so im helping a friend of mine out. hes a bodyman, and is redoing a 53 ford pickup. keeping stock chassis. converting the front to disc brakes, plumbing, and adding a 302/auto combo for him. in exchange, hes painting my daily/GRM challenge car.

anyway, i have a question that google has not been able to answer for me.

im getting just the bare frame, that has been sandblasted and painted. reassembling the suspension and doing the brakes is no problem. did that before on my 54 flatbed (grantedd that was over a decade ago, so hopefully i remember).
problem is, theres no motor mounts, and no body. so how do i know where to locate the motor? does anyone have any dimensions for me? if someone could tell me how far, relative to an easily repeateble point, to place the end of the crank snout, i can do the rest.

were using the speedway engine and trans mounts ffor this truck.

also, since i am NOT a ford guy.....

what factory distributor should i use? the motor is out of a 92 mustang, withn an edelbrock intake and a carter carb. distributor is still the EFI one (motor was purchased with full EFI setup, but he didnt want that. he want a carb. and yes, i tried to talk him into EFI.)
also, well be using a c6 automatic behind it (again, tried to talk him into an AOD, but he wants a 3 speed....) what do i do for kickdown linkage?
im mostly a mopar/subaru guy, so please point me in the right direction.

thanks
Michael<!-- google_ad_section_end --> <!-- / message -->

 

I don't have the dimensions you need, but many have had problems squeezing in the c6.

 

My dad had put a 302 with an auto in his which I have since returned to original. He had made his own motor mount which bolted to the frame. He purchased an off the shelf mount for the transmission, which also bolted to the frame. I'll get some pics for you later.

 

that would bbe great and greatly appreciated. thanks you.

 

Here they are. The motor mount was homemade. I ground the ears off it (another story) but they were tall enough to fit inside the frame like a glove. I have Sacramento Vintage Ford and Mid-Fifties catalogs in front of me and they both offer bolt in mounts for about $100.

 

The only factory distributor that will work with the roller cam and a carb out of the box is going to be one from a 1985 Mustang 5.0 with the 5 speed manual trans. (yes, it has to be that specific) You can pick up a rebuilt unit from NAPA or any decent local parts store. It's set up to use the Duraspark II electronic ignition module Ford used for years, and you might as well order that when you get the dist. You can google a wiring diagram to hook it all up. It's a pretty simple setup and will work great.

Regarding the engine install; personally, I wouldn't try it without having the cab on the chassis and at least the core support and rad in place, as well. Being even an inch or two off fore or aft could really mess you up at assembly.

 

My 302 sits back as far as I could get it because I needed the room up front for the accessories package. I measured from the front cab mount holes on the frame to the face of the firewall and it's right at 13 inches. So when you place your engine into the frame you will need to keep it at least 14 inches forward of the cab mount bolt hole.

 

Are those Sandersons, Charlie? And the motor mount looks like the one in the Sac Vin catalog. Is that where you got them?

 

Yes those are Sanderson headers, the motor mounts I made myself. The headers are model FF2, I like them because they are longer and drop down at the rear of the engine instead of up close to the motor mount.

 

Thought I reconised them, I got a set of them for my dad's when I was going to try to get it running the way he had it. They were the only ones that fit with his homemade mounts.