Jeff20B

I got the tranny mount together and in place. The engine and tranny are finally in the car without the need of a jack or engine crane. According to my bubble level, the front of the engine needs to come up a couple degrees, or the tranny needs to go down a little. The only bad part about lowering the tranny is the oil pan will hit the crossmember. It looks like the front engine mount will have to be raised some. When the car had a 13B in it, it had a washer under each side of the front cover mount where it rests on each motor mount. Since that isn't a very good idea and only gains a small amount of height, I'm going to need to add metal to the top of the front cover mount and redrill it. I guess I could also just install a torque brace and not worry about it. The pan is really close to the crossmember, but doesn't hit it. I can only guess as to whether it'll hit after the exhaust and intake are installed. Especially after a supercharger is installed. They are pretty heavy and cause the engine to torque to the side a lot more than in NA form (for obvious reasons, heh). I'm also worried about the height of the air cleaner assembly. I hope I can find a happy compromise between engine height and hood clearance. I won't know untill I get the supercharger, or can make a carb spacer/adaptor of the same height. I don't really want to build the exhaust untill the engine height is finalized.



Nice paragraph eh?

j9fd3s

wow, progress and grammar!



mike

Jeff20B

I know what I could do to move the front of the engine up. I could hacksaw the front cover mount on each side of the four mounting holes and weld it back together at a higher position. Very easy.



The starter almost fits. The floor near the gas pedal needs to be tweaked some more.

Racer X

Cool.Will the pedals work after the tweaking tho?

Jeff20B

The gas pedal currently doesn't work because the metal is tweaked over too far. I need to push it back toward the tranny and lift up the metal below the pedal so the starter will fit. It's really close.



Hey guys, do you think a cable from the front lifting hook to the driver's side strut tower will reduce engine-rock enough to not need to mod (cut, lift, reweld) the front cover mount? I'm only worried about the oil pan contacting the crossmember on the passenger's side. If I were to tether the driver's side of the engine, it should keep it from torquing over to the passenger side. And if it does contact the crossmember, I can always mod the front cover mount later.



I'm just looking for an excuse to start fabbing the exhaust. I'll just leave a little extra room for the front of the engine to go up a little, by tacking the exhaust together with as much room between it and the passenger's floorboard as possible. I'll need the Atkins manifold soon so I can see if the middle pipe will hit it.

Racer X

Are you getting a atkins manifold??Could you fab a torque brace to keep the motor from shifting around???Is this the SC manifold your looking at?

Jeff20B

I'm looking at a 13B 4 port manifold. It's got a level carb surface that I'm using to level the engine.



Yeah, I'll get an Atkins SC manifold soon. It's ok to run a carb on it without the SC. It won't flow all that well, but it'll be alright. And if I can make clearance now, adding a supercharger in the future will be easy.



I could fab a torque brace, but some people have had good success with a simple cable. peejay and some other guy with a blue 12A have done it. I'll have to look for the pics and study them.



I'd like to get a strut brace for a 1st gen and mod it to fit the GLC. Who knows... it may fit if the widths are the same.

Jeff20B

The radiator I wanted to use is busted. The top tank leaks. I could get it fixed, but it's the tall '83-'85 style. If anything, I ought to use my spare REPU rad. It's kinda heavy, but it could work. Maybe I'd be better off with a '79-'82 short style 3 row core rad? I still have a good 16" fan. It is way too big for the REPU or short style rads.



I took the GLC off the jackstands. Man it's low in front! I'm used to it being jacked up, but wow! I'll need to raise the engine for sure. The oil pan really hangs low. I can't even get the jack back under it now that the suspension has settled. I can see why the guy who put a 13B in it used some washers to try to space the front mount up a little. I'll do him one better and actually mod the front mount.



Back when the car was still jacked up, I climbed into the engine bay and stood on the engine. I only weigh like 130, but it was enough to see if the tranny mount is going to work. It seemed to. I was nearly jumping up and down and could see the back of the engine bobbing a little. I'll add an angle iron to the bottom of the U shaped bracket when I get the chance. I've seen it flex down under weight while releasing the floor jack. It'll be plenty strong after the two sides of the U are welded to the bottom piece, but I also want to stop the flexing. An angle iron welded along an edge ought to do the trick.



You know, I could have cut the added-on piece off the stock tranny mount and used it instead of the flat piece of stock that's in there now. It's stamped steel which is lightweight and strong. It's also compatible with the two sides of the U. For those who don't know, my GLC tranny mount had a piece of 'stock' added to it to allow the ribcase tranny and 13B to fit where a boinger used to be. The welded-on piece looks like the bottom of a letter T. The one I made is in the shape of the letter U. The T allowed the tranny mount to be forward of the stock GLC location. Luckily, the 20B only pushes the tranny back by like 75mm or so from the stock GLC location. I wanted to reverse the T mount, but part of the tailhousing was in the way. The solution was to go to a U shaped mount to clear the tailhousing. If you look closely at the letters U and T, you see they form a bit of a triangle. The letter T has three ends. The top has two attatchment points; one on each side, and the bottom has one. The U is similar, but allows room between the two top attatchment points. In this case, part of the tranny. I hope you could visualize all that, because I'm not typing it again.



Ok, getting the engine in the car and lowering it to the ground have been very helpful. I'll need to make a decision about which radiator to use. I should also deal with the tranny mount. I could use the stock mount after cutting off the piece. It would be lighter and flex less. Or I could add an angle iron to the flat piece, thus adding more weight (a small amount). I'll need some peices to add to the front cover mount when I weld it back together... I'll get them from the old tranny mount. Or maybe the new one is fine and doesn't need to be messed with. I'm tired. *yawn*

j9fd3s

i like those cable torque braces, cause when its not under tension its not affecting anything.



i would think you want the largest core you can fit in there, something like a gsl-se 2 row, you shouldnt need thick



mike

Jeff20B

Thanks for the advice. I've got a length of cable and some loop things and clamps. I think I also have a turnbuckle or whatever it's called. I'll have ot go digging for them after the engine is mounted correctly.



I agree. I'd really like to use my 16" fan. If I tilt the rad so the top is close to the engine and the bottom is further away, it raises the bottom tank to the height of the tow hooks. That may still hang too low though.



Well, this radiator is partially bad, so what have I got to loose in by modding it?



I've got a propane torch. Maybe I'll try my luck sealing the top tank? I'll tilt it down so the solder can flow out of the seem, then wirebrush the surface untill it's clean, then flow some new solder into the seem. I wonder if I'll need to get some flux for this? Would rosin core (electrical) solder work? If this actually works, I'll be able to fix my REPU rads (all three leak).