Ive seem to run into a speed bump. I have the walton fab. v8 motor mounts on my 53 chevy, and I put the ultra low mII kit on from fatman. aside from having to clearance the left mount to clear the steering everything was good. I just went to drop in my 327 with a cal custom finned oil pan and the pan is hitting on the crossmember. looks like it needs to drop another 3/4" for the mounts to line up. The deep sump portion also seems VERY low. actually SCARY low. so I have a few questions... Does anyone know if the Cal Customs finned aluminum oil pan much larger than a stock sbc pan? The Walton Fab mounts seem to be about 2-3 inches lower than how Im seeing most bagged MII 49-54 chevys with small blocks. Keep the oil pan and redo the motor mounts? Anybody else have this strange combo with success? ( ultra low MII, and walton fab V8 mounts). I think at this point Im going to have to cut off the Walton mounts, make new ones, re-make my trans crossmember (thank god I made it a removable center section), and repaint my frame... hah. fun. -Jon
Maybe the Walton mounts are lower than say Ch***is Engineering mounts. Be interesting to have that info handy.
I just re-measured my holes on the walton mounts, and they are about 1 inch lower than the MII spring cups. Most bagged 54's with sbc's ive seen look like the holes for the mounts are even with the spring cups. I think if I went with a stock 4qt steel pan with the clearanced portion for a crossmember like the ones sold on ebay it would make the engine fit. But now Im worried that the pan might be too low. Its really hard to tell at this point because of this cal custom finned aluminum pan. The fins and the extra thickness of the aluminum alone might be making my clearance issue. But because of that I cant get the engine and trans all the way in to actually see how close the sump is to the ground. Get what I mean? I wish I had one of those plastic chevy engines for mockup now. haha - Jon
have you tried talking to Walton's about problem? As for oil pan, go for good quality steel pan and forget a fancy only one roadkill will see.
I thought about calling them and seeing if they had any other customers with this issue.. but their kit is designed for a stock chevy front end. My Ultra low MII kit has a crossmember that sits flush against the bottom of the frame rails. My Cal Customs pan was free, so I figured what the hell... I have a few issues now, (A) either keep the pan and redo the motor and trans mount, or (B) re-do my oil pump pickup that is now brazed on and swap oil pans and hope that it now clears. If not, I will have to resort to (A) again. I guess I will just find a stock 4qt pan, clearance it to fit and if the sump looks too close to the ground, Shorten that and just check the oil often!hah...........Just a little snag on my weekend of garage time. Does anybody have a stock 55-79 4qt sbc oil pan laying around that they could measure the sump depth for me? - Jon
I got the same pan with ultra low and made my own mounts biscuit style out of parts i bought and fabbed my own trans crossmember to put the engine and ****** where I wanted it. My engine is really realy high cuz I wanted my engine and ****** real high and set far back to the fire wall Im goin crazy low and and doing some things to help me get there. I just dont like where any kit mounts placed the engine in the bay. All about fabbin your own to so u get your motor and ****** where "You" want it, Not where "they" want it
holy ****, now thats some clearance. I really dig those mounts too. Whats bugging me is im totally capable of fabbing up stuff, it was just overlooked so damn easy cause the mounts we already setup and the v8 had already been there... ya live an learn right? looks like ive got some fabbing to do. Off to the garage now. Thanks for posting that pic too. Its exactly what I was looking to see. - Jon
no prob man, Also You might want to check out Lil daves motor mounts from Gambino Kustoms, They were actually designed for this same setup and application
Yea, I sent Alex a pm earlier about the mounts. I may go that route just to get things rolling. I set up my ch***is at my parents house up the road where the tig welder is, and now the freshly painted and put together rolling ch***is is at my house with just a mig welder. I may just fab some up tomorrow with the mig. If I can make a small fixture to just move my existing mounting holes up 3 inches and build down from there to the frame I will be golden. Lots of choices. thanks again! - Jon
Nice work Phil!! Simple....I agree, fab your own. I used the Walton mounts and the Fatman Ultra low...not an ideal combination... I actually had to try several different engine side mounts to find one thick enough to keep my oil pan off the crossmember. My setup works fine and there are no issues with the engine or ****** hanging below the frame, but if I had to do it over, I'd have just made my own. Too easy not to... Bryan
I went with the ultra low and my pan hit also, so I cut a big chunk out of the crossmember and welded it all back together. I also had to use a smaller balancer because it hit the rack and pinion. for motormounts I had to do some figuring so the steering would clear. I used the Ch***is engineering biscuit style mounts to start with, and modified parts of the drivers side so now where the mount bolts to the motor is about 5" off from where the other end is welded to the frame.
Ok now these are old because I busted my *** all day sunday and built new motor mounts and raised my trans mount. I kept the holes for the motor mounts even with the spring cups, but I made the mounts in a manner that I can switch over to the hockey puck style mounts if need be. (which I think I'm going to do) My oil pan is now about 1.5 inches from the ground which is still the lowest part on the front end. I'm on speedways website right now trying to find a mount similar to yours to get it up higher so I can sleep at night! I will yank my motor back out and snap some pictures after raising it more. the drain plug and the fins on that cal custom pan make it about 1 inch lower than a stock pan... maybe more, im not sure what the capacity of the cal custom pan is compare to the stock 4qt. Also too, do your Lower A-Arms rest against the lip on the bottom of the frame when all the way down? If I trim it, I dont know at what point it will actually bottom out.... I have 1.5 inch spacers on top of the bags, I may go up a bit there too. - Jon
The Jalopy Journal
