Here's the deal, I bought a clean 61 Olds without a motor or trans. I decided to go the I just want to drive the thing 350 chevy 700r4 direction. The deal is the big Olds motor had a front mount and side bellhousing mounts. Where I need to put the tranny mount the frame is 5 feet wide. The first pic shows the stock mount location and the second one is my idea for the new mount. Anyone have pics of a similar motor swap? I could use some ideas. I figure 1/8 wall steel but what dimensions will span 5 feet and take the weight?
my 63 has the same set up .350/700r4.it rules!!!!!!!!....i will get you some pics in the next day or two........post pics of the car you got.....i love those early 60's oldsmobiles....and yes your drawing is similar to what mine has......
on second thought you better just hand that pile o' junk over ....haha...VERY nice...........by the way i am from arizona and have been in your shop many times.....i love that place...i will get those pics asap....
Thanks for the help. It's always nice to hear that someone likes our little shop. As many pics as you can post would be appreciated. Motor mounts, engine placement, ect. The nice thing about this car is that the floor was already raised to fit a modern tranny.
I think your second drawing is probably the best, but what about a mid-mount to sort-of duplicate the factory original design? You would still need a tailshaft support for the trans I think, but it would not have to be as strong or large size.
I thought about reproducing the stock mount set-up. Clearing out the crossmember that runs under the bellhousing seems like I will clear up some space and make things easier to service. The original crossmember caused some shifter linkage problems with a late trans and you have to pull the crossmember to pull the pan off the transmission. Also it didn't allow space for the dust cover for the flexplate/tourqe converter. It was very cramped with the bigger late model transmission.
Hi Scott There is room for a big block, but I already bought the motor and trans and I want to set this up as a decent mileage freeway cruiser with the overdrive. I did get a 290hp motor so it should be able to pull the heavy beast.
You could also put a 3" wide 1/4" strap across the tunnel and bolt it through the floor with a 3"x3"x1/8" backing plate and 4 5/16" bolts on each side.
I would think mounting it to the floor would transmit alot of vibration and sound to the cab. I don't think I want to do it that way.
How about making some extended mounts on the chassis rails so that you don't have as much width to span ? Check out the junkyards and see if you can find a wide factory crossmember to use for the centre piece. Kind of like this ...
Yeah, I have been thinking of that also. Maybe a small removeable crossmember so tranny removal would be easy enough. I am curious to see what Donnie has under his car. A picture says 1000 words.
gokatgo i am emailing you the pix now.......only because i am too lame err retarded to post em here............