98 grmrpr

Thanks JL. I had always planed to leave the gearbox in it's current location to not upset the drive train, but just put whatever motor in the front. Your right in saying how mant times are you going to put a different engine in?? The answer not many, just thought it would be interesting to see how the car responds to the different engines.

I spoke to one of our chassis gurus and he said he couldnt give me 1 good reason why I couldnt set it up this way, and said that I didnt really need the tabs on the inside of the rails, and I was going over kill on the bolt size.

Ok looked at it long and hard yesterday FOR THE LAST TIME, Im abandoning ship on the idea and will just run the sbc mounts as I cannot guarentee the integrity of the welds with doing even two plates the gap is so tight, I struggle to dummy the torch in there and then I cannt see what im doing.

Probably in hind sight should have done that to begin with Thanks for your thoughts JL, but were downing tools on the thru bolt.

Will finish the sbc tabs this weekend and start the mid plate.
Thanks guys.

98 grmrpr

Hi guys had a busy weekend on the car, met my goal of fitting the engine plate, now have the midplate sitting in there and ready to attack next.

I also took the liberty of cutting myself the DHRACER inner guard mod!!! I love it, a bit of work but it looks good.





One side done.


Two sides done.


Steel plate to box in the rail.




Have to finish welding it but now I can do the engine mount.




Late lunch and the tabs are ready to weld entirely, with the engine and kmember out.


Tabs welded fully and gusseted, ready for reassembly with no kmember.


Finished job, check it out guys no kmember!!!




Midplate as it sits the next job.




Let me know what you guys think.

orange88ls1s-dime

here is mine i just started it on the weekend


https://ls1tech.com/forums/tools-fab...sis-today.html

dhracer

Looking GOOD Robb!!! Cutting the inner fender stuff out looks better I think and it probably saves a few pounds of the nose. The motor plate stuff looks killer too. Keep up the good work!!

98 grmrpr

ORANGE88ls1-dime, I thought that I had a project!!!!! That clip looks the goods, keep us all posted on the build and upload plenty of photos!!

Thanks Dennis, I did as I'm calling it the DHRACER inner guard mod, not only for weight but for visual aspects. I paid good money for my tube replacement parts and my killer strange brakes now you can see them from the engine bay, LOL!!

Man it looks cool!!

Im not worried about knocking down to much weight, Im happy to put lead weights in the body if need be, atleast I can determine optimum weight positioning. Just a thought hey.

VFN dont offer a lexen hatch window unfortunatly.

Dennis what fixing kits did you use to fit the hood?? I also noticed that you might have found a replacement front spring top assembly??

I finished up welding the rails last night, still got the spotweld holes to tidy up in the bay, then I will cut the old rad support off for a replacement and im thinking of cutting back the winshild cowl the whole length, for easier access.

Thanks guys.

dhracer

Haha I'm famous at last!!!!! I used the Racecraft hood mount set-up. It works pretty good. I also used thier seat mounts and the wing came from the also. All good stuff!!! My shocks are from Strange Engineering with a coil-over conversion. The part # is S5071 and you have to get the spring(2.5 inch). Maybe you can buy a lexan window and ship it to VFN and they can ship it too you all at once??? Would save you a good bit on shipping I would think..?? There is a guy on here that sells Lexan stuff. Later

98 grmrpr

Thanks Dennis, I have the strange coil over conversion also. I pulled my new gear out to show you guys what I have had for about a year now.









manual rack conversion, and my new front rad support bars a buddy bent for me yesterday.


Strange brakes and the same resivoir as you I believe Dennis, but you have a solenoid on the side of yours, I think.


Its a shame you have to retain the piece with the pliers on it ha.


Dennis this is the piece with the pliers on it also that I believe you found a replacement for???


New rad support bars for a dummy fit, I think they will be good!!


That should keep you guys busy for a while, thanks for looking.

dhracer

Sweet!!! Man that stuff looks very familiar!!! Haha. Looks like you have most of the stuff you need. I reused the stock upper shock mount on mine. I just cleaned them up and painted them black. I think there are some after market ones out there. Too bad your on the other side of the pond we could drink beer and work on our junkers!!!!! Later

98 grmrpr

LOL Dennis, your right it is to bad im on the other side of the world! I would love to throw some spanners around on the junkers with you and have a beer!!!

I thought that you would be supprised at how similar our parts are. Your right I have most of the parts just really need a replacement backend. There is one thing that is wrong with my kmember did you notice.... when I ordered it from Lee at BMR I said that I wanted it to have no engine mounts, as I was going to run an engine plate. So the kmember was supposed to be specially ordered this way, unfortunatly when it arrived it was the first thing that I unpacked. I noticed it straight away, that it had engine mounts.

Lee remembers me and said that they would organise me a replacement, and I could keep the spare as the freight costs outway the production costs. It is on the way.

Anyone got any picks of a torsional mount on a sbc???

Not sure with this midplate MORROSO only recomend two mounts to the rail, anyone got any other ideas???

Thanks guys.

JL ws-6

iTrader: (50)

Those stock parts that are ugly.. once you have the spindles modified to install the brakes, pull them back apart, have them sand blasted and powdercoated. Same with the upper a arm mounts... you'd be surprised how nice they will come out.

