Quote:
Originally Posted by shrunken66stroker
Astronaut, the problems I see with lowering the engine might be prohibitive. Ultimately it's up to you but here goes. You'll have to custom fab the engine mounts and headers or cut the frame rail to squeeze headers in. You will have to get a shallower pan than the "muscle car swap" pan I have, which is about flush with the bottom of the crossmember. The f-body pan should work. I don't have the accessory drive yet, so that's a variable that I can't give you any insight on.
Notching the cross member won't be a problem, you just need to leave enough room to get to the nuts to tighten the rack mounting plate inside the crossmember. You might have to reroute the brake lines that run along the rear of the crossmember. Also, address the usuals stuff like drive shaft angle, length and shifter location. A couple inches probably won't affect flow between the block and radiator, right?
And after all of that, when you're done the engine compartment might look half empty. I don't know if it's worth the trouble, honestly. You're already taking a ton of weight off the front end with aluminum block, heads and no boat anchor steering box. Are you planning on racing autocross with it? If you are, go for it. If it's a street truck then I wouldn't bother with an inch or two either way. I hope this ramble helps. Good luck!
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Glad to see that all is well with you, and thanks for the detailed reply! It'll be a street truck that will occasionally see autocross action. Most of the things you listed will be things I'll be doing anyways (my own engine mounts and brake lines, move shifter forward, aftermarket baffled oil pan) so it may not be that much more work other than the headers and chopping the crossmember. I'd like to keep the stock low hump floor if possible so dropping the engine would help gain clearance for the T56. Rob at No Limit posted that guys do extra work to lower the engine even fractions of an inch when possible for track cars so 1-2 inches should be worth the extra work.
This is definitely one of my favorite build threads, can't wait to see what's next with it!