ok, back at it! So first things first, I bolted up a bellhousing and the mockup T5, and bolted in my new crossmember. I also grabbed an old distributor to get an idea how far off the firewall it needed to be. It turns out I think my buddy mike had already cut a hole for the T5 back when he had the car, so it slotted right in. unfortunately I'm not a huge fan of this shifter position. but regardless I moved on to checking exhaust clearance. I had picked up a pair of ram horns that I hoped would work... I know that mike used a set on his rambler, but with my raised corvair crossmember, the manifolds dumped RIGHT into the center of the crossmember. So, that's not gonna work. luckily I had another option on the shelf. I believe these to be 80-86 Camaro manifolds? the p***enger side has the weird offset bolt pattern in the back. but the important thing is, THEY FIT. They dump in a near perfect spot, I'll do a little clearance on the strut rod mount and make the pipe clear everything else that needs to fit down there. There's a lot of stuff down there. That brings us to tonight's progress, I decided I was gonna use a Camaro trans, to try and put the shifter in a better spot for me. The swap moves the shifter back 9.5 inches. This required ALOT more hacking. and a little more left to come. (note hashed areas) and yes, the trans is held up by a ratchet strap. The motor/trans combo is at 6 degrees down to the back (referenced to the ground), and the car is 3 degrees the other way, so I've gotta flatten it out some more. I'm hoping to get the rear of the trans up another inch and then drop the front of the motor a little bit by t******* the crossmember. I ended the night by throwing on an intake and a quadrajet I got off a restored truck, that may find its way onto here if I don't wind up with a 2 barrel on there (anybody holding a good 2GC?) Its pretty close to the bottom of the hood, but a stock style manifold should gain me another inch or so. I need to dig up a couple more parts, and I'll be ready to get the car up on stands so I can get under it to make an actual trans mount. till next time! .
Good morning from hack central! I got a minute this weekend to cut the trans tunnel a little more out, and get the motor closer to its final home. So I did some digging around and mocked up some more parts on the motor. a set of heads, valve covers, a stock Q-jet manifold, and a alternator bracket I had in storage, rounded out with a fog of blue to get an idea if I want to paint it rambler "forum blue" I will not be running a triangle air cleaner, I was just checking clearance... there's not much. that plate almost hits the hood. so I may wind up with something like this.... But first I'm gonna try and lower the motor a little in the front, and see if that helps without putting the bellhousing or the oil pan in a compromised spot. Its all a game of fractions of an inch. I have a 14" air cleaner coming so I can see if I can make a mega drop base for it. till next time! .
We used the drop based air cleaner from speedways dirt track catalog on my dad’s Lincoln and it helped a ton! Bet a drop base works great for the rambler
The problem is that I don't have even an inch above the upper lip of the carb, which I don't think is enough to put a lid, a base, and have enough airflow, can anybody verify if the L82 intake is lower than my stock Q-jet intake?
@JimSibley just went through this and had a thread talking about the lowest intake options. How much room do you think you have? Those squished offy carb lids that guys run a cone filter on are pretty flat so I would think if you could get at least that much space and then enough drop on the base to get a couple inch tall big diameter air filter you’d be ok. you always figure something out, I’m curious to see how you tackle it
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/...MImO2y-NPSlQMVPTHUAR2kNBpoEAQYCiABEgLZbPD_BwE Three inch drop base looks wild, wonder how to Clears linkage? But they exist
Yeah, doesn't help me much, none of those options were very useful to me, except the one photo above that was linked in the thread, but means I would have to build water jackets... not fun. That flat plate on top of the carb? it nearly touches the hood on the front edge. and wouldn't fit under my hood. its tight. .
So what are the options looking like? Drop the engine down, tear drop hood blister, mid engine conversion?
I'm gonna look at dropping the front of the motor a tiny bit, then look into a L82 aluminum intake, that way I can modify it if need be. I could probably mill an 1/8" off the cast one, but much further will get me through the base. If I did an aluminum one I could build a custom top plate. I REFUSE to cut this hood. Haha while I do have two of those, it creates more problems than it solves. First, it means I'd have to make and plumb front water ports on the head, but it would also mean no room for a distributor, so coil on plug or something else would have to be utilized. So, a bigger can of worms. If I can gain another inch or so, I'm pretty sure I can make it work. .
