History 60's era engine limiters

Well... this is my first actual post to the H.A.M.B.! I have been lurking around for a while and posted here and there in response to certain threads but never anything autonomous.
So without further adieu...

I am in the process of building my take on a 60's era Factory Experimental/Match Racer Chevy Nova and I want to install an engine limiter to keep torsional forces at bay. If anyone has suggestions or pictures of period hardware from the mid to late 60's that would be great! I know there are several solutions available commercially but I wanted to see what the average every day racer from the era would have done.

 

The everyday racer from the period either learned to drive or became a typewriter repairman.

As far as I know FX cars ran balls to the walls no rev limiters.

 

I think some used what's called a "Torque strap" sorry I don't have a picture.

 

I think they welded tabs to the steel clutch can and ran tubes to the crossmember to limit engine movement. That practice disappeared when SFI started certifying and those tabs made the cans illegal. Thats why you don't see them. The modern method of bolting the midplate to the dashbar won't work but there are kits that bolt to the original motor mount and the block and run a tube rearwards. I presume you know they are using midplate-motorplate to mount the engine and not the factory style side motor mounts.

 

Damn I totally misunderstood the question. Sorry fellas.

The torque straps that I remember or torque stays as I was once told we made of chain and the really fancy ones had a turn buckle, they usually attached toward the top of the motor and the ch***is.

Anyway I totally missed that one.

 

Looks like you lost a few more marbles!

 

Like one of these?

 

Must be the meds. They claim better living through chemistry but I am not so sure that they are right.

 

I remember they put a governor on Linda Ronstadt...

 

I've seen chain or cable used. I think Shelby equipped some of the early GT-350s with a turnbuckle deal like Beano mentioned, post marbles....

 

Off subject , but that roof swap in your avatar is pretty cool. Flux

 

I knew a number of "older" guys with hot cars in the mid 60's that had a length of chain bolted to the engine and to the left frame rail to limit the amount the engine could move. A lot closer tolerance on the amount of allowed movement than the cable setup that GM stuck on 68 to mid 60's or later Chevys to keep the engine from lifting up if the motor mount broke. I still have a few odd ones of those in the shed somewhere.

 

The most common torque limiter of the day was a pretty simple affair, a good commercial grade turnbuckle with heavy washers welded on the eyes to reduce slop at the mointing points and the best bolts you could get at the A/N surplus store.
On my first drag car (before going to solid motor mounts); that was one of the first mods done, along with a fan belt anti-throw device, which was just a bolt with a tube sleeve mounted over the middle of the alternator belt span. This was pretty standard fare prior to the advent of deep groove pulleys.

 

Thanks for the reply's gentlemen! This helps immensely...
Sorry about the confusion from the initial post... I should have been more specific about which kind of "Limiter" I was referencing.

 

Ask Quain Stott .... he has a whole group of period correct G***ers, he will point you right.

 

I have a chain on my 55, and my AWB Chevy II (sort of what you're building?) has an old Moroso solid mount on the driver side, and stock rubber mounts on the p*** side and the back of the transmission. Probably not quite period correct, but you gotta cheat somewhere. It works.

 

Yep you used your feet and no electronics.

 

Moonbeam!

 

Another old trick for early (non-interlocking) sbc engine mounts is to drill through the two halves of the mount and run a bolt through them with a locking nut. It will limit the separation of the mount, but still allow some cushioning.

 

I remember my dad running a chunk of 5/16ths chain on the drivers side of the motor to the head from the frame , I used the same set up when I started racing , saved the hood many a time

 

'The Sixtes' were an evolutionary period for the Factory Experimental, they went from a stock factory ch***is to tube ch***is very quick, from the rear wheel relocation to funny cars in a few years - like Dale Armstrongs' Nova or Chrismans' Comet by 1967? So your engine limiters and mounting will be appropriate to the particular year in the FX cl***. You'll have to find a rule book for that particular year, they will make it clear what kind of limiters you'll need and you'll have to interpret them - for instance, 'motorplate, midplate required' is probably a phrase you'll see, or 'anti-rotation device required'.

 

Another vote for tab on the frame and a turnbuckle.

And just for the record, there were plenty of rev limiters around in the mid-sixties, Jones and SW both made ones that used floating magnets and a drive cable that screwed into a mechanical tach drive.

 

There was obviously no real confusion, I just had a brain fart. Don't sweat it.

@slowmotion the turn buckle deal that Caroll used was for street or track ability. Loosened for street driving and tightened for track driving. Sometimes it had to do with adjustability, it was hard to get a chain the exact right length so a turn buckle or a bolt through two links if you were a cheap ******* worked real well to tighten it up after installation.

 

In my experience chains will stretch over time, that's why I prefer a turnbuckle. Even if things move a hair over time, they are easy to adjust.

 

Yep, and they were called hydraulic lifters.

 

Rev limiters, LOL I once saw an old chebby with a bolt under the gas peddle that could be adjusted up or down. I asked a guy who was smarter than me what it was for and he said it was a rev limiter.

 

This is great info... thanks! I am building an early style FX/MP type car similar to this... So I would think motorplates/midplates would not be required... But like you mentioned I will have to find a rule book.

 

Would like to follow along on your Wagon build ........

 

I will be starting a build thread shortly.