ukcats07 Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 Using Z8Driver's drawings, I had my motor mount cross-member welded up and the following pics shows it mocked it up on the stand as well as the 240 it's going in. Going to the sandblaster tomorrow morning to make those stock manifolds look a little better... I haven't drilled the mounts or the square tubing yet, going to put the motor in the car and sanity check my measurements first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5.Z Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 Very nice. Curious are you going carb or efi? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukcats07 Posted October 19, 2009 Author Share Posted October 19, 2009 Very nice. Curious are you going carb or efi? I'm going to pick up a Weiand intake and Holley 4160 carb. I got the motor as a rebuilt longblock with a nasty looking 2bl intake and carb that definitely needed upgrading. I get my JTR transmission mount tomorrow and after measuring it and the crossmember and drilling out the holes, I'll be ready to put the motor and tranny in....:mrgreen: Still need some parts (intake, carb, starter, etc.) before I'm ready to start it up...but it will be in the car. One milestone at a time. Btw, sandblasted my manifolds and valve covers today and painted both black. Put a clearcoat on the valve covers and they turned out real nice. I hope the clearcoat holds up to engine temps...I think it will. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5.Z Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 very nice but are you sure your headers will work? it doesnt hit the firewall? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ekiernan Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 Looks to me like the exhaust would have to make a 90 degree bend downward and I don't think there is enough space to come off the exhaust manifold and enter the tunnel. Made the same mistake myself with some factory LT1 exhaust. Only they hit the sterring shaft. Had to go with headers from JTR. Just put them in last nite. THEY FIT!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ekiernan Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 Here are a couple of pics that were taken last nite (late). It is very much a work in progress. I know these exhaust manifolds fit. Also, this is my first attempt at uploading a pic so hoperfully it goes well enough for them to appear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukcats07 Posted October 19, 2009 Author Share Posted October 19, 2009 Looks to me like the exhaust would have to make a 90 degree bend downward and I don't think there is enough space to come off the exhaust manifold and enter the tunnel. Made the same mistake myself with some factory LT1 exhaust. Only they hit the sterring shaft. Had to go with headers from JTR. Just put them in last nite. THEY FIT!!! Damnt...I was so worried about steering shaft clearance that I didn't even think about firewall clearance.. What's kind of funny is that I have the motor about 20 feet from me out in my shed, yet I was looking at my pictures posted here to see if I actually did have clearance..lol. Just went out and looked and the pass. side manifold is for sure not going to fit. Looks like I'll be picking up a set of headers. Any suggestions? The JTR ones are for a SBC and I would have to "massage" the summit SBF shorty headers to clear the steering shaft...might be what I end up doing seen how I'm kind of following Z8Driver's write-up. Oh well. Nice motor and Z btw. How close are you to finishing? I use my dad's Z (was my first car when I turned 16, 9 years ago) for insipiration. No V8, but he has done a superb job on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5.Z Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 I would get a tight tuck hugger headers from summit. On mine I have a different mount and used the 1" taller engine mount from an older 289 mustang. It worked out perfect that the exhaust manifold did not hit anything and have plenty of clearance. Zero issues. But the engine sits 1" higher. I'm not sure how well it would work on yours since your mount is different. On the side note I choose to mount it 1" higher for now and will use a lower mount when I go turbo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ekiernan Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Damnt...I was so worried about steering shaft clearance that I didn't even think about firewall clearance.. What's kind of funny is that I have the motor about 20 feet from me out in my shed, yet I was looking at my pictures posted here to see if I actually did have clearance..lol. Just went out and looked and the pass. side manifold is for sure not going to fit. Looks like I'll be picking up a set of headers. Any suggestions? The JTR ones are for a SBC and I would have to "massage" the summit SBF shorty headers to clear the steering shaft...might be what I end up doing seen how I'm kind of following Z8Driver's write-up. Oh well. Nice motor and Z btw. How close are you to finishing? I use my dad's Z (was my first car when I turned 16, 9 years ago) for insipiration. No V8, but he has done a superb job on it. Yep, I had sandblasted and painted mine all up too! Bummer! My progress is just as you see it. Not much farther than yours. Next step is the T56, Fuel lines, ReDoing brake lines... LOTS of tedious work! Some of these guys are brilliant, experienced, and judging by their pictures, real artists! Real inspirations! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukcats07 Posted November 22, 2009 Author Share Posted November 22, 2009 So I guess I'll use this as my build thread FTM. I'll start one in the member's section at some point... A lot of things have happened since this last post...moved from base housing to a nice house outside the gate with tons of room to work on the car. Changes since this last post: -Cut the cross-member in half and used a sleeve in the center--much easier -picked up a set of the Patriot block huggers--fit great, but I need to "clearance" the driver's side for the steering shaft (where's that pencil torch and sledge at?) -finally drilled the mounts and x-member and the motor has sat in the car under it's own weight...yay! Still need some hardware (bolts aren't quite long enough) before I can put it in for good....i can see the light--pinprick, but it's there. I'm going to bolt the tranny up tomorrow and put everything back in (lost count of how many times so far) so that I can put the JTR mount in place. Then I'll take it all back out so I can put the clutch, etc. in and then back in it will go. I'm stoked that it's almost ready to be put in for good. Still have a lot to do inside the car, on the engine and basic maintenance before any rubber is burned. Here's some pics of the motor in tonight. It's tilted towards the rear a little much due to no tranny. Damper and front sump have plenty of clearance when the motor is tilted forward in the "normal" position. