Help with transmission/cross member mount.

I am currently in the process of doing a V8 swap in my '50 Styleline. Just got the old 216 out and starting to get ready to stab the 350. While trying to think ahead I've come to some confusion on how I am going to mount the transmission. I've seen tons of bolt in kits for TH-350, TH-400, T-5 ect, but nothing for a Saginaw 3-speed (I believe its a M15..?) out of a '68 Camaro, which is what I have behind the 350. Does anybody know of any secrets on how to make this work? It looks like my only problem is that my original crossmember is going to be too high. I thought about cutting the center section out and flippling it to lower it a little...? Surely its not going to be THAT easy....silly thought I guess. But anyway if anybody can guide me in the right direction I would appreciate it. I know this transmission setup may not be the best but its what I've got and would like to make it work if I could. Thanks guys

 

.....Anybody?

 

I think your gonna need the same mount as you would using a turbo 350. Look at Chaisis Eng. and see what they do for a cross member.

 

Well, whenever you are building motor mounts or transmission crossmembers what you need to do is put the engine and transmission in their final resting place, and in your case put the transmission mount on the tailshaft. Then, look at where that is and where your existing crossmember sits and determine what you need to do to bridge that gap.

I know that sounds simplistic, but if you lay under the car for a while and visualize what it would take to make the old meet up with the new, a solution will come to you. Sometimes it is as simple as modifying the old crossmember and sometimes you have to build one from scratch, but that is what it takes.

Sorry to not be able to give you a more definative answer but it is hard sitting at a keyboard and trying to fabricate something long distance.

Don

 

The important thig is to have the carb base on the intake level when you have the dar at ride height, which puts the back of the engine at a 3-4* down angle. Just about all cross members are alike. The big difference is the width. Get one for a 60's Camaro or 68- 70's Nova. I fab'd the one in the 57 wagon from 1 X 1-1/2" 1/8 wall rectangular tubing and used 1-1/2" angle for the frame brackets.

 

what are you using for motor mounts?

 

I used a transdapt universal mount for my project. They make a 3" and 6" drop and you cut to fit and weld on the slip fir ends. Think i got mine from jegs or summit

http://www.tdperformance.com/Universal-Fit-Transmission-Crossmembers

here's the 3" drop in mine

 

here's a couple of pictures of how i made my trans mount... i cut a section out of the original mount, welded a piece of flat stock, with about an inch on each side for a bolt hole. then bolted on another peice of flat stock to what i had just welded on. cut a piece of tubing to fit between the two sides, drilled holes for the trans mount and bolted it to the trans. lowered the engine/trans to where i wanted it and welded the tube to the bolted on flat stock... worked perfect and now it's removable...

 

I just modified the original crossmember for pwr disc brakes and 700R4

 

Thanks guys for all the replies and pictures! Lots of good ideas here. I called Waltons and spoke to one of their guys, he said the Trans mount for a Turbo 350 wouldn't work because the linkages would hit the cross member. However, he did tell me that the crossmember they have for 6-cyclinders would work for my application. I think I'll do as Don said and lay under the car for a while once I get it in there and see what I can come up with... If it looks like I cant come up with something at least I know there is something out there that will work.

And, I am using Ch***is Engineering's bolt in motor mounts.

Thanks again guys!

Wolf

 

Thought this might help. Here is a crossmember I removed from my '68 Camaro. All crossmembers are the same for 1967-69 Camaros that had a 6 cyl or sbc. You may be able to get one of these to work with "L" brackets off the frame. It measures 31.75" wide.

 

Hop, skip, and jump over to ChevyTalk.Org; in the 49-54 section at the top of the forum is a sticky on V-8 conversions. For my nepews 51 Bus Coupe, we too removed the center of the stock cross member, and then used a cut down Dodge Dart cross member to make a bolt in trans mount that's removal to drop the trans; we had to weld a flat piece of steel on top to actually bolt the trans mount to. The CE "mount" is strictly a weld in piece, most of the others are $$$. This is an easy fix for an easy problem and can be approached in many different ways with a little trial and error. Butch/56sedandelivery.