The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop V8 placement in frame

I am putting the chevy duty mounts in for my 283 turbo 350. My father in law had the old style motor mounts on a bent piece of flat steel. Where I had it mocked up he said was too far forward. It is basically 3 inches forward of where it was before going from a manual to an automatic. It is a 54. From the front of the frame to the front of the block how far forward is too far without problems in driveability with the existing straight axle? I had moved it forward for 3 basic reasons.

1. firewall clearance 2. Lokar shifter going into low 3. Using existing driveshaft.

I thought it was good to go and he came over and looked at it and said move it back or you will have too much weight forward.

Your Father in Law is right bring the motor back and leave just enough room for the distributor to clear the firewall. The truck will also drive better with the weight more toward the back.

The Lokar shift is adjustable forward and rearward on its mounting bracket so you have some adjustability in shifter placement.

If you're not using one now,you may want to change to an HEI distributor in the future so position the motor to allow for it.

Good advice. Thanks. I have enough room where it is and can move the Lokar up just a bit. It may clear anyway. I do plan on going HEI when I have enough extra money. As slow as I am by the time I'm ready for it I'll have the dough.

As I have found, you will have to have a drive shaft lengthened for this application. As for the engine placement, I positioned mine such that I could still remove the HEI distributor. Basically about two inches of clearance from the rear of the valve covers to the firewall.

Bessie or Huston54
I am also in the process of mounting a 350 V8 in the frame. I am working with a bare frame - no cab. Would one of you be able to measure the distance from the centre of the motor mount to the front edge of the frame (or one of the shock rivets, anything to give me a staring point).

I would caution you against this at least as far as doing the final weld in until you get the cab in place. Unless you do not have the cab at this time I would suggest placing the cab in place temporarily to get the location set correctly. There are just too many variables such as engine installed height and firewall clearances.

I am unable to give you the dimens you ask for as I have a g body subframe on mine. I can run a tape from the rear k member to a point on the engine but I would not do a firm install on that alone.

Frets I can measure when I get home. I think that the front of the brackets were 18.5 inches from the front of the frame. I took pictures but havn't posted them to the internet yet. I should be able to use the driveshaft as I have moved the motor forward a couple of inches from where it was before. It eyeballs up real close. I was only changing from 3 speed to automatic and from front motor mounts on a bent piece of flat metal to a chevy duty unit. It's all in. Now to finish up putting the rest of the motor together.

Houston54 - first, sorry about misspelling your name. I agree with your concern. I have a rolling chassis in my shop and the donor truck in my detached garage. I have made many measurements and a carboard template of how/where the cab is sitting. I am using the Chevy Duty tubular V8 mount and just wanted to compare our measurements.
Bessie - I'd appreciate any measurements (or photos)you care to share. Are you boxing the frame? That is the stage I am at right now.

[img]https://home.mchsi.com/~tpetty/wsb/media/129404/site1041_t.jpg[/img] [img]https://home.mchsi.com/~tpetty/wsb/media/129404/site1036_t.jpg[/img] [img]https://home.mchsi.com/~tpetty/wsb/media/129404/site1037_t.jpg[/img]

It's in.

Great Job Bessie: popcorn The Truth is Out There (someday you can head 6 hrs east and help me)

It's in. It turns over. It blows fire through the carburetor! I got it on tdc again and the dist was 180 out. I switched plug wires around and now it spits fuel out of the carb. Man oh man. I wish I were a little more mechanically inclined. The good news is one of my friends who knows what he's doing is coming over tonight to get it all lined up and fired up. I hope. I'm also putting new plugs in. I switched to hei and gapped the old ones to .060.

We'll see.

Never mind. I got it running. Remember to double check your work.

Keep it as far back as you can. I found that the problems comes in the front. Remember the water pump sits much lower on the 350 SB, in order to get air through the radiator you will need a shroud. I could have put mine an inch or so farther back and eliminated the relocation of the side mounts on the radiator, triming the rad support etc., I took it forward and down, used a 17" engine driven blade and custom built shroud. My a/c condenser and trans oil cooler are in front, easier fab with more room. See here
http://community.webshots.com/user/zeker6
Still not on the road yet but it seems to pull lots of air. Zeke

Zeker,

Let's start our own truck forum. Orange trucks only.

What color is that? It's exactly what I'm after. Mine was supposed to be red but the po my father in law messed it up. It turned out almost like high heat chevy red orange but is in need of an update.

Tim

Don't have the # in front of me, but it's Omaha Orange, 50-60 Chevy, Dupont BC-CC. Under carriage (under floors under & inner fender under hood, etc.)was done in Enamel off ebay motors, auto paint, Omaha Orange, $35 a gallon perfect match Zeke