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Alan, no matter what, you do need the longitudinal stabilizer. The plates are very strong for side to side tourqe and radial stiffness, but are very weak front to back. You need to hold the block in place so it can't "oil can" the plates and cause other issues. There are several different ways to do this and I'm not saying that one way is better than the other, but it MUST be done.

Steve

 

Steve, I don't think Alan will have any problems, he has an aluminum block.

 

Pears with apples............?

 

Rob, I should have clarified that I am talking about my girdled iron block.

 

Aluminum or Iron it should make no difference, you should not have the engine flexing "for and aft" while the trans mount is somewhat rigid, (Solid or urathane mount. Urathane is recommended when using motor plate and mid mount). If the entire drivetrain could "float" it may be ok, but this is not the case. For what amounts to a simple fix why ask for trouble?

Thoughts?

Steve

 

I do have the poly trans mount.

 

Here is a setup that worked for me, in a very high stress application. Time proven over about a decade now.

We never had any problems with the engine/trans, related to mounting.

I beleive I took this first set of pictures when I was building the headers, but they show the plate setup pretty well.





Now, I will agree with Steve that you need a torque limiter. And to really work, it needs to be at a good angle (around 45*) and attach to the chassis and engine in a flat plane.. not going up or down dramatically. Bad angles will allow it to flex.

If you look at the setup I had to work with here, it's not hard to see that there simply was not a great place to put a torque limiter on this car.

So, I actually added a curved piece of rollcage, for the mount for the rear plate. This eliminates front to rear movement.

You will flex a plate, you will flex a torque limiter at a bad angle, but your not going to flex that piece of 1 5/8 tubing. Note the detail of where the tabs are placed, and how it's mounted. I also selected a 3/16 mild steel plate for the mid mount.







Now on the front, I wanted nothing to do with machining timing covers down, and potentially developing a leak point, that would take excessive sealer to get it to work. So I didn't fool with the timing cover, but built the plate to go around it. Also, it bolts only to the heads, the block is bolted to the plate with HD right angle welded aluminum plates, that bolt into the plate, and then into the factory motor mount holes.

This stiffened the front plate considerably, vs just a flat plate. I left the front of the right angle block mounts as large as possible, for increased surface area. The front plate is 1/4 6061 T-6.

In these pictures, you can see where it's bolted to the front of the block, and that is the only way it is attached to the block. The plate itself is attached to the cylinder heads. I worried about block/head expansion issues, but that never was a problem.





I do still have the plexiglass template for the front and rear mount, and they could be borrowed out to a board member, as a place to start if you like.

JW

 

Thanks Jim, good info. When I built mine I decided to go the route of machining and welding on my timing cover, (since this is what I do anyways). I have had absolutly no leak issues with this setup and it has worked great. It is quite involved though and if not executed properly will result in oil leaks, or worse. I like the fact that my motor plate is bolted directly to the block for the maximum amount of support and ridgidity.

Goes to show that there are many roads to take that will get you to the same place!!

Steve

 

Sorry my bad!!

 

Rob, I'm sorry I turned your thread into a engine install/chassis build class. Jim, My mid-plate is very similar in design to yours so I think I'm good on that end. I'll show the front pics to my chassis guy along with some other I found and see what he thinks, as you know space in the engine compartment comes at a premium.

Alan

 

No harm.
I don't know if this topic has ever been discussed before, but, maybe we should start it's own thread.

 

I think that is a great idea.

 

Hi Rob, those valve covers are KING! What remote oil filter housing are you using? Can I bother you to pull off your systems1 and take a pic of the surface the oil filter seals to for me? Chris

 

I would if I had the car at home, but it is currently getting a fresh paint job.

 

Ok new paint.. New motor? New personal best? What's the good word Rob?

 

went to the track Saturday. 1st pass was a solid 12.74 ( really) then I stepped on it a bit and it did a bit of spit and sputter off the line but finished with a 9.11 @ 147. 60' was 1.43 which normally is low 20's.
We need to do some tweaking and try it again.

 

Rob you will be in the 8's by Buick Day!::TU: