Spent many hours this weekend working on the Tudor. Got lots of little things done: Welding shut many factory holes in the A Frame Fabricating and installing new front boxing plates Fabricating some custom motor mounts (need more work yet) And finally mocking up my 68 Ford 289 with a 4sp toploader! I do have a few questions as usual, how much of the front crossmember can I whittle away to help with fit? I was going to cut it about 2" from the back towards the front as not to get into the main member. I see many AV8's done this way seems to be plenty strong. Any thoughts on this? Also, how much room can I save with one of those shorter waterpumps and pulley's for the SBF's? Any suggestions would be welcome!
I think you could remove some of the crossmember as long as you put something back in it's place for structural reasons. How much? Dunno......
I can't tell you exactly how much the short waterpump will give you, but I can say it is a bunch, something around 3-4 inches I believe. If you can get one ,do it, as you can get the engine farther forward and give yourself some more interior room. If you don't need the room there you get more fan and radiator room. Frank
I don't think the back section of the cross member does much. The reproduction ones only have the spring pocket part. Another option would be to raise the engine a little, that would also gain you some ground clearance. TZ
I have the pully about 1/2" above the rear of the crossmember. Would like tike lower the engine one or two more inches but would need to take out the rear section of the original member. Come to think of it the repos dont have that piece! Maybe I'll just whittle the back verticle piece.
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