I'm tempted to set the engine back in my 50 Coupe

I cut the motor mounts loose last night contemplating on scooting the engine back about a foot, hell, I even drew pencil lines on the firewall. I'm thinking it won't be too hard to do at this point, I'll just cut the firewall out and scoot it back with part of the tunnel. I already have to make a crossmember for the trans anyway. The only thing inside the car that will suffer would be the heater, which is out already. Hmmm. Anybody have any suggestions or examples on how far back to set it? I still want to drive it from the front seat.

 

Why? Are you planning on racing it? If not, personally I'd put it where it would be normally and not get into all the extra aggravation for little or no return.

 

I was also wondering why do you want to do this?

 

I don't know exactly besides now would be the time to do it, and any car will drive better the more centered the weight is at any rate. It would take a lot more weight off the nose no matter what the reason. It will have a straight axle also.

 

What he said

 

Well, the car will replicate a drag racer anyway.

 

Set back is good for more than racing, they always handle better with a better weight bias. I don't know about a foot but you could loose a cylinder pretty easy without hurting leg room in that old beasty.

 

Wasnt the G***er cl*** engine setback rule not more than 10% of the cars wheelbase?
A '50 Chevy wheelbase is 115" (if I remember right) so that would be an 11 1/2" setback.
Just build a trap door so you dont have to yank the engine just to change the distributor!

 

Yea but that is not measured from stock location it is measured from axle center to the first plug. On a lot of '50s cars its pretty hard to get 10% and not move the seat back.

For instance if a car has a 110" wheelbase (pretty short for a '50s car) that is 11" behind the axle center. Unless you're pretty rotund that's enough room to stand between the core support and the front of the motor.

 

Thanks for the information, that is pretty damn close to a foot huh. I think I'll go out and stare at it for a couple nights and drive myself crazy over it until I end up cutting into it. I'll set the firewall back so it looks like it was meant to be, not just hack and box it off.

 

Thanks for the info, I'd like to use something factual to base my work from if I'm going to do it. I'm putting new floors and bracing in the car anyway, so mounting it a couple inches back won't be a concern. I just didn't want the back of the engine coming in past the dash.

 

I'm looseing a cylinder on mine in the Stude. About 117" wheelbase. Still only comming up with about 8-9%. 10% was max setback, not all builders did the whole 10%.

Jyst for information an old wheel barrow makes a pretty good engine cove. that's what we used when I was a kid. If you are real creative you can mount it like a dog house in a van and make it easier to work on. You can also do the full monte and use a joe hunt mag, the mag head is removable from the drive, you stab the drive first then put the head on. That's how the real g***er guys did it.

 

I'm going to do some measuring tonight. I think I want to set it back some so it won't handle like a pig anyway.

 

I've set mine back 4 inches. Apart from the fact it will improve handling due to a better weight distribution, I needed room in front of the Hemi for the radiator and electric fan. If I didn't move it back, I'd also have problems with the engine mounts. Hope you're able to make a decision and good luck with the build.

 

general rule of thumb for all around handling and performance wise,the best spot for any front engined car is number 1 cylinder inline with with the spindle.if you have the room to the fire wall with out hitting. an inch set back is worth about 50 horse to the rear wheels,you dont need any more than that for a set back.

 

Not any information in your profile to tell us what kind of skills you may have but for the record an engine setback project is not a first timer kinda deal. If you've got the skills and experience......have at it. If not, try to make nice heat cuts and keep from butchering stuff up more than necessary .............that way when your forced to put it in the cl***ifieds or on ebay because your in over your head you'll be able to minimize your loss on the project.
If it were mine I'd do like a few hundred others have done and do a clean engine swap ending up with a functional and fun car. Unless your going to swap a C5 Corvette ch***is in this thing an engine setback will be barely detectable from a handling standpoint. A kinda no return for substantial ($$$'s and labor) investment deal.

