Help I'm doing something stupid!

So I'm building a 52 ford customline for a friend on a major budget. got the car, no motor no trans, and we have a great running 351 modified to slap in it with a c6 trans. Here's where I got stuck....Does anyone make a shallower oil pan for this engine? At this point i'll have to make the motor mounts almost 12 inches tall for it to work and it will be sitting in there at a stupid angle. Any ideas?

 

you need a rear sump oil pan. bronco?

 

Yeah it has a rear sump pan on it already, but the sucker is like 4 1/2 inches deep on the front side. If it helps, we pulled this from a econoline van. already had a bunch of performance parts on it, so we figured " screw it, lets try it". I have it sort of resting in the car now ( front clip still dismantled) and I still have about 6-7 inches before valve covers hit firewall, but even with the slope of the front crossmember i think this pan is too thick in the front.....

 

Now you know why these ain't popular for engine swaps. The 351/400 M was never
used by Ford exept in Big cars and full sized trucks. You can slice an dice on the pan a bit and notch the cross member some. Then mount it high and tight, but even an FE motor is easier.
Some questions just ain't got a good answer.

 

Cut out the crossmember, just plate it and box it real nice and youll be fine.

 

Are those bored over 302/351 small blocks? I have a 351 w in my 52 merc and I had to go with the bronco oil pan. Seems I also read somewhere that some of the 80's? mustangs had a pan that was more shallow in the middle then the sides. Don't exactly know what that meant cause I thought it'd cause oil to pool on one side and not run to the pump. Just my .02 cents which ain't worth much of anything these days.

 

Notch a couple inches out of the crossmember , if possible . Did this to a friend's shoebox to better fit his 351 ...

 

I may notch it now that I'm looking at that picture. The crossmember in that pic looks identical (if not exactly the same) as the one I am dealing with. But that one is notched in the front for a front sump, I'll have to notch this one in the rear. Any structural integrity issues that I will have to overcome by notching it in the rear rather than the front? I'll get ome pics on here tomorrow of what I am dealing with...

 

Not the best pic , but here's a shot of it with the engine fitup ... lots of room now

 

Notch the crossmember, just be sure to make sure its boxed well. Shouldnt be too big of a problem unless the sump sits too low then?

 

Well I got it in there and amazingly enough the original trans crossmember is gonna work perfectly. But I'm afraid to tell you how much I had to cut out of the front crossmember for it to fit right. when my wife gets the pics up i'll show you, but it's going to take some crafty welding on my part to make me feel comfortible with it....lol. I had to take a 10 inch by 8 inch square out of it ><

 

Hard to tell from that picture but it looks like you can go towards the firewall at least 2 inches.