I'm having some issues with my BRP LS swap kit and was hoping someone could give me some pointers. I have a 1973 Firebird and swapping a LY6 and GTO T56. Doing some research here I saw that BRP has great swap kits, but when I installed it everything looks angled towards the driver side. At first I thought I was crazy but here is some evidence:

-On the transmission tunnel I had to cut more off the drive side and it appears that the shifter is left of center
-The transmission cross member does not line up with the middle bolt hole for the energy suspension mount
-Underneath, the driveshaft connection point doesn't look centered

Some background: when I was installing the motor mounts, the holes lined up with the 74-81 sub frame even though the car is a 73. But I don't think this changes the alignment. I've been emailing BRP for some help but they keep asking questions instead of giving solutions.

I am not opposed to slotting the engine mount holes, but this supposed to be a FBody specific perfect fit product. I wanted to verify with the internet experts before I start the hack job. I know a bunch of people have used these mounts so any advice is appreciated, Thank You!

 

Yeah your shifter looks way off from my 72. I'm using the Hooker mounts and crossmember and am extremely happy with the fit but I'll have to cut into the crossmember to clear the back of the alternator on CTSV accessories. Also using mcloeds hydraulic clutch conversion if you've gotten that far yet.

 

Here's mine, disregard goofy orange paint. Previous owner musta been smoking something.

 

I'd try to call them tomorrow...I called them a while back and got right through. I was impressed with their customer service. My BRP kit may have been the first they ever sold. I bought my car with the swap done but I had to pull the engine later to swap out the oil pan. When I had issues swapping out the LH8 oil pan to the fbody one, they sent me a set of engine brackets for free ( turns out they didn't work). Found out the mounts are not using the stock holes..my engine sits about an inch forward so the f body accessories clear. I had to notch the f body oil pan to clear the crossmember.

 

When I ordered my BRP kit, I was sent the wrong k-member parts. They eventually sent me the correct ones, but even with that I struggled with it. The engine was was further back on the driver's side than the passenger side. I ditched that set up and got dirty dingos. I did use the trans crossmember though.

 

If it was my car, I would sell those parts and get the Holley 2nd gen swap kit. The reason being is that it was engineered to take into account driveline angles, which is a huge (mostly not discussed) concern when doing LSx swaps...

Andrew

 

Haven't physically gotten that far but doing the research so thank you. Do you know if the McLoeds works with the Wilwood Brake and Clutch Pedal Assembly?

 

Thanks for the advice guys. Reedld, I called BRP and after a barrage of questions like are you bolt holes lined up, the only troubleshooting he could suggest was to remove the engine mount bolts and mount the transmission to the cross member and bolt that to the frame brackets. Not a bad idea, but i don't see it giving me any wiggle room, if anything it will show me where the engine mount holes "should" go.

I didn't see the Holley kit until after i bought the BRP so i was pissed since I've wanted a set of Hooker headers. Maybe, I'll try this final test and ask for a refund if this doesn't work.

 

As I look at your 3rd picture.. question. is the shifter base parallel with the base of the trans mount... it appears canted to the driver side. Not being familiar with a GTO T56.. is it possible that the shifter is offset / canted to the driver side ?

Maybe a more close up picture #3 picture would help.

Have you measured the center of the trans output shaft to the left/right subframe rails..? just wondering how centered the trans is as compared to the subframe.

Does the engine look centered in the subframe ? or does it appear off ?...

 

I know it's designed to line up with stock pedals which I have. You do have to drill a new hole/ enlarge the stock clutch rod firewall hole. And they give you a template to drill a new hole in the pedal too. It uses a wilwood master and mcloeds aluminum mount. If you do order the kit make sure you get the one with quick disconnect if your using a factory slave. I messed up but I just stopped by and the changed the hose for me. If you need more pics of mounts, the edelbrock ss 1 7/8 long tubes or anything else on the car let me know. I have a 72 bird with a forged 6.0 with a zl1 top and and ls9 cam. T56 behind it and have the vaporworx tank from Ricks so I can use a factory ctsv pump. Just send me a message if you got any q since I've done quite a bit of research myself.

 

When I built motor mounts for my Mustang, I put the engine in the engine bay, and the engine appears to be offset at an angle with the transmission tail shaft towards the passenger side. This made me concerned because I figured I had something aligned incorrectly. I actually measured the angular misalignment of the engine and trans center lines relative to the vehicle center line created by the front/rear suspension. Doing this calculates that the engine/trans actually angles towards the driver side by about 0.3 degrees. The 0.3 deg offset is not viewable with the naked eye, no way.

The visual offset in my case is an optical illusion because of the difference in front to back offset of the cylinder heads and the fact that my firewall is not completely parallel to the engine front/rear surfaces. I'm not worried about 0.3 degrees angular offset on the drive train, it won't be an issue. Also, to confound things a little, Ford offsets the engines in Mustangs to the passengers side from the factory about 5/8"-3/4" for better weight distribution with the driver in the car. The LS engine in my Mustang is also offset this amount towards the passenger side.

What I did to measure was
1) drop plumb bobs to the floor from the crank shaft center and trans output shaft center
2) mark the plumb bob locations and draw a straight line between them with a long level
3) drop plumb bobs from the front and rear left/right suspension pick up points and mark them
4) draw lines between the front suspension marks
5) draw lines between the rear suspension marks
6) find centers of those two lines
7) snap a long line between the front and rear centers
8) from here I took measurements and used basic trigonometry to calculate the angles between the two lines

Is here some error inherent to the measurement? Yes. However, I don't see the error being very large if you pay attention to detail and check and double check your measurements / calculations.

I think the only way you are going to root cause your problem and fix the problem (if there even is a problem?) is by doing something similar.

 

I agree with bczee, the third picture appears to have the transmission mount centered with the crossmember and consequently the frame rails possibly, but it appears that the output shaft isn't centered with the mounting pad. This might be a GTO specific tailshaft housing feature.I'm unsure if BRP has accommodated this at some point, though I do know they offer a mount adapter for some of these T56 housings. You might look into these.

 

Ryan I like what you are thinking. The tail housing does appear to angle towards the driver side which forces the shifter to come up off center. Do you think if i buy the LS1 style tail housing that would help?

Before i saw usdmholden's post i was reviewing my DSE subframe connectors and they have instructions to verify that the frame is square. So it wasn't as in depth as usdmholden's (props by the way) i just measured the distance from the lower control arm mount to the rear suspension front spring mount and the difference was less than 1/8 of an inch which is acceptable according to DSE. I measured the center of the transmission to the frame rails and it was 1/4 of an inch farther from the passenger side, explaining the offset.

I spent about 10 hours adjusting and readjusting, securing the transmission cross member then trying to fit the engine mount bolts (no luck). I'm going to work continue to work with BRP. If they give me a refund i may look into the Holley swap kit or just slot the dang things.