looking at the above brake kit , manifolds and engine / cross member along with front and rear swap bars . Nay or yay ? Is their better out there ? stuffing a 383 with a T5 shifter will need to be modified , drive shaft made and exhaust along with other odds and ends. just don’t want to have to buy the wrong stuff and reorder , if there’s better out there let me know .
I bought a speedway garage sale trans crossmember for $50 I think Some $60 -70 engine mounts Ecklers had vette rams horns for $99 on sale a while back. Also have some freebie used regular rams horns. Bought drop spindles on sale. Uses off the shelf rotors purchased from my local parts place Probably got around $700 in everything
I really like and have used this set up. No having to drop the engine over then down onto mounts. Frame portion mounts are far forward on the cross member making for lot of side clearance even though it’s a side mount kit. Speed Way does make a copy cat version. Never purchased one just because.
but it has those ****py early Ford mount pads. Ugh. What are you doing for clutch linkage? Are you going to try to find an original 55-57 bellhousing? or make a bracket to mount the Z bar to the block? Looks like the transmission is tilted like they did in 83-92 Camaros, eh? Lots of things to think about here...
Yup, I agree with @squirrel ... and That giant (ugly) Hei distributor won't fit in a 56 chevy and that long water pump and serpentine belt setup won't work either unless you maybe leave the radiator in the 6 cyl location but I am not sure if there would still be enough room. These are best with a short water pump and v belts with the generator or alternator mounted on the exhaust manifold on the drivers side, and it does not look like the manifolds you chose above have the provision for that
while Gm hei is probably the most reliable and simple electronic ignition to use , it’s the damn ugliest on the planet !! going to use a points distributor . the water pump and that mess of serpentine and v-belt pullies is going , and going to use a short water pump and standard pulleys . keeping the Rad in the inline 6 position also planning on using the hydraulic clutch slave/master that’s on the ****** already , seems easier to set up then a mechanical clutch . if I need different exhaust manifolds what should I be looking for ? lots of different center dump and rear dumping rams horn for sale locally to me and all are slightly different . would like to use something that makes tune ups easy and fit the car, seen a lot of trifives with rams horns and they fit just nice . .
Original rams horns 57-late 60s. Figure out what you want for the charging system, first. There were a couple different designs of alternator mounts on rams horns, both on a separate bracket, and with bolt holes in the front of the manifold instead of on the side. Some of the manifolds for mid 60s and later cars/trucks angle back at the bottom, they are probably not what you want.
You’ll see 2 different styles of side mount. One moves the engine foward to clear an HEI The other keeps it in the same spot as the original front mounts
With the V8 engine in stock position in any tri 5 Chevy distibutor clearance is tight with the early no window distributors let alone any later larger distributor. My buddy used to break rotors on his 57 on a regular basis but there was a screw coming though the firewall that the distributor cap would hit on hard acceleraton. Personally I like those flathead Ford motormount biscuits and have Ch***is Engineering Inc. mounts for the 292 going in my 48.
what mounts are these ? Where to get them ? I’ve read with the rad in the 6 cyl location you can use hei even if I go with points if I can gave more clearance to the back of the engine why not
My trans dapt ones kept the engine in the stock location. these do as well https://www.ebay.com/itm/191342640211
These are listed as moving the engine foward 3/4 https://www.hedman.com/product-deta...Gow1yg_rW4onaazVUEWmuGg8GKZdxbfeF1HFQ9FHdtb2Y
Look for mounts that are listed as 3/4" forward. Those will give you HEI room, will definitely need to use rad in 6 cylinder position then. Not an issue.
If Mike had known that a lot earler he wouldn't have been at the parts house buying 57 Chevy rotors by the pack. I did hold the flash light while he changed the rotor a couple of times and then he swapped the 57 for a 69 Impala 348 4 speed and it was never an issue.
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