Just an observation. I see the complications of raising up the front crossmember that extra inch, so the tires fit up under the fenders more, so it looked cool, is biting back. Can you lower the top of the crossmember an inch, so the motor and trans can sit lower an inch?
Haha while it would seem that way, its not the crossmember that is keeping me that high, It's the ground. the bellhousing is set at 4" off the ground, and I won't sacrifice ride height. but I've got good news! I bought a cheap 14" air cleaner from @1stGrumpy and I got it in the mail last night. lucky for me, it had a 2" drop base, unfortunately it didn't like my quadrajet carb, so I had to do some modifications. once I had clearanced for the choke and accelerator pump arms, It fit on, and looked promising. but when I put it on with the 3" air filter, it hit the hood before the hood was all the way shut. So, for ****s and giggles, I found some 2" tall shackle perches to mock up a 2" filter, and tried it. wouldn't you know it works, and clears by a 1/4 + everywhere. so I think for now ill just run a 2" air cleaner and move on to the next issue but it is pretty tight using a 2" drop and a 2" air filter (about 3/4 gap between the base and lid) so I'm still interested in finding a shorter intake someday. but for now, I'm gonna move on and start getting the rest mocked up. I threw in a points distributor, and it slid right in through this hole mike made years ago. I was gonna fix this like factory, but I think i'm going to trim and terminate the side braces into the firewall and make them flush. currently you can get the distributor out if you take the air cleaner and distributor cap off. Everything is tight, but its fitting ... so far. lets see how long I get lucky. .
Strange guy walks into an auto parts store. Goes up to the counter with a micrometer in hand and asks I need a set of your thinnest Q-Jet gaskets.
Our local O'reilys wouldn't even bat an eye. I've got them trained, I usually just walk into the back and get what I need. .
Should work but if I wanted to eek out the last bit of space I bet you could run a flat air cleaner top with one of those little lift a dot/ duzus style fasteners on top that make it flat and gain whatever space the air cleaner stud/wing nut/ tappered cleaner lid take up. but that’s probably a negligible amount of improvement for the amount of money to change the lid set up on a “cheap” project car
Back at it! I cleaned shop and moved my bench around so I had more room around the wagon, and so I could move it over another foot before I put it up on cribs. and when help showed up, we got it up off the ground. I shimmed the alternator mount out to align with the double pulley I picked up. (that's a few wraps of electrical tape as a "belt") I threw up a couple zip ties to mount the muffler up in the rear and started plotting where the exhaust would go. It looks like the best route will be down the driver side of the driveshaft tunnel, and under the rearend. next up I found the stock trans crossmember, and started adding a mount to the front for the T5. I rosette welded them into the bottom as well. I made some neat little wing/ brace pieces, but decided to mock it up first, and good thing I did, cause they wont fit with the wide style trans mount that the Camaro transmission takes. I also had to notch the rear of the crossmember for the tailshaft to clear. So I redesigned the braces, and will hopefully get them installed tonight once I get the trans mount installed I can adjust the motor crossmember and weld it in. step by step! .
Progress! I made a nice set of wings for the trans mount that fit nice, and looked really slick. I test fit it under the car, and It flexed like a big dog. so onto plan 2.0 some 3" 3/16 round tube. . . notched into the crossmember, and on the driver side with a weird kick in it, I boxed the tube in. Then I filled the top with 1/8 plate. It no longer flexes. Then after hacking the crossmember and burning it back together, I decided to fit some tubing for the exhaust. I had some stainless 2" tubing laying around, and started fitting it up. Not terrible for being 10+ years from my last time welding stainless, and a year or more since I last ran my Tig. It should hold. This brace welded like ****er, and looks like poop. I started the collector for the dual 2" pipes into a single 3" I then used my new anvil to mutilate this section of 3" for a collector. I had to run the two smaller pipes back to clear under a body brace, then I can jump up to the 3: pipe, and run that back over the axle, to the muffler. the two 2" tubes= 6.28 square inches, and the single 3"tube= 7.065 square inches, so it should flow nicely. I need to tack the collector in and test fit the pipe and crossmember in the car again. make sure I'm not missing anything important. .
The Jalopy Journal