Frank

 

any weight that can be moved to achieve a rear bias will help handling most american cars are nose heavy have you ever seen a sprint or a stock car with the motor sitting on the front axle? the idea is to get a neutral feeling car

 

Speaking of sprints on mine we have seen huge changes by adding 2% tilt in the engine , drag and st cars can make good gains this way and not move the engine so far back , also if the engine gets to far back the car becomes a bowling ball and thats a fun kinda bad .cheers

 

I agree.

 

I'll be straight with ya',she lost a lot of leg room

Brandon

 

Good Lord..... That looks like a dumpster.

 

I had a discussion with my self, the tape measure, and the car last night. I decided to leave the engine where I already put it. The main reason I saw was the header situation. I really want to run fenderwell headers, and hadn't really thought about where they would go until last night.

Right now, I have the #1 spark plug lined up directly with the axle. Thank you for your information, I feel better about where it is now.

Most of my projects leave me feeling like I bit off more work than I had planned, but I keep chugging along. The 53 Coupe in my profile was drug out of the woods in Missouri, i had absolutely nobody but myself do any of the work on that car including paint. The 23 willy's roadster was scratch built by me in my garage, again not one s***ch of that build was done by anyone but me with the exeption of sandblasting the body. So getting in over my head is (unfortunately sometimes) not in my vocabulary.

Thank you, I'll use the 2% tilt.

Wow, that really puts it into perspective for me. I was still considering splitting the difference at 6" until I studied my header situation. There will always be an option to go back and do it later. Thanks for posting your pic.

 

in all honesty i wouldnt.. my reasoning would be if u gotta sell it that could be a dea,l breaker if its an engine that is now harder to work on...

 

I think I'm ok now, I was getting a little delusional yesterday.

 

dont bother.

when ever i think of a silly thing to do for no reason my dad always says "before you do that why dont you just go mow my yard for a week or so and youll thank me for not letting you waste your time working on something for no reason"

lol

another one of his cl***ics are when ever i go to the boat to play poker.

" just give me your money and ill kick you in the face, at least that way youll save the drive to the casino"

 

What Fab 32 said. You may want to move on from this car sometime. I'd build it not only as my personal ride but also as an investment that would be attractive to someone else.

 

Heres a tip on fenderwell headers if you dont already have them...
The 2 most readily available types of fenderwell headers are for a '55-'57 chevy or for a '62-'67 Nova.
The tri-5 headers come out fairly straight from the rear ports, while the Nova headers turn further towards the firewall. The tri-5's also dump further out from the port than the Novas do.
My '57 had Nova headers at one time...the edges of the front body mounts had been trimmed and the engine was about 2 inches too far forward. I went from a pin-on hood to stock hinges...the hingess hit the headers and wouldnt allow the hood to close.
I switched to the correct headers and had to move the engine back so the headers would clear the tires.
I hope some of this is helpful.

 

Very helpful, as I need to go straight out from the rear cylinder. So tri-five would be my choice based from your info. I've also considered building my own from a kit.

 

Frankly I don't understand the apprehension about doing an engine set back. It is bound to make the ride better and handling should be greatly improved. That being said......here is a side shot of our 51 Fleetline. We did an 80 S-10 front clip. We figured out how much of a set back was needed from the normal motor mount position on an S-10 conversion. We made our mounts and trans cross member mount. Total set engine setback is 10 inches.
Then it was time to make the firewall work..........cut all the old away. Built a sub frame of 1" x 1" thick wall tubing and plated one both sides in 14 gauge metal....insulated inbetween with 1 inch foil backed insulation. Total setback of the firewall = 9"



9 inch setback firewall ; 10 inch engine setback

Got a boat of pics if you are interested

as for driving from the back seat.......the attached pic shows driving position

 

Looks to me like your #1 spark plug is about 3 or 4 inches behind the spindle. Mine is dead even. I don't think it'd be worth cutting the whole firewall out for 3 or 4 inches though. Your work does look real nice. BTW, looks like the engine is mounted a lot higher in the car also.