new engine questions

[McGillicutty]

I just put in a 350 to replace my tired old 307 engine. Have a couple of questions for you guys. I put in new motor mounts. The old motor had the cable hold down kit on it. I put on headers and was wondering if I need to reinstall the hold downs. I have heard that these motor mounts are not very good. second question I had was what is a good cheap exhaust that I could put on. I was looking at just bolting mufflers right onto the headers and maybe running tailpipes out before the rear tires. Has any one done this and where did you get mufflers. Nothing too loud.

thanks.

[Low69CST]

I would say the cable hold down was because an engine mount was broke and thats a quick fix. There are several people here with 400+ hp motors and I haven't heard of any problems. Any exhaust shop should hook you up. Or you could get some pipe from a local parts store with reducers. I put flowmasters on mine. Mine are 40 series, but you'd probabliy go for the 50 or 60 series for quietness.

[1972C10]

Some of these trucks had that bracket with the cable factory i took a many of them off. they were braded on so i know it was factory.


I run the stock style motor mounts in my 72 hot rod with the exception that they are solid. If the rubber ever broke it would eventually get loose and move as far as torque allowed.

Might not be a bad idea to put it on but its kinda rare to plum break one of the mounts you would notice it before it went .

[Longhorn Man]

In 72, there was a recall on all V-8 trucks up to and including 1970. There were enough motor mounts breaking that the national highway safety adminastration (or something like that) made GM do a recall. GM's solution was a cable engine restraint on the drivers side. When the motor mount would break, the engine's RPM's would increase becouse of the solid throttle rod. That is why they went to a cable set up in 71, and new motor mounts on the 72 big block, and then on small blocks in 73. The restraint cable was installed a few ways, some dealers simply looped the cable through a manifold and over the frame, some went to the A-arm, others had brackets bolted to the frame, all depnded on who was doing it, and what parts were in stock at the dealer.
I found this in the glove box of my first Longhorn.

[Longhorn Man]

And this is the other side.

[Longhorn Man]

As for your second question, if you have a coil rear suspention, then trying to fab up your own exhaust is almost pointless. I've tried it a few times, and I wish i would have had a set of pipes bent up for me when I had the money.
LMC has a set that is pretty inexpensive and from the responce of the members here who have purchased it, it is of good to great quality.
You could bolt up some 36 inch long glass packs to the headers, and maybe about 6 inches after that, but you probably won't get much more without some special tools or having it so low that it hits speed bumps.

[pritch]

Wish I knew about the cable thing when I was in high school. I had a '68 nova (4door, army green, 3 speed, butt ugly-BUT-the best 327 I've ever been around) Every third time or so I'd dump the clutch I'd be buying a new motor mount

That recall notice is wild. An Actual explaination of what and why and how. Good luck getting something like that past the lawyers these days (I have a lot of expieriance with recall notices-my wife's car and my company truck are both f*rds)