Date: 11-20-22
Today was a big day. I went over to Vic's house with the goal of mocking up the engine in the engine bay. I had confidence that the Holley swap components would not be an issues, but the big area of concern was the oil drain back fitting for the turbo on the side of the Holley 302-3 pan. Holley designed those drain backs in a Fox body Mustang, and when used with a GM A-body there was some concern that the fitting would hit the front crossmember.
These are the Holley clamshells with the poly inserts. They are dimensionally identical to 4th gen Camaro engine mounts, except with a bolt together design and poly inserts.
I am not sure why Holley includes such long bolts, but I decided to keep them and the included lock nuts. They will not be visible at all once everything is bolted to the engine.
After mocking up the engine the first time, it was clear that the oil drain fitting that I got was not going to work. At least not without some modifications.
I can't believe I have gone this long without having a lathe and a mill. Both were used to modify the Earl's fitting in order to make it fit.
The lathe was used to back-cut the area between the end of the threads and the hex area. This was done so that the fitting can be installed deeper into the boss on the side of the pan. The mill was used to trim the end of the threads, because with the fitting screwed in deeper, it would hit the oil pick-up tube.
The outside of the fitting was also smoothed and contoured on the belt sander. It is a rather bulky fitting and there was plenty of material to remove in order for the fitting to match the contour of the front cross member. The pan was also removed in order to tap the 1/2" NPT threads a little deeper.
It took a total of six rounds to get it to the point where the engine mounts dropped into the frame stands and the mounting bolts to slide in.
The fitting has about 1/8" clearance against the crossmember, and it is able to pivot freely.
With some luck, the transmission and the converter will go in on Wednesday and then Vic can start the fabrication for the turbo hotside.
Andrew