The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts new bolter needing a little help

Guys i have a 59 viking 4400. SOmeone has put a older corvette 327 in it,What they neglected to do was bless the beauty with actual motor mounts. After losing my distributor cap to the fire wall i started looking for reasons. The obvious start was a broken motor mount.What i discovered is i only have tranny mounts(1 bolt-fine) and a hand made metal bar attached in the front.I need to know where i can get a motor mount tower that will accomodate my large ton and a half frame and allow me to bolt that sucker down,PPPPPPPPPPPPPPleasse someone help me!
progress is coming along fine on her-i have the front clip off now to clean and paint the motor and firewall and straighten out the rats nest of wiring under the hood.I am also going to clean up front frame and paint it a nice antirust glossy black.

sounds like you've maybe got home made original style front mount pegs? you'll need to get an aftermarket cross member to use the standard small block side mounts, might be able to source the cross member locally, certainly the sbc side mounts, but all the vendors will have both

Bill

Hy PatinaFiend, as far as I know the front mount kit sold by many vendors should work and give you front engine mounts, the only thing that may make for a problem is the size of the harmonic balancer. The largest balancers require the mount brackets to be trimmed. Or you could buy a universal side mount crossmember and mounts and install that, hope that helps.

well there is some old bracket bolted to the front of the motor,,it is an old corvett motor and i know they had front motor brackets,,,seem as though maybe i should take some pics up and post them so you guys can hold my hand a little more lol

original front mounts look like this - the brackets on the bottom bolt to the back of the front cross member, or if the truck had an original V8, they'd be riveted on - the bracket at the top was used a number of years, car and truck V8 and is quite similar to the engine mount bracket for the 235

Bill

You didn't say what transmission you have.

The original manual transmissions all used a bell housing with side motor mounts giving your engine four mounting points, two at the front and two at the bell housing. If you are using a newer automatic with just a tail shaft mount you will need to convert to side motor mounts with the universal crossmember sold by many of the truck vendors.

Side motor mounts were first used in 1958 on the passenger cars. Trucks and Corvete's continued to use the front motor mounts for many years beyond.

Mike B

its an old 4 speed manual..there are mounts back there i assumed they were tranny mounts,,they are rubber and only one has a bolt in it,,guess i better fix that asap!

no its an original straight 6,,looks like the aftermarket crossmember is the onlyway to go..just hope they make one wide enough! but thanks for the response,,it takes a special kinda love to fix these old truck!

Most of the aftermarket tubular side mount kits are adjustable for width. The tubes telescope side to side, and can be bolted or welded once the width is correct.
Jerry

thanks guys i appreciate the help! im sure we all share the same goal of gettng these forgotten workhorses back on the road

PF,

If you are going to use the original trans and bell housing, there's no need to add the side mount crossmember. Just add the brackets that Squeeze talked about to the front of your 327 and everything will line up and work prefectly, no measuring, drilling or welding required. The front motor mount kit should be cheaper than the side mount crossmember and mounts.

Mike B