Technical Engine angles??

Hello all so for anyone who has seen my other posts I finally got the 350 in my car and the transmission hooked up at drive height but the engine seems to have too drastic of an angle toward the rear of the car...I used trans dapt a body conversion mounts and everything went smooth the driveshaft and crossmember are in the same position but the angle looks different on the intake I'm worried about my carb having unequal float levels...I'm going from a pontiac engine to small block chevy any help is appreciated thanks!

 

I'd be worried about the driveline angle, not so much about the float levels.

Looks like something is not in the right place. The carb flange should be parallel to the frame, as should the transmission pan.

 

Thanks for the reply the trans pan is pretty flush to ground just slightly angled rearward and as you can see from the pic my carb flange is a good bit from flush but my car is also now sitting slightly higher in front due to the lighter engine going in....is there any way to check these angles?

 

Level the car with jack stands /jack. Bottom of door or top of rocker should get you close.
Carb flange should be close to level at that point.
This being a bolt together swap into an existing V8 platform, you shouldn't be having any issues like this.
Need to make it right so it doesn't cause you all kinds of grief later.

 

Don't worry about the front springs until you get every bit of weight back onto the car.
Might end up going to 6 cylinder Tempest springs.


Oh, BTW. Put some tape over that carb flange.

 

jack up the rear of the car with some huge tires
make sure we can see the traction bars

 

What do you mean by bottom of door or top of rocker to get the carb flange level??any idea how this can be remedied I followed all precautions im not sure where the error could be same trans came out just new engine? Good call on the tape thanks for that and Anthony my tires can't get any bigger

 

He means to jack up the back of the car until the body/chassis is level, as determined by the rocker sills or door bottoms. Keep it in that position long enough to check the carb flange angle and see where it is at that point.

Ray

 

Looks like your motor mounts are a bit too tall. I try to get the carb pad close to level, with a slope down in back if necessary. Can you raise your trans mount a bit with a spacer, say 1/4" or 1/2"? Shouldn't take much to level it up.
Front of car will drop some as you add fluids, hood, etc, but still might not be enough.

 

I always set angles at ride height
angles dont matter in a hypothetical situation
in theory, the carb sits level with the engine having a 2 to 3 degree downward angle at the rear
when you alter the ride height the carb being level changes
if you have room to move up the trans, move it up? can the engine come down?
modifying "bolt on " parts is part of the fun
I will generally set up a trans with a spacer under the trans mount, this leaves me with adjustment room if angles need tweaked.
its the relationship with the drive line angles that really matter
floats are adjustable and carb mounts can be milled

 

Okay that makes sense ill be trying it in the morning thanks! And Bama yes I jacked the transmission up by the crossmember 3/4 inch and it made just a little from being level but it helped alot but seemed drastic to jack it that much... would shimming up the crossmember has any ill effects id sure hate to start over the install... Thanks guys

 

thats not drastic
I usually use a spacer under my trans mount when setting them up
gives you some wiggle room if you ever need it

 

Awesome that answers alot for me I'm going to start the trans off at a half inch spacer or rig up a new frame mount for the cross member. And by the looks of the mounts construction it wouldn't be able to give up much if any material. How can I check my driveline angle?

 

I use an angle finder
if the oil pan is parallel with the crank, I use this angle finder on the oil pan mounting
then I check the pinion
then measure the angle of the driveshaft
if your trans is 2 degrees down your pinion should match that upward
this is different for leafspring mounted rears
there are dozens of threads that cover this here better than me

 

Thanks man for the info and food for thought...ill do some research and check it out

 

in theory
a 2 degree up pinion, a 2 degree down trans/engine
lets assume the drive shaft is level
this give you a 2 degree joint angle, this is good
a .5 to 3 degree angle on your driveshaft yoke/joint is ideal
look up axle wrap/leafspring mounted angles and get even more confused

 

Haha no need for more confusion ill stick to what I've seen so far but would make a great read sometime its pretty interesting stuff I didn't know existed until now

 

the first time I did this I got a headache
once you crack the code, it will become second nature to set this up

 

there are some very detailed threads here on the Hamb
this sight has very good chassis professors
do a search on driveline angles
you will not be disappointed

 

I really appreciate all the help I was really sweating that angle haha

 

once you figure this out....look up how to set up 2 piece driveshafts just for fun

 

Okay will do thanks again

 

the reason I mentioned the carb flange, and the transmission oil pan being parallel to the frame, is that is how cars of this era are designed.

I'd be looking at the engine mounts to see if something about them is making them too tall, and at the transmission mount to see if something about it is making it too low.

You didn't post pictures of those areas, so we can't really help you figure out what might be the cause of the problem

 

Ill get some pictures on in the morning of the motor mounts and the crossmember area which was moved back a few inches during the transmission swap and good to know that about the factory set up on my car id like to achieve a factory "setting" for the mounts and angles

 

This is the mounts I used ill get some photos of the set up tomorrow

 

Looks like they will lay flat enough. I would think they'd need a third bolt hole somewhere.
Transmission mount must be low for some reason.
As Jim said, ..waiting on close up pics.

 

Carb flange should be near parallel to the horizontal, when the car is a ride height and position. The frame is not straight or level or flat on most cars.

 

Chevy engine in a pontiac needs the frame side of the engine mount to be lower. I'll don't get it, it shouldn't be, but Ive ran into the same issue at least a dozen times. The last was on a '70 FB.

Usually it appears here as a hood clearance problem. Then I need to fix that

 

I understand your point, but this is not a scratch built hot rod . It should be a factory type install, similar to a Chevelle.
Jim is indeed correct. Trans pan and carb flange should be on the same plane as the factory frame.
If the O/P wants to put big 'n' littles on it, rake it, big time, or jack it up with a straight axle, this is a completely different issue.
Remember too. This is supposed to be a daily driver.

 

▲THIS▲
For the time being, forget about the level of the ground, the spring/suspension height, the tire sizes and the rest of that stuff. To start, your focus is to set the U-joint angles at the trans and diff to match. The chassis can run uphill, downhill, it doesn't matter. Picture the mounts as a tripod. If one is low, the trans mount for example, if it was a milk stool, you would stick a matchbook under the low one to raise it level. You probably have to shim or space the trans mount if the drive shaft/U-joint angles are off. A side effect of raising or lowering the trans mount is tipping the engine. Hopefully tweaking the trans mount to adjust the front U-joint helps the engine level deal.