Horsepower addiction

[Van B]

My dad spent a week this summer driving my 67 with it's newly installed Wegner L92. This prompted him to search for his next project. Being an old drag racer, he never got over the feel of horsepower.

He found this 68 on ebay and today we thought we were set to complete the heart transplant. What better way to spend Thanksgiving than wrenching with your pop?

We got the old 327 out in short order left the transmission connected to the crossmember with a jack under it and started prepping the L92 for its new home. Some of you may recall, he wanted to keep the 4 speed and it's mechanical linkage. We found a nice bracket with the mounting ball from Scoggin Dickey and bought a package from Jegs with Hooker long tubes, motor mount plates, and aluminum radiator. While mocking up the header with the engine out of the car, we found that the rear primary on the driver's side will need to be moved so it will not interfere with the z bar. Not the end of the world, but a problem we did not anticipate.

The bigger problem came when we went to drop the engine in. When we got it dropped on top of the motor mounts we found that the transmission was about an inch from where it needed to be to bolt it to the bellhousing. It seems that the engine mount plates (Trans Dapt brand) that came in the package with the headers put the engine too far forward. I have ATS plates on my 67 and the back of the engine is pretty tight to the firewall.

Any suggestions on another set of mounts to try?

[camcojb]

Jeff, even my ATS plates had the engine 1 to 1.25" further forward than the older small block mounts that were in my Chevelle before the swap to the LS2. Using the exact same frame pads and frame pad location, I had to build a new driveshaft since it was now too short. I haven't seen any further back than what I have, so you may have to do something custom if you don't want to move the trans forward.

Jody

[nvr2fst]

Jeff If you don't go carbon fiber your cheapest bet would be to redo the drive shaft. There's a company in Butler that does shafts I will try to recall there name.

[jeff s]

I found all available LS to SBC adaptor plates to be too far forward.
So we have out own that positions the bellhousing surface equal to the old sbc location. I have them in stock.
Thanks

[Van B]

The mounts from Jeff look like they are going to do the trick. The next hurdle is the clutch fork and throwout bearing geometry. We ended up using a Lakewood scattershield and we had ordered a new fork from Jegs along with the short style throwout bearing. When the trans was bolted up the end of the fork was already hitting the firewall.

Now we are exploring an adjustable clutch fork ball to move the pivot point toward the pressure plate, or a longer throwout bearing. We did run out to the parts store and were able to find the long style throwout bearing, but it was too long and ate up all available freeplay. It was compressing the pressure plate diaphragm by the time the trans was tightened.

Anything we could be missing?

[Reckley]

I have a set of Kooks plates that mount an LS engine so the rear of the right side cylinder head is 1/4 inch from the fire wall using a stock subframe.

Mike

[tones2SS]

Nice project. Good way to spend Thanksgiving, in my book!!
Nice choice on motors as well. Wegner does great work. Good luck with the install.

[DB Z28]

Should be nice , nice motor

[youthpastor]

SWEET PROJECT..mor install photos please