O.K., time for another chapter. The crossmember saga.
I started out with the DIY4x first gen engine crossmember. Here's a direct link:
http://diy4x.com/cart/index.php?rout...&product_id=80
The pic on their site is the first(old) design, the new design has a drop out center section. Here's what the new design looks like.
Another member "Thealien" had already posted up that this crossmember would not work with an LS motor. Check out his thread there are a lot of detailed pics.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=375380
I knew this before I bought the crossmember, I bought it anyway because it came with all the laser cut pieces and materials I would need. All I had to do was cut and re-angle a few pieces to get it to work.
I carefully cut the welds out with my 4" thin metal cutting disk on my 4" grinder. I re-angled the lower pieces that have the crossmember flange and mocked them up in the truck to make sure they would clear the motor and oil pan. These are the pieces that bolt to the frame bracket and house the poly bushings.
Then I modified the pieces that were supposed to bolt to the old v8 block. This just made them clear the 4 bolts that the LS motor uses at the motor mount location.
I didn't take a pic of the plates I made to bolt to the ls block. I just took a rectangular piece of 1/4" steel plate and drilled the 4 holes so it could bolt to the ls motor. Also worth noting is that I had to make two 3/4" spacers between the old v8 pieces that I modified in the pics above, and the Ls 4 hole engine plates I made. For this I just cut two pieces of 3/4" plate to the size of the old v8 pieces in the above pics. This put the motor where it needed to be in the frame.
Next was the crossmember. Since I had re-angled the poly mount pieces, the angle on the crossmember plates would be off. So I cut a pie wedge out of them leaving a little bit of material so I could bend it over to the proper angle.
Heres a pic holding the wedge I cut out.
Then I cut the crossmember in half since the mounting plates were now further apart.
Then I bolted both sides in for mock up.
Here is the gap I needed to fill.
I used a scrap piece of schedule 40 pipe (I forget what the size was) to make the center piece.
Beveled ready for welding.
All welded up with an "F" for "front".
I also welded a "D" on all the driver side pieces, and a "P" for the passenger side pieces, to make re-assembly faster later if I ever have to take it apart again.