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukcats07 Posted November 22, 2009 Author Share Posted November 22, 2009 I need to figure out how to make these pictures smaller....geez Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V8INtheZ Posted November 27, 2009 Share Posted November 27, 2009 Hey man, I see you have already "mounted" your engine, but you should have enough room for your exhaust to clear. I just got my second 5.0L Z on the road and used pretty much the same parts that you are using on both and didnt have to modify my Patriot headers. My engine is offset just a bit to the passenger side and both the oil filter and the driver side header clear the steering shaft with a "fingers clearance" or more. Im sure you already tried, but I recomend you shift your engine and trans a bit to clear, but it looks like you might have to raise the engine a bit though. Just a thought Its looking really good so far though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukcats07 Posted November 29, 2009 Author Share Posted November 29, 2009 Thanks V8 Unfortunately my setup didn't give me enough clearance to not have to "massage" the headers. I might be able to move the motor slightly to the passenger side, however I would have drill all new holes and they would be too close to the existing ones I think. Either way, since this last post I spent last night putting the motor, with tranny in tow, back into the car to see where I need to drill for the tranny mount. Turns out I didn't have enough clearance for the balancer so I took the angle iron out and chopped about 1/2 inch off the end so that I could push the motor back farther. I'm going to spend tonight bolting the flywheel and clutch kit in and change the T5s oil. I'll bolt it all together and try to get this thing mounted for good:mrgreen: I'll take pics and post if I have "uh great success". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukcats07 Posted December 4, 2009 Author Share Posted December 4, 2009 Well the motor and tranny are in!! Here's a recap of what's happened since the last post. -cut about an inch off both sides of the angle iron, nearest the firewall. Thought this would be sufficient so that I could push the motor back a little farther...turns out the transmission was hitting the datsuns tranny dog ears, ugh. Had to pull everything back out and get the angle grinder out. -cut the dog ears out and think that I'm home free and that the motor is going to just move right in. Wrong. Get it all back in only to see that the tranny is still hitting the dog ears. Turns out I didn't cut enough. Really pissed now because it's evening time and I couldn't just pull the grinder out and cut what I needed to. -before doing all this I put my new flywheel and clutch kit on the block. I did not think that putting the flywheel on was going to give me such a headache. I had a hell of a time getting the bolts to line up and thread nicely. Oh and I found out that a) no lock washer grade 5 instead of 8 bolts c) over torqueing (due to reading the wrong spec) the pressure plate bolts equals a snapped bolt. Luckily I only snapped one bolt and decided to knock it off and wait until I had the right equipment before moving on. -sometimes I amaze myself at how stupid I can be. Here's a conversation between myself and myself concerning whether or not to fill the tranny before putting it in the car innerself: I'm pretty sure that all of this fluid is going to come out the back of the tranny when i go to put it in the car Self: nah, and if it does this bag that I put around the output shaft should keep it contained until I bring it back to level $15 and about 2 quarts on the carport floor later my innerself prevailed...I'm retarded. So day before yesterday I got all the cutting that I needed done, put the motor and tranny in and it slid back exactly where I wanted it to with no problems..yay. I now have clearance for the damper (which is what was driving all this anyway) and I'm pretty sure the "massaging" of the header is acceptable now as well. Bolted the tranny in with the JTR mount and it's nice and solid. Haven't been out to the car yesterday or today as I am not feeling good at the moment. Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel better and I can get the car off jack stands and make sure everything is peachy. I'll post pics shortly when I get to my laptop (iPhone on the crapper at the moment). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V8INtheZ Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 Oh dude we have all had car days like that. For every one thing you fix three others break and nothing goes easily. But you have learned some very good tips for the next one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_Zorro Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 If you can find an old driveshaft yoke it works great to keep the fluid in the trans. Don't ask me how I know... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeoTokyo Posted January 1, 2010 Share Posted January 1, 2010 Does anyone have any pictures of mounts for a Z32 of any non VG30? I would like to keep a photobank of different mounts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukcats07 Posted January 24, 2010 Author Share Posted January 24, 2010 Wow. Been a while since I've been on here. Drove 1000 miles, both ways, for Christmas with two kids and a van full of crap, I mean stuff needed for this trip. Got back and bought a 2003 Z71 Avalanche to replace my 240,000 mile Ford Exploder. Hopefully it will last as long. So before Christmas I was able to get the motor and transmission in the car and take the car off the stands. Wow. I had become so accustomed to having the car on stands that it felt really low off of them. I kept checking the shocks and struts to make sure they weren't bottomed out! My parents got me a Weiand 8142 aluminum intake for Christmas, so that's going on soon along with a decently sized list of other things to get this motor running. Here's some pics for your viewing pleasure. The pics link to my album with about 30 total pics. Don't mind all the surface rust. I got sick and lazy and didn't cover my car up. Of course we had about two days where thick fog rolled in all throughout the day and covered everything in water. Guess I should know better than to leave stuff uncovered in NW Florida. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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