With the front sheetmetal in place, the next task was to locate the engine and the engine mounts. Since the plan is to eventually run a first gen small block (327 cid) and I don't have the engine completed (or even started) yet, I needed a dummy block to help with this task. The panel truck came to me with a straight 6 and a 700R4. Luckily I still kept the engine and trans out of the '81 Z28 that I pulled a few years ago so I swapped out the Turbo 350 to the 700R4 and used that engine to rig the assembly in place.
To get the engine in, I went ahead and hacked out the old stock crossmember near the trans on the frame so the new AT would clear. After shoehorning the engine and trans roughly in place, I measured everything (about 10x) and kept tweaking it until I got it centered in the frame with the tailshaft on the trans pointed down about 3 degrees to match the rearend (pointed up 3 degrees). I can dial in the rearend pinion angle to match the engine using the 4 bar adjustment should it settle or move a bit but they are currently within 0.2 degrees of each other (per my digital level).
There were a few concerns I kept thinking of when positioning the engine. First, since I move the IFS crossmember up relative to the framerails I was worried that the engine may need to be moved up so much to clear the rack and pinion and crossmember itself that the trans tunnel I installed may hit. Luckily it appeared to be ok.
The other issue that I kept an eye on was maintaining as much clearance as possible to the radiator while preserving clearance for the valve covers and distributor. The mock-up engine has a long water pump and I plan on using a short water pump on the SBC so the clearance will be better than what it currently shows but as it sits right now the front face of the engine block (surface of the timing cover) is a little over 10 inches from the face of the radiator. Hopefully I can corral a pulley system and an electric fan within this area.
Once the engine was positioned properly, I tack welded the engine tabs to the frame to lock in the position. I was able to use a 2x4 across the frame to temp support the back of the transmission. When I remove the body from the frame, I will go back and final weld the engine tabs (as well as other partial welds), remove the rest of the hacked out crossmember and box the frame, and fab a trans crossmember. I also took some measurements so that once the body is off the frame then I can go ahead and finish clearing the way for the driveshaft by hooping the stock aft crossmember as well as the 4 bar link lateral mount on the rear suspension.
But before I remove the body, I want to get some headers and start figuring out how to route the steering linkage since removing the body is a pain
1949 Chevy Panel Truck A Project Journal I'm old but I make up for it by being immature.
