OK.
Back in the shop today.the next step is mounting the engine and transmission. Since the transmission tunnel requires heavy modification to allow the transmission to fit, we are first going to mount the engine, then the transmission.
The major constraining body is the oilpan/crossmember interfaceto be safe, I decided that a minumum 3/4" of clearance will suffice. The motor is going to be solid mounted, so this shouldn’t be a problem.
This is the shape of the oilpan:
So i crafted up this shim out of 3/4" plywood:
Then installed it with some mechanic’s wire. (OK, I lied, I couldn’t find any mechanic’s wire, so I just jogged some welding wire out of the mig):
This shim will allow us to set the motor right onto the crossmember, design and build the motor mounts, then the shims will be removed, allowing for the 3/4" of clearance.
So we set the motor in the car. We used mike’s skyline to get some preliminary measurments and angles. I was really nervous about how the motor would fit, viewed from the rear, but i was quite pleased with the result. Some minor shimming and twisting, and i think we have a very close idea as to a final motor position. We are going to use something like this:
on the flywheel mounting flange to perfectly aim the engine at the rear dif.
Here are some pictures of the motor resting in the chassis (that’s turbociv in the lower right of the first pic):
