I will be making some engine mounts for my 383, and 'copying' some made by a guy called Tinman, and I found an old thread on the HAMB about making engine mounts. I just need to find some DOM 1 3/4" pipe, and bushings. Question I have is I don't have a fan blade for the engine, so how far should I have the engine set back from the radiator?

Anyone? Someone here has got to have a 383. I don't have a fan, and I just need to know how far back the front of the water pump pulley needs to be from a radiator.

i'll have it for you by morning

ok 4 1/8" from front of pulley to rad. hope this helps

Thanks alot! at work now, will get to play on this some tommorrow.

I'd think about leaving room for a 14" electric unit. As long as you can get to the bellhousing bolts, set that sucker as far back as you certainly don't have to worry about the distributor!

yup, as far back as you can, because that's a lot of weight to have sitting over the front suspension, and certainly does not help handling.

Alright, got some plates in where the mounts will be, firewall is cut, so now I got all kinds of room. Question I got now is how high should I mount the engine, I don't have a bellhousing yet, so I can't quite figure out the drivetrain angles. Heres some pics, first is some mounts I made, 3/8" plate with DOM tubing and bushings, planning on mounting them to the flat plate I had to weld seen in the 2nd photo. Last one, if I can ppost them all, shows where I have it set, too low, the mounts would be higher than the stock ones I plan to connect to. Hope you can understand my plan.

2nd photo

last

Some guys are true geniuses. They can visualize every little thing and plan six steps ahead.
Me, I'd have to have a fully dressed motor/trans to mock up. I'd have to stare at each part that unbolts, to make sure the bolts can be reached and the part can be removed. I'd also have to study the angles, exhaust clearance, where the fluids drain, etc. Guess I'm slow...
You can go with a big pipe that will fit into the bearing saddles to get an idea of the driveline angles. The old FED builders did this to align the drivelines. http://www.condercustom.com/ATF/purgatory/chassisbook.html

when i started on my humpback biuld, i wanted the engine high enough for ground clearance, but lo enough to fit in with what i had in mind for the project. i started out by locating the engine side-to-side, then offsetting it to the passenger side 1/4". this was done using the headders i was planning to use, so space was at a premium. i then leveled it side to side. then , leveled the intake flange at the percieved/expected ride height. then, just for fun, tried different intakes to check carb levels front to back. i discovered there were some differences, so i compromised at a 2* downward slope. this was so when at the track, the carb base would be level on acceleration. then i just made cardboard patterns to locate everything making enough clearance as needed for the steering shaft ,starter, etc.
at the same time, i used a gutted trans case to fab the trans mount at the same time. oh, by the way, i'm still not on the road yet......

Rod, thats a great link, and I should be able to use PVC pipe. Moparx, I see your mounts, I could make some like that and use the DOM ones I started with at the engine height I'm guessing at so far. If you can see in the photo, I was going to use the stock ones, with the rubber block, and weld two brackets to it. I'm at work now, will have to check it out tommorow.

Modifing a set of truck engine brackets (even small block mounts if you can't find big block ones) would get you pretty close to where you need to be. Then you can still use the rubber sandwich bisquets if you wish. Gene

49Wayfarer, that's for a solid mount drivetrain, axle included, but it is a neat way to align stuff.
The whole site is pretty cool. Too bad Tom had to sell stuff.

Have you looked into using The truck mounts from the 70-80s trucks?

I wonder what happened to page 359 of that book? The link skips from 358 to 360. Still pretty interesting though,
Bryce