My 53 when I bought it already had a 350 swapped in. They cut out the original cross member right in front of the firewall and mounted the engine off the front of the block to the front cross member. I want to mount the engin off the side so I can put a power steering pump on. Should I use a cross member type or can I use the mounts that just come off the top of the frame? Does it need another cross member for support?

 

If I'm understanding what you're saying, you have a Chev 350 in your truck that has the old 283 front engine mounts? What do you have for a trans mount? What do you have for a transmission?

The early 283 front mount design also included side mounts at the bellhousing. If you don't have those, and are running front mounts with the next mount being all the way back at the rear of the trans (assuming also a modern trans swap), that's not good from a powertrain support standpoint, and changing that is certainly necessary. You can either use a crossmember style engine mount or fab up some custom side mounts. The most important part is to have whatever crossmember/mounts you use fully connecting both the top and bottom webs of the frame rail, to eliminate flexing. This is true for both the engine and the transmission.

 

My truck has 350 turbo with it mounted at the rear. If I do not need to use a full cross member with the motor mounts to the side mounts I thought I would either purchase the frame mounts from M50 or make my own.