fighting the motor mounts
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 12
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fighting the motor mounts I know this has been discussed several times already but here we go again. I am putting a 5.3 in a 71 chevelle. It originally had a 307. I purchased the car shop block plates and a set of tall narrow prothane mounts. These would not fit over the stock towers. The stock towers are to wide. So now I have the narrow towers, everything lines up and will sit in the hole but sits way too low, the front of the pan hits the cross member and the steering also hits the pan. Running the gm performance muscle car swap pan. Am I going to have to fab some towers to raise this thing up or does someone make the mounts/towers that I need? On the verge of just putting an old school 350 in this damn thing. SOMEONE THAT KNOWS PLEASE HELP.
Staging Lane
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 55
Likes: 0
From: Asheville, NC
I'm not sure what the steering setup in the chevelle's are, but my nova was rear steer. With that I absolutely could not use the "muscle car" pan that GM has. Really, all the muscle car pan is, is the h3 hummer pan. It's closest in dimensions to the normal 350 oil pan we're all used to. I wasn't comfortable having someone hack apart an aluminum pan and modifying the dipstick tube, etc. I had to plunk down the cash for the autokraft pan. It's a REALLY good piece. The only problem with it is that it isn't that simple screwing on the oil filter. I bet your setup will clear with that pan. I'm not sure which carshop plates your using, but I made my own 1" set back plates modeled after their style. That allowed me to put the engine where it needed to be to reuse my old crossmember and transmission. With that setup I have miles of clearance for the steering linkage. The other thing with the autokraft pan is that the pan doesn't dip below the crossmember.
Mike
Mike
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 12
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The chevelle is front steer. The motor sets back as far as I would like. The only real clearence problem is in the very front where it hits the crossmember and inner tie rods hit when wheels are turned to the stops. Just needs to come up.
Junk the pan. I have one on my chevelle you will have to raise the engine a LOT to clear the steering with it. Get the ctsv pan its what most guys use. But if you are commited to using that pan, as I was for budget reasons, just be careful when turning if you feel it stop don't force it at all. As far as clearing the crossmember I used a piece of 16ga welded to the bottom of my stands and that gave me about 3/16" between the pan and member.
Bent, I used the F body pan which if you are keeping your engine close to the firewall it will fit, tightly but I here they do fit. I notched the back side of the cross member so I could run my engine further forward then added a .125 alu. plate under my Stands to gain some height. I may bump that up to .250 when all is said & done. right now the front of the Pan is 3/8" above the cross member.
Tony
Tony
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I've got a 72 Olds 442 with chevelle 307 frame mounts, short/wide motor mounts, 1" setback plates, 1/4" spacers, and a CTS-V pan. With the grease fittings removed 1 tie rod clears the pan, the other barely hits it.
Pics here.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/conversio...442-build.html
Pics here.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/conversio...442-build.html
Using a CTS-V pan.
I used the early BRP type plates with Tall / Narrow Energy Suspension mounts, I move the Short / Wide frame stands to where i needed the motor.
I also narrow the S/W stands to be able to fit both the T/N mount and to jack the engine front/back another 1/2" with spacer between the mounts/stand so that I could get the engine right were I needed it.
I used the early BRP type plates with Tall / Narrow Energy Suspension mounts, I move the Short / Wide frame stands to where i needed the motor.
I also narrow the S/W stands to be able to fit both the T/N mount and to jack the engine front/back another 1/2" with spacer between the mounts/stand so that I could get the engine right were I needed it.