98 grmrpr

Thanks JL. Now im interested, I didnt realise that I had to modify the arm to fit the spindle!!! What do I need to do??
Powder coating is a great idea a buddy of mine is a powder coater that will work out well. I think I will need some replacement ball joints for the assembly, if you would call them that??? Do you have a part number of the standard ball joint assembly, I may be able to get them off the shelf here. I would have thought that BMR would have supplied them with the kit.... anyway any help would be great.

I read another thread you replied to JL were I think the engine was damaged and some guy has the sister engine...... anyway you were talking about a torsional support when running an engine plate. It is a device that stops the engine from moving backwards and forwards, this im aware of. So I think you need a heim joint between the block and the rail, right???? Have you any pics of these supports????

Didnt touch the car yesterday, alittle off topic but I was getting my parts for my new Aussie engine together to drop at the engine shop, took a couple of pics.



No doubt you guys know what this is!!!!



Just something abit different. Catch ya guys.

dhracer

Me likey!!!!!! On the midplate just take some 1 or 1 1/4 angle iron and weld to the frame rails and bolt the plate to it. works like a champ!!! Visiting your neck of the woods is on my bucket list. I hope to get there some day. If I would quit building these darn cars I would have enough money to go!!!! Later

98 grmrpr

Thanks Dennis, just something different!!

Thanks for the thoughts with the mid plate, I will go with the angle iron mounts, as that is what morroso has supplied just wasnt sure if it would be enough .But if it works like a champ, im sold.

Your bucket list sounds alot like mine, hope to visit your side of the globe to someday also.

Yeah race cars are an expensive hobby, maybe we should start collecting toy cars instead...... Nah, where is the fun in that!!!

I googled how to pack a stroud shoot. I was going to post it in your thread but I couldnt because it was a PDF, out of my leage if it doesnt copy and paste im lost.

Anyway the wind up spring loaded shoot is there. So are a couple of different spring loaded systems, an air button and stuff, but the still mount the same.
Worth a look. I hope things are happening for you with the shoot, if you need some more standard measurements, or anything just let me know!!

Catch ya.

98 grmrpr

Hey guys, spent plenty of time under the car lately but now have the midplate finished up!! Came up well!! Still unsure of torsional support anyone with any ideas????

Any way here is what I did. Reinforced the rail at mounting point to spread the load.



Gusseted the mounting tabs.



Finished job.





Everything back in the car, for the last time!!!



Very happy to get that job out of the way!!! Also removed the rad support and plated in the ends, ready for my new bar, still have to remove the lower rad support, but hey 1 thing at atime.... right.

Anyway let me know what you guys think, thanks for looking. Catch ya.

dhracer

Wow! Nice work!

98 grmrpr

Thanks Dennis, Glad to have the job out of the way!!! Did you have any torsional support on the nova??? Do I need to put something from the block to the rail, to stop the driveline moving backwards and forwards??? Any thoughts would help.

Have you started to pull your car apart yet?? Man car parts are so big, cant wait to get my pile of parts in the car.

Catch ya.

dhracer

Hey Robb. I have never ran any kind of torsional support on any of my cars. I dont know if that is the correct way....but i've never had any problems with my stuff. I'm on vacation thru Sat. So no car work for me. Later

98 grmrpr

Thanks Dennis , no one over here that I spoke to has ever run torsional support either..... so I think that I will leave it as it is.

There has been not much to update lately, but last night I cut the lower rad support out and thought what the hell, I'll trim back the winshield cowl now to, as I have just ordered the sunnaco wide extended hood and hatch. That will keep me busy for a bit then the bay will be done.

Thanks guys, catch ya.

dhracer

Cool! I cut mine back pretty good. I think you could cut it stright up and the hood still cover it. I can check for you when I get back home on Saturday if you want me too. Later

JL ws-6

iTrader: (50)

I ran a torsional support with just the motor plate, I didn't have a mid plate on the car at the time.

I will, run a torsional support with the next motor. But, the motor will bea good bit heavier, and make an assload more power too... so it's probably a good idea.

I do like your midplate mounts, they look very beefy, nice work on that.

One thing I did with the motor plate, and will do with my next setup, something to consider:

The bolt holes on the motor plate were spaced about 4 inche apart, 2 bolts per side. I would do the same with the rear. Reason for this, is so that if you want to drop the trans, you can, hook an engine hoist to the engine, pull the bolts out of the motor and mid plate, lower it so 4 bolts are holding it in place, and then remove the trans from the bottom a TON easier! Also, using a stud in the back of the motor, will allow a nut/washer to hold the trans to the motor... making the midplate stay in place when the trans is dropped. Only issue I see with this, is that when the motor plate rests on the top of the frame rails, like the above one, it eliminates this as a possibility. You can however, possibly unbolt the mid plate, and unbolt the front plate, and let the motor rotate downwards.. with this style plate it can't fall out the bottom that's for sure.. and if you were to have a strap attached to the bars coming thru the firewall it would hold the engine adequately for this type of thing. Just unbolt the headers I would think.. maybe won't even have to do that depending on the header design.

Whole thing (unbolting and lowering the motor) works out really nice, just unbolt the trans xmember and driveshaft, maybe your headers if you don't have the room to drop the motor, and then lower it down, bolt it back in and pull the trans. The only way it's any easier, is if the trans tunnel is notched/clearanced to access the bolts easily, which may or may not work out depending on the rest of the car, or have the trans tunner made removable. (The removable trans tunnel I am 99% sure will require additional cage and safety equipment)

Just some thoughts on this topic...