rack - side motor mount clearance

[PurdueSD]

Looking for some advice on motor mount/ rack clearance. As you can see in the pics, I have no space for my driver side motor mount. I was thinking about moving the frame bracket forward about 4" and figuring out a way to adapt back over. If i weld the frame bracket on 3/8ths lower and cut out a piece of 3/8ths plate to offset over will that be enough or do i need to totally redesign the part of the mount that bolts to the block?

Ive got a nice 220 mig and can fab up whatever i need, just looking for some input. Thanks guys!

[Rufton]

What is your steepest r&p U-joint angle?
It may be a good idea to triple check for U-joint binding under different suspension positions and after heating u-joint shaft.

[Denee007]

Wow, that's a tight fit! What about a set of different exhaust manifolds?
Dne'
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[parkwood]

This how i did it on a '52 chevy sedan.. i notched the frame to move the steering shaft over and used a different motor mount than you. you may be able to notch the motor mount you show if you have to use that one...

[PurdueSD]

U joints are just crudely mocked up with some wooden 3/4" dowel rod. I am trying to get past the motor mount issue so i can finalize the intermediate shaft legths and minimalize any extreme angles. I am willing to switch exast manifolds if i really need to, but the driverside dump is helping me here, i believe. The picture is a bit misleading, i have 3-8ths clearance between the shaft, frame and DD shaft when held up in place. Any suggestions?
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[Denee007]

Parkwoods idea is rather ingenious! Just for fun I popped on eBay to see what other manifold exist. You spoke of needing the rear dump being important. Surely others have encountered this problem!


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chevy-GM-Sma...4d01bb&vxp=mtr
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[Katrina/10]

The motor mounts you have are extremely hard to work around because of their size. If you use a set of scott's motor mounts and a mid 70s truck style exhaust manifold, you should have room. I have a picture of mine but it's at home.

[_Ogre]

your motor mounts and exhaust manifolds are your problem
with rams horn manifold you should be able to have one shaft into the rack
rams horn manifold go up over the plugs, there are also many gm manifolds that go up and out the rear, though they may hit your firewall



while mine is a tf truk these are block hugging headers



my motor mounts come off the mustII x-member and use 68 truck motor mounts



also look at parkwood's build to see how his motor mount come off the frame channels

[_Ogre]

not sure what these are off of but these appear to be a modified rams horn with an offset



while these are offset to the front, one thing nice about gm is they can be swapped side to side to get a rear offset
they are on ebay right now

[1project2many]

Ogre, I believe those are original 55-56 exhaust manifolds.

Late 80's Camaro or B car manifolds might work. And they'll flow better.

Can you place the engine mount in front and use the four holes on the bottom of the block?

U-joints in steering shafts should follow the same rules as driveshafts... all angles should have a cancelling angle.

[PurdueSD]

Not to worry, i was just mocking up the steering to see what i had. (Starting point). I have not really even spent anytime looking at it. I was just trying to get an idea about the motor mount. I will probably just build an offset into the driverside engine plate so i can use what i already have. I am also going to look at raising the engine a bit. I think with some minimal trimming/ finessing the bottom of the firewall, I can gain close to an inch.

I i will plan to switch out the exhaust manifolds regardless. It should free up some more room and i wont have to mess with plugging the exhaust manifold air tubes.

Looking at these early vette ram horns. They get really good reviews around the web from the searching ive done. My motor is just a 190hp 350TBI. SO flow really isnt an issue. I would like to avoid the loosening and leaking problems so many people encounter with shorties.

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Dorman...olds,9133.html

[Katrina/10]

This is on a 51.

There is more clearance between the manifold and the shaft than appears in the picture. I don't have a picture of the motor mounts, but they are from scott's, just have a triangular plate bolted to the motor, a short bracket and rubber bushing attached to the frame. I can take a picture from underneath if you would like to see it.

[_Ogre]

Originally Posted by PurdueSD

I would like to avoid the loosening and leaking problems so many people encounter with shorties.

i hear you there. 3 gasket sets in as many yrs. i keep a set handy at all times.

i have a set of cast iron ramshorn manifolds squirreled away that i was thinking of installing instead.
i think they have 2'' outlets on them, i'm looking seriously at the link you posted

[Rufton]

I had luck avoiding header leaks with thick flange and long bolts.

[PurdueSD]

In case this would help anyone...

I ended up ordering a cheap set of 67-72 style ram horns with the angled back collectors.

Got them in the mail today! Only had a couple minutes to bolt them up, but its looking like these will fit great after about 5 minutes with the grinder. The structural nubs contact the valve covers, so i will need to clearance them up just a bit. You can see how much more room i've gained rasing the engine and switching manifolds! Im still going to have to adapt the motor mount a bit, but shouldn't be too bad now! Looks, like i could quite possibly eliminate a u-joint.

[Denee007]

Those look much nicer and you solved the problem! Congratulations!!
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[SCHRUMGMC]

The Motor looks nice

[Rufton]

Yes it looks much better. My not be an issue for you, but it never hurts to keep U-joints as far from heat as reasonable.

[parkwood]

Looks like you can not move on to the next problem now that you've got this worked out... looks good and seems like it clears everything nice..