Moving engine slightly rightward?

[69427]

While looking at "other" things under the hood, it struck me that it might be possible fit-wise to move the engine/trans another half inch towards the right. This would obviously require some tweaks to the exhaust routing, and a couple of frame clearance cuts for the right side headers and fuel pump removal clearance (along with modifying the motor mount horns), but that's not that tough of a job. My main question, until I crawl under the car and stare at the driveshaft, is if there's any obvious driveshaft angle issues that I'm not considering.

Thanks for any input.

[BBShark]

Don't think there would be any driveline angle problems. Maybe some clearance issues with the transmission tunnel?

When you do crawl under there, can you do me a favor? I would like to know the driveshaft (horizontal) angle compared to the side rails of the chassis.

[mrvette]

Long as yawl under there, I would like to know the height from drive yoke output sleeve at bottom, to bottom of the cross support...

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the in between distance on mine is 5"
to this _

at 80 mph at ~2400 rpm with 336 rear and .70 overdrive 200 r4 auto the shifter is mounted to the cross support....I feel a LOT of vibration in the handle....not a GROSS amount, but alot more than I would imagine....so I thinking of driveshaft angles on the vertical plane.....

ALSO, on that cross support, is the center section where the trans sets a different height than the two section outside of the exhaust loops?? reason is that I modified hell outta my cross support and I wonder if I screwed it up.....

[69427]

Originally Posted by BBShark

Don't think there would be any driveline angle problems. Maybe some clearance issues with the transmission tunnel?

When you do crawl under there, can you do me a favor? I would like to know the driveshaft (horizontal) angle compared to the side rails of the chassis.

I can probably do that, if I understand you correctly. Are you basically just interested in seeing if the driveshaft is not parallel to the frame rails?

[69427]

Originally Posted by mrvette

Long as yawl under there, I would like to know the height from drive yoke output sleeve at bottom, to bottom of the cross support...

like this 0

the in between distance on mine is 5"
to this _

at 80 mph at ~2400 rpm with 336 rear and .70 overdrive 200 r4 auto the shifter is mounted to the cross support....I feel a LOT of vibration in the handle....not a GROSS amount, but alot more than I would imagine....so I thinking of driveshaft angles on the vertical plane.....

ALSO, on that cross support, is the center section where the trans sets a different height than the two section outside of the exhaust loops?? reason is that I modified hell outta my cross support and I wonder if I screwed it up.....

I've got a home made aluminum crossmember for the transmission on the car, so I can't give you any useful height information there, Gene. Sorry.

Regarding the trans support center section, I looked at the old original support and it looks to be 1.5-2 inches lower than the top surfaces of the outside sections.

[BBShark]

Originally Posted by 69427

I can probably do that, if I understand you correctly. Are you basically just interested in seeing if the driveshaft is not parallel to the frame rails?

My guess is that factory cars have the driveshaft level to the outside frame rails. I put a level on a friends cars that is all original and that's what I found. I also saw a restored rolling chassis over the weekend and an eyeball measurement looks like the driveshaft was in the same plane as the frame rail.

When I was measuring mine, I found that the differential is horizontal and the engine is down 3.5 degrees at the transmission. If I were to assemble as is, the angle between the driveshaft and the differential would basically be 0 degrees.

What I did was move the nose of the differential down to it's limit (about 1 degree). So that means moving the transmission output up until I get eqal angles. That means raising the transmission drastically and at this point I think I'm going to be cutting the tunnel out and moving it up.

I really want to avoid that and am puzzled that factory cars have no angle at the differential. I also have a Tremec transmission which makes things more difficult (because of its size).

[rtj]

Originally Posted by BBShark

I really want to avoid that and am puzzled that factory cars have no angle at the differential. I also have a Tremec transmission which makes things more difficult (because of its size).

I’m going from memory, undergraduate was a long time ago, but....

For u joints the same plane horz and vert would be optimum, no torque variations. To keep torque variations low, the axis of rotation should be parallel.

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This guy says direct in line is bad, but he wants some joint rotation. I assume for needle bearings. Otherwise I agree with his drawing.

[phantomjock]

So, I'm only 5-6 months late in a reply, but I kinda wish I did move mine to the right. Still can, but would have to cut some metal - (whoopee). There is an obvious advantage too weight distribution, and you could move the rear diff to the right and "adjust" the suspension too if needed. Apparently it is something that happens in some other racing circles (think left hand turns only). The fellow that built my cage asked and I wasn't thinking that far ahead. Certainly make for more foot room as we moved the engine aft!

Cheers - Jim