ukcats07 Posted May 17, 2010 Share Posted May 17, 2010 I had originally used Brian Laine's setup. His setup is awesome and I'm glad it's out there as it got me started on this whole project in the first place, however, the number of bolts that needed to be jimmied in to place was becoming kind of annoying. I was also pretty leery of the welds as they didn't look like they got very good penetration (turns out I was right after I cut the old mount for spare metal) and one of the tubes wasn't welded perfectly straight. I used er34gtt2000jp's mounts as inspiration for my current setup. It was actually pretty easy to make. Just made some square tubing out of cardboard and cut away with the motor and tranny in the car. Had the tranny bolted in the place I wanted it to be, and just cut the cardboard to fit. Once I had my cardboard cradle/mount taped up, I took it to the local steel shop and said "here, make me this with these exact dimensions". "Also, weld it here and here" and they said "cool, that'll be $50". $50 for the steel and welding, cut to to my exact measurements. Ironworks Steel in Fort Walton Beach if anyone's close by. Anyway, here you go. I think I put a little too much clearcoat last night as you can see some light spots in the pics. Also, all the pretty (read: critical) welds were done by a professional. The only welds I did were the two braces. They actually didn't turn out too bad for my first time. BTW, that middle piece slides off and makes installation a breeze. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr.meshie Posted May 18, 2010 Share Posted May 18, 2010 that's pretty slick dude. i thought Brian's cradle was awesome, but way to improve. i like the extra bracing on the engine mounts. also, welding a piece of steel tubing does seem a bit easier than bending the brace for it. i mean, you have to weld a bunch anyway, so why not just make a cut and a few welds rather than breaking out the torch and bending the brace and bolting it on. this design, with Brian's write-up, us Ford guys are starting to get on the right track. i have to thank you both. so much more confident to do my swap now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukcats07 Posted May 18, 2010 Author Share Posted May 18, 2010 I should clarify that I didn't buy a messed up cradle from Brian, I had mine made from his drawings. After re-reading my post it kind of sounded like I got a defective one from him. Brian's cradle is really nice and I would probably still be using it had the person who welded mine not messed it up. I also really prefer the late 60's Mustang motor mounts and how they just slide over the tubing--1 bolt and it's in. If you plan on putting the 5.0 in the Z, definitely buy the JTR transmission mount first. Drop the motor and transmission in the car and bolt the transmission where you want it to be. Then mock up the cradle using the cardboard. I think it maybe took me 2 hours to make/cut/position the cardboard exactly where I wanted it to be. Super easy. Oh and you're going to want to invest in a knockout punch. $30 from Lowe's/Home Depot. Made making the holes for the tubing not only exact, but way way way easier than drilling. I hate drilling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gb20 Posted May 19, 2010 Share Posted May 19, 2010 Would you mind posting your measurements for us. I need a mount made ASAP and yours sweet. Also, I'm planning on a 351w instead of a 302. Anything in particular I will need to change? Thanks a ton. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukcats07 Posted May 20, 2010 Author Share Posted May 20, 2010 (edited) From what I've read, the 351W will fit the same. I've attached some Google SketchUp 2D jpgs for your viewing pleasure. This is the passenger side for now. I'm in the process of modeling the driver's side. Should have it up tonight. BTW, I'm using Duralast part number 2257 engine mounts. From a late 60's mustang I believe. Let me know if you can't make out any of the dimensions and I'll take some more snapshots in Google SketchUp. Or, if anyone wants a copy of the sketchup file, I'll just email it out or make it available on a share site. Edit: forgot to add the mount brace Edited May 20, 2010 by ukcats07 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gb20 Posted May 20, 2010 Share Posted May 20, 2010 For this, I thank you. Between you and Brian Laine, those of us wanting the Ford engine have a great starting point. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukcats07 Posted May 21, 2010 Author Share Posted May 21, 2010 Not a problem. Hopefully it helps you (or anyone for that matter) get your swap going. If you're going to use these drawings, I would recommend that you have the angle iron and square tubing made with my dimensions. Put it in your car and see where it lines up with your motor. You might have to take a little off the 22" angle iron to line up with your motor mounts. Also, before you have the vertical square tubing (the ones with the pipe) welded to the tubing coming off the angle iron, I would check that my heights don't put your motor too high for your liking. I would recommend you get the square tubing/piping piece welded as is and leave a little extra on the bottom if you can visualize what I'm saying. That away if it's too high, you can cut some of the height off and lower the motor a little. With my motor in the car I can put my hand between the damper and the crossmember that's how high it sits. I also have my motor pushed back basically as far as it will go (the heads are less than 1" from the firewall). Anyway, here's the driver's side. Again, if you need me to take snapshots from different angles, or put in more dimensions, I'll be happy to. I'm actually about to go put the motor back in, so I'll try to post some pics of how this mount sits the motor in the bay after tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukcats07 Posted May 23, 2010 Author Share Posted May 23, 2010 Okay, here's some pics of the motor and tranny sitting in the car. You can see that this mount sits the motor a little high. I probably could have gotten away with not massaging my driver's side header had I used this mount in the first place...oh well. It can actually sit lower by reducing some of the height in the vertical square tubing with the pipe welded through it. It actually sits high and far back enough that I might be able to drain the front sump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erehemantresni Posted June 28, 2010 Share Posted June 28, 2010 What oil pan are you using? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukcats07 Posted July 17, 2010 Author Share Posted July 17, 2010 What oil pan are you using? Sorry for the late post. I've been in the middle of a move and I've finally got settled in to our new place. I used a foxbody style oil pan with the dipstick in the pan. My block doesn't have the dipstick hole. I paid $80 I believe on eBay for mine, however I would recommend Summit's package deal...part number FMS-M-6675-A58. They either didn't have it when I bought mine, or I just didn't realize that they sold a kit. Probably the latter seen how I bought this early-on in this swap. Hope that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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