Holley LS oil pan hitting frame - Help
09-23-2013, 03:22 PM
#41
Step-up bczee and treat yourself. I've found that the manual magnetic angle finders leave much to be disired in their build quality and accuracy, which leads to having to take multiple repetitive readings to arrive at something you trust. They also all feature 1 degree graduations, so their resolution is poor when you're trying to hit something within half a degree. Of course we are totally nuts here and will set up a digital FARO arm to capture the underside geometry of a car with accuracy within .005". Yes, we are insane.
09-23-2013, 03:36 PM
#43
Of course, many cars are driving around that way. The engine inclination angle is only inportant as to how it relates to your U-joint working angles and its relationship to the pinion angle. The engine itself would run at 20degrees down angle but that's not the issue. The rule of thumb is to have your engine angle match the pinion within half a degree and have U-joint working angles be at least half a degree and no more than 3 degrees to ensure long U-joint life and lessen the chance for premature and/or catastrophic failure. You also can and will experience severe driveline vibrations if you get these angles too far out of whack. The other problem you face is the difficultly of changing pinions angles on factory leaf spring cars, which can sometimes be a real chore with limited adjustment possible through using tappered shims.
09-23-2013, 05:54 PM
#46
You can certainly begin there and then check your U-joint working angles. One other thing, if your car is set-up to be a drag car then you can get by with a few more degrees of pinion down angle on a leaf spring car to compensate for spring wrap on acceleration. Since you mention that you have ladder bars, you won't have to be concerned with that issue to such a high degree.
