Motor and Trans in Place

Posted on 12th Oct 2014

Now that all of the suspension was set up it was time to move on to getting the motor and trans put in place. With driveability and reliability being of high priority what we chose was all brand new rebuilds for both the motor and trans. For the motor a new 347ci crate motor based off of the 302 block of the small block Ford, this one is rated at a little over 400 HP so it should get the job done. It is backed with a built AOD trans, a 4 speed automatic this will keep the rpm’s low on those long freeway trips. Once the two were coupled together they were moched up in place keeping them centered in the chassis and as far froward as possible to the radiator to be able to keep as much firewall and leg room as possible.

Once the proper angle was achieved and everything measured out it was time to fill the gaps from the motor to the chassis. Some older style rubber motor mounts were used, I was making them from scratch and liked the look and function of these hockey puck style ones. I made up some upper plates and gussets and tacked them onto the frame rails and then moved on to the trans. I wanted there to be a trans drop out just in case for any reason in the future the tranny had to come out by itself. So I made up a drop out and mounted it to the transmission and then started to work out from there, first installing the lower cross bar to tie it into the frame rails to locate it. To add some support to both the trans mount as well as the rest of the chassis I then made up a tube crossmember. This will help the rigidity of the chassis and reduce any flexing or twist experienced under harsh driving conditions. Note the crossmember ties into the chassis in very close proximity to both of the mounts of the rear 4 link as well as the front hairpins.

The chassis is just about ready to set the body back on to moch up all of the sheet metal, steering, brakes, firewall and I’m sure a few others…..