine back to wear you almost had to start working the firewall to fit in the dis. How bout lowerin it down and using those shorten oil pans.

thanks

[68LSS1]

I'm doing every trick I know of to hopefully get my truck to handle better. By moving the CG (center of gravity) down and back (and I say back because MOST vehicles are front heavy) you will decrease oversteer and give each wheel better "traction" ability (including the front). There is many formula's and theory's but a good book would be the best thing to get here. I can recommend "Chassis Engineering" by Herb Adams. Of course to use the formulas you'll need to know things like weight of vehicle at all four corners but you could actually figure out by moving X amount of weight here makes my CG here and this gives me X lbs on left front when turning.
Here's an example: Say a car weighs 3,000lbs. with 60% front bias (l/h front weight 900lbs, r/h 900lbs, l/r 600lbs, r/r 600lbs). Now with our CG, that will determine how much load is placed on the tires during cornering. The lower the better here. With this vehicle on a skid pad you would have 300lbs on the l/f, 1500 on r/f, 200 on l/r and 1000 on r/r. There are many variables to this like track width and tires but you get the idea. This example also can illustrate a term you've probably heard in NASCAR: wedge. We could preload any of the 4 springs on the vehicle to increase weight in that corner (and can add/remove weight also).
Sorry for the book but it's something that I got into when I decided to "modernize" my truck or make it even better than a new truck.
As for you question, I don't think that by itself moving the engine back will do a whole lot for you. Maybe, maybe not. But in conjunction with some sway bars, lowering the vehicle (do what is necessary to keep correct shock alignment), and decent width tires, I think it will make a noticable improvement. You can't argue with the math
Some coil overs would be a good idea also.

[GMC JUNKIE TOO]

Get a set of 6cylinder stands it will move the engine back 3 inches from stock v8 location. Thats how mine is and If my distributor was 1/16 taller it wouldent go in.

[crazy longhorn]

The 6 stands will take you back about as far as you can go, without carving the firewall. mine also has 1 1/2" of body drop, & the dist will go in/out with the eng inplace.......both the cap & rotor need to be off tho.... good luck,crazyL