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I had a fairly decent job of moving the engine from the basement shop up to the garage shop. Once there I bolted the transmission on and with the help of my son, we swapped to oil pan and pickup to the rear sump style. I had read that the double sump would work, but I didn’t like the idea of dumping a bit of oil on the crossmember during an oil change. The two mated and ready for an oil pan swap. My son helping me out. I didn’t really need the help, but I’ll never turn down spending time with him.
I trimmed a bit out of the crossmember behind the engine (where the factory trailing arms connected so I could push the drivetrain in. After several tries (like what felt 100) to get things lined up I used some scrap 2x4’s to hold things in place so could build the motor mounts. I was relieved to see that there will be ample room around the engine for everything. Wood holding the engine in place. Here’s the driver side to show how much room I engine is set back pretty good. Passenger side
I used a floor jack to jack the transmission up and let me mark the floor for the shifter. I pulled it all out to cut my hole and get the factory transmission mount ready to temporarily hold the transmission up. With everything back in place the trans is in place with plenty of room around it. Shifter position, I’m pleased with where it’s at. It should be about perfect. I can get my hand around the entire transmission body. I quick shot from the back.
Great progress made! Looks like your shop is plenty big enough and has a lift. I envy that!
keep the updates and pictures coming.
Thanks for the reply, I can do an awful lot in my shop. The biggest problem is where I can put things for the project. I’ve got the front clip in my little barn in the back. But is sitting on the ground and I hate that! The parts and pieces are in the bed, that’s actually pretty nice. Thanks for looking.
I had to push Frankie into the 2.5 car garage adjacent to my shop. I had all of the drivers come due for Maintenance at once. While oil was draining and the undercarriages were being looked at I started playing with 66. I payed attention to the inside. I took the badly cracked dash pad out. I took the trim out, the instrument panel, and then pushed a plast trim tool under it prying up. It came out in chunks, but I scrapped and worked and got most of it out. The windshield needs to be replaced, I will remove the rest and paint it once I get to that point. The wiring is in bad shape, here’s a sneak peek at it’s horrible state. The inside mostly exactly as I got it. Yikes!!! Bad Bad Bad All cleaned up
Mostly…….
And now to where I am as of today. The engine sits back in the chassis. I can put my flat hand between the heads and firewall. I believe I’ll have plenty of room for maintenance if needed. From the CV motor mount and the engine motor mount is roughly 3.5” center to center. Now to come up with a mount. Passenger side Driver’s side
I used CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) and drew out some ideas, The I cut out a template for the engine side. I traced it on some 1/4” plate and cut it out. After hitting it with the flap disc I had parts. I wanted something with a little bit of shape instead of a box……so I used box tube. I cut the feet to sit on the CV mount and after drilling holes for the mounting bolts I had more……parts. I cut the foot on a 45 that I’ll cover with plate later. I am looking for a bushing like stud. Possibly a rubber/poly bushing with studs on each side. One side to bolt to CV and one to bolt to the engine plate. Until then I just tacked the Ideas drawn out and ready to try The foot part of the mount Tacked together and ready to try It works I guess Got different headers and everything still fits.
tube to hold things in place. I may completely scrap the whole thing later, who knows!
Between being sick and kid’s activities, I haven’t had much time to “play” in the shop. I have been needing to make the transmission mount and I found time to do that today. I measured and cut a piece of 1.25” square tube to fit between the frame rails. Once I slid that place I tweaked the transmission angle with a jack. I was shooting for 3 degrees. I can shim the rear end to match if need be.
I took the mounting pad off of the transmission and cut a piece of angle to match. I held everything together and played with spacing. I marked the center of the tube and center of the angle. I clamped it together and mocked it up. Since I didn’t have any exhaust tube, I used a piece of 2.5” pvc conduit to mimic the exhaust. I wanted to make sure I had room for the pipes and didn’t have to drop back and punt later. Centers marked Clamped together Slid in place to mock the mount. Passenger side with PVC in place to mimic the exhaust pipe. Driver side mock up of the exhaust.
Being satisfied that the exhaust pipe is clear I powered up the tig welder. I haven’t used it in almost 2 years, I thought what the hell. One of the downsides of my small shop is being able to weld at the bench. I can’t to it if there is a vehicle in the bay. So I stood up by the welding cart. These will hold, but I’m not very proud of them. Boy I need practice and to make room for the bench! I may do this again, but this time at the bench.
Now to drill the holes, I used my digital calipers to measure the center to center of the mounting pad studs. I also measured the diameter to know what size hole to drill. I took my measurement and divided it in half. I used this number to scribe off of my center mark. I then scribed the other center. I used the calipers to center a mark long ways as well. Center to center measurement. Center to stud marked Center to opposite stud marked Center to center marks measured….Yeah, it matches! Center marked longways
After drilling my holes it was time for a try. I still have to drill holes in the frame to bolt the mount in place. I need some hardware before drilling anything. Thanks for looking! Not bad !
wow! i'm loving this build. i'm looking for ideas as to fabrication and a motor / tranny combo. i love what you're doing. i've subscribed and am looking forward to ridiculous amounts of pictures and updates from your build.
wow! i'm loving this build. i'm looking for ideas as to fabrication and a motor / tranny combo. i love what you're doing. i've subscribed and am looking forward to ridiculous amounts of pictures and updates from your build.
Ramrod, thanks for checking it out. Hopefully I don’t disappoint on the build. Of the idea on motor/tranny combination, a true hot rod has a third pedal……at least to me. I knew I wanted a manual, but originally I thought I’d use a T5. Once I started researching and found out the shifter would be so far back in the cab, I changed direction.I had settled on my combo several years ago. I’ve had the engine and trans for a good while. You’ll see later in the build that I wanted EFI. I adapted the Factory EFI harness to be used as a stand alone. Now there are many choices for EFI (Holley Sniper, which I’ve used several times and like, mega squirt is another good one). If I were starting now I may have gone a different route. Thanks for looking.
