Motor mounts are back

I picked up the motor mounts from the powder coater earlier this week. The one that appears to be shorter is for the passenger side. Like I said before the drivers side needs a spacer at the engine in order to use a flat plate. You could also contour the plate on the engine side to get rid of the spacer, but that makes attaching the tube for the cross member more difficult.  Fitment on the passenger side is really close to the starter.  I didn't actually try to pack it in this tight, but it will leave plenty of room for the 3" exhaust.  Fitment on the drivers side is good also with plenty of room for the steering shaft.
To make these I made tracings of the original AAN mount by gluing card stock to them and cutting it with a ball peen hammer.  The same way you would make a custom gasket.  Then just move the patterns to some .250" plate steel and cut them out.  I created the feet with some paper and a compass while watching television.  Transfer the pattern to some .250" plate steel and cut them out.  Next I mounted all the pieces and positioned the motor with an engine hoist.  Using PVC pipe that was close to the size of my tubing I made some mock ups.  Its really fast to work and cheap to start over if it doesn't work out.  After that you just recreate them with your .120" chromoly tube and weld it all together.  It doesn't take any special equipment other than a welder to do this, just some patience.  Now I can drop the motor back in and start the exhaust manifold. 

 

  

 

Fund Raiser Alert!!!

Okay this may seem weird, but just to the right of this post at the top of the sidebar is a link to a photo contest that I entered. That great picture of Nina that you can see was taken by my wife Jenn. Top prize in the contest is 1000 dollars! That will buy a few more pieces for this project. So if you would, click the link and vote for us. BTW you can vote once a day until 5PM central US time on the 1st of March. Thanks!

Oil Pan Finished

The oil pan is back from the powder coater.  I have to say that I am pleased with the outcome.  Hopefully my baffles will be adequate to combat starvation at high g loads.  If need be I may add a Accusump system, but I will give it a go without one first.  No sense in adding unnecessary parts.  I sloped it slightly from front to back to aid in drain back.  The bottom of the front portion is within .500" of the front cross member  The bottom of the sump doesn't hang down more than .500" below the front cross member.  The donor pan was from a 3b motor and the rest was fabbed from .070" sheet stock  The bottom portion is made from 13 individual pieces of material. The whole pan was assembled and then welded inside and out.  The outside was then ground down for a nicer finish.  So check out the pics.  I don't have measurements on this part.  I just fabbed as I went along but basically tried to maximize the volume of the pan an ended up with a shape that resembles the Porsche unit.  I guess those guys did their homework.  Sump capacity is right at seven quarts, on par with the Porsche pan.  If you add in the remote filter and cooler system I will probably be pushing 9 quart system capacity I would guess.