That sounds like a cool project.

I doubt the 4x4 perches would do you much good because they will probably have the engines setting at the wrong height for a Fairlane. And with you wanting to change the offset.

Here's what I would do. Get your chassis set up the way you want it. Set your FE engine in where you want it located. Figure out a way to support the engine so it's not just swinging on an engine hoist chain. Some cheap hardware store turn buckles work for this( one on each corner ) .

Then with whatever motor mount you want to run on the engine make up some card board templates to make some bolt in perches. Then take the templates and transfer the shape onto some 1/8" steel plate. Cut out the pieces tack weld them together. Then test fit the perches to make sure they still fit. If they do pull them back out and completely weld them up. Do one more test fit and you should be good to go.

Now yank out that engine and repeat the whole process with the small block engine. That will give you the two bolt in sets or perches that you know will fit the vehicle.

Hell if you wanted to you could also make your own motor mounts with some 1/8" wall steel tube, some polyurethane Leaf spring bushings and some 1/8" steel plate.

Or you could also go with two of the aftermarket cross members too. If you do I would recommend the Trans-dapt ones. I've owned them in the past and they are good quality and simple to use. Just set up your chassis to work with the FE cross member. The small block cross member is a universal trim to fit.

Trans Dapt Performance Products - Engine Swap Motor Mount Kits

Trans Dapt Performance Products - Universal Crossmembers With Pads

Personally I prefer to build my own stuff. But the cross members would make the change pretty simple as long as the FE X member wasn't set to tight.

 

Thanks, Ted. The car is buried in the snow out back, so I've been doing some armchair engineering. If I have the numbers I'm looking for, I can make an educated guess to do what you recommend. I'm hoping the 4x4 perches I have will act as templates, and double as mounts for an engine test stand down the road.

I'm gonna kick back now, and let all these numbers drift away, lol.

 

Hey I know all about the armchair engineering! These Minnesota winters are way to long. You have to figure out something to keep your mind busy so you don't lose it!!

I'm just afraid the 4x4 ones aren't going to work for you. especially since you want to have the engine more centered. I think making some from scratch would give you the best results. You can base your design off the truck perches just change up all the measurements to fit your chassis.

Are you going with leaf springs/straight axle up front? I love the old gasser look. Some day I want to build a 64-66 Comet gasser/AFX type car.

 

I'm using the spare F1 beam axle and stuff off of my rusty frame. The offset to the passenger side is figured to be 1.75", and will have to be factored in to my perches. The overall purpose of the truck perch measurements is so that I can use truck motor mounts from the local part store. I'm hoping everything will line up correctly so the transmission remains stationary regardless of engine choice (minus bell pattern of course)

And yeah, one has to do something during Winter, lol. The heater I put in the garage last Summer didn't work that great. Got my eye on an electric overhead now.

 

Hey Scott, here is some superfluous and un-relevant info but when I was putting my 460 in I had engineered some spin offs of the trans-dapt frame mount motor mounts that didn’t work out at all.

So I bought a GM small block tubular universal cross member on sale that has the adjustable width flanges and modified the engine mount brackets. You could make bolt on ones. I also like the extra frame strengthening as a result.

A poor picture, it’s cold and dark in the shop this month, better pics available upon request.