Can you not raise the engine mounts? That would help your radiator hose fit as well. IFS is not going to help you solve your problems much. The IFS crossmember would want to occupy the same space as your oil pan sump.

 

I got the radiator hose situation under wraps. Everything is already plumbed and done, so altering the engine and mounts now would be crazy. At the time i was under the impression all these tube crossmembers were created equal. I guess it's not so. If were to raise it up I'd have to re-work the area on the crosmember where the motor mounts secure to. Right now the engine sits perpendicular to the frame very well, and if I were to raise up just the engine then that could throw off my shift linkage as well as all the other hookups to the engine. I'll just have to put up with the stock manifolds for a while i guess...

If i were to proceed with an IFS, i think I'd dump the 390 in favor of a 351W and an AOD anyways. But since money is a driving factor there, I'll just have to put up with what I have for now. If I kept the 390 i could try and use a rear sump 4WD pan... might give me enough clearance.

 

My crossmember looks like a home built job, it's a tube but it curves back and goes under the rear section of the oil pan. I had to raise it up to get the proper angle when I put the new trans crossmember in. The set-up when I got it used stock parts from various years and was kinda scary. I reinforced the mounting areas to the frame and even had to make a spacer to go under the motor mount to the block as the mount was welded a little to low on the crossmember.


This one is after I raised the motor:



Also I fixed the header link to my header repair, the old link was to this thread .

 

Does your engine sit pretty level in the frame or is it pointed up a bit in the front? I ask this because to me it seems like the C6 would be pretty damn tight to the floor if you raise it up (while keeping the assembly level with the frame) any more that at lest mine is sitting. If it were slightly angled upward in the front i could see the tranny clearing the floorboard ok... close, but ok.

 

It's angled about 3 deg down at the output shaft. I have the semi flat trans crossmember bolted to the underside of the frame and then raised the motor to get the angle I needed.

 

Hmmmm... I'm seeing next winter's project forming already..

If I try to fix this now (which I should before i get exhaust done) I'll probably have it ripped apart for the better part of the spring and summer... (my son's little leauge season starts at the end of next month) *sigh* I'll just have to leave it alone for now. I can always have the exh shop redo my head pipes if i get headers for it. Thanks alot for the info though, i really do appreciate it.

 

Glad the info helped, I'm trying to get mine to the muffler shop on next friday to get the head pipes hooked to the headers. I had new pipes put on about 6 months before I tore it apart of course .

I wish I had a pipe bender/expander like the mufflers shops use (and the place to put it ), then I could put it together on my own time and my own way.

 

The engine should not be level to the frame. The intake manifold carb flange surface should be level, that would be ~ 3* high at the front. It's been a long time since I looked at a 390 engine mount arrangement, but I'd think it would be much easier to build taller motor mounts (the part that bolts to the block) than change the crossmember.
Honest truth is tho you probably wouldn't be able to appreciate the difference between the stock manifolds and block huggers except sound and "sex appeal". Grind the manifolds smooth and have them powder coated if you are concerned about the appearance for 1/2 the cost of headers.

 

Yeah understood, and I'm willing to bet it does have at least a 3* angle to it. Over the length of the engine/tranny 3* is hardly visable to the eye. I really never bothered to check and i bought the x-members as a set, so I 'assumed' (yeah I know shouldn't do that) that it was already engineered in. My whole engine/trans assembly may sit lower in the chassis than 1oldtimer's does. It's a far improvment over what was in there. When I got it, the engine was cocked (tilted) to one side and sitting in there like a door stop wedge. The 'home made' engine mounts were scary at best and of poor construction. Lets just say I removed them with a sledge hammer. So this was a vast improvment!

Here's the crossmember that I have under the engine now. I'd a Trans Dapt unit specifically for these trucks. It mounts to the top of the frame rail. I added the lower tab to each side to tie the channel of the frame together for more strength.


And a shot of it from underneath, installed. You can kinda see how it was made. It takes engine mounts that look identical to the ones used in the early 60s Galaxies and Thunderbirds (352 FEs).



And here's a shot of my rear crossmember, Also a Trans-Dapt piece specific to these trucks.

 

You have the same trans crossmember except mine is bolted to the underside of the frame rail. Might double check the degrees at the output shaft with a degree finder, you can make some spacers that go between the mounts and the block if you need to.

 

I was looking at your other pics too, over at your "Road to Recovery" post, studying your engine setup. The actual engine mounts look like common 67-76 FE Truck mounts. that crossmember you have there though, it a bought one. I've seen it before, but cannot remember where. How he has it installed is NOT how it was suppose to be done though. There should have been two removable/adjustable pieces that slide onto either end of the tube x-member that are flanged. You weld the slip on part once you have your width correct and then bolt the crosmember to the 'side' of the framerail by the flanges. Looks like you have a u-bolt looped over a saddle that bolts through the lower part of the channel on each side.
Your engine is definately higher, no doubt. I'd like to see how much higher. Need a good referance point off the crank somewhere in relation to the frame. I'm thinking that our trannies are bout the same. I put mine on the top pf the lower channel, just for safety reasons. I could have put it on the bottom, and it would have been easier! lol How's your firewall and floorboard clearance around the tranny?

 

I have some room on the firewall and it's close to the floor pan (not a real good shot).


All the engine crossmembers I've seen are like yours and go straight under the sump of the pan, but have pieces that slip over the tube and bolt to the inside of the frame rail. Mine curves back and goes under the rear section of the oil pan. I put the U bolts on (and spacers), there was a thinner hold down before and I figure if one U bolt breaks the underside of the top frame rail will stop it.

I might just be and old version of crossmember because I had an old version of a toyota box mount in it when I bought it. I thought it was homemade and replaced it, I found out later that it was a kit in the 90's.

I did find this picture:

 

Well I went out and checked real quick with a level and some level gauges. I'm getting almost exactly 3* backward on the engine compared to the frame. Thats all fine and dandy but the thing that really scares me is the lack of clearance I have to my crossmember/oil pan. Here's a few pics to illustrate that.





Obviously the fact is that my front springs are toast as you can see here. I like the way it sits though. I'm not sure if a drop axle along with 'new' stock springs will net the same ride height. Doing the drop axle and new springs would definately gain the needed clearance here.




And here is my harmonic balancer. I noticed you didn't have this crossmember in your chassis. (the one the harmonic balancer is above) Might be a y-block thing as this truck was originally a 272 V8.




This is what my mount and crossmember look like. These are the mounts as supplied by Trans-Dapt.



And some firewall clearance shots. Is yours this close to the firewall? This is the best I could get it in there. The oil pan is finger width away from that crossmsmber thats under the harmonic balancer. I've got just a tad over finger width with between the lip of the valvecover and the firewall.





After seeing your setup, I'm begining to be very displeased with how this TD unit fitted the 390 into my truck. Naturally I did most the work on a lift so the front suspension was relaxed (quite a bit) I took that into consideration, but didn't think it'd be THIS close. With the tires actually on the ground the I-beam flexes a little and actually gains just a touch more clearance, but not nearly enough for comfort.

 

I'll get some more shots tomorrow, but here's some I had:

I think the PO said it was originally a 6 cyl


Stock mount:

 

here's some engine shots: