could I get a little assistance on a engine alignment issue please. im just working on a old 60 chassis and I have the bar in and just stuck motor in and have ran into some issue. everything is preexisting from the past rear end 9 inch is mounted from the past .so I put the motor in place and right off the bat it looks to me the motor is to wide or the rear end is way to low.engine mount ears rest right on top of chassis the alignment bar touches rear main and not at all in front . looks to me the rear mounting plate is 32 1/2 inches from the center of 9 inch to back of motor. im new at this and cant get enough so im having a blast.
c/h It would appear that your alignment issue comes from a chassis that was not designed for the engine you are trying to put in it. In the 60's many dragster chassis were designed to fit only the engine they were built for, I know we built ours very tight to the engine and most of the time very little else would have fit correctly if at all. Bill
thank you that's my thoughts also. had the set up so id thought id give it a shot. trust me ive tried to track down whos chassis but no luck
no not enough room that's to bad looking forward to the build looks like it will be up for sale shorty
There's a bazillion hemi blocks that have the ears knocked off from fitting them into dragsters. See if you can find one of those. And there's a bunch of junk blocks that if you did knock the ears off for mock up while you look for one as above.
You need to raise the rear axle location. The mounts in that chassis are cut up and need to be redone anyhow. When you picked up the car I suggested taking out the existing upright and moving the rear ahead a couple of inches to give more seating room, drivers nuts are tight to the housing the way it is set up now, that means the motor plate might have to move forward too???? Plus, it sits high in the rear with the 33" tall tires. I think the bottom frame rails are like 6 or 7" off the ground at the rear with those tires. Here is what I would do. Unbolt the rear housing and put jack stands to support it at about 161/2" high from floor to the c/l of the axle (1/2 of the 33" tire height). Block up the chassis so you are about 4 to 5" off the floor at the rear end C/L. Put a floor jack on the front of the line up bar so you can adjust the height of the front of the block. The rear end height off the floor is set by your tire diameter. The frame can come down from the current mounts at the rear, it sits high now. I think if you raise the front of the engine, drop the chassis at the rear end mounts, the hemi will work. Yes you may have to trim the mounting ears, but from when we played around with it I think the mounts can bolt right to a tab on the to frame rail if you get the rear raised a little. Once everything fits and lines up, build new mounts for the rear axle. The chassis is narrow at 171/2" between rails, it will be tight. All the early cars were. If you look at the fuller magic cars, the Hemi's were almost sitting in the air above the top rails. I wish I was closer to help you move things around. You have me curious now. When we just set the 331 in the frame rails here, it looked like it could work. Or take the easy way out and throw a small block Chevy in it and make a Jr. Fueler!!!
If this is going to be self starting you may want to put your starter into the mockup as well. How long is your trans?
dang, big x2 on that! Mine BARELY fit after I trimmed the mounting block big time. We didn't use a starter in mock up and a dia. tube was extremely close (~.090)
A lot of what is creating the issue is the low pinion on the 9 inch. I would do as already said, raise the rear. I think I would also change to a 8 3/4 chrysler with a higher pinion. Another way is buy the Chevy 12 bolt to 9 inch dropout $$
kinda running out of room not liking the feel of it will look into it .still a very nice chassis. plus my build isn't helping any
well did some trimming on the block did a little realignment on rear end and I think were a lot better than before wanted some more degree tilt in the motor but that's all she had in her.
First, unless MW changed their line up bar dia, you have to make shim rings to get that line up bar on crank centerline. Did you leave enough room for your oil filter adpt on the right hand side of the block? Engine "dump" is the relationship of the centerlines of the pinion shaft and the crank, how far out the motor is from the axle centerline and the hight of the oil pan/diaper to the track surface--it has no bearing on car reaction requiring XXdeg to make the car work. I might suggest getting the oil pan first to set possistion before going further. Upon inspection of you pictures you will need another crossbar infront of the steering box to tie both framrails together unless you dont plan on racing it, then you are fine. you may have to run an auxilery starter either on the front of the crank or off the blower.
The Jalopy Journal
