Kenny's 1990 740 GLE, goin' for 9's

ugh. exceedingly long day. engine & trans are hanging out in the car. another long day tomorrow.

updated first post. one pic, and it's ****ty to boot. oh well. tomorrow...errr... later today I get to try my hand at building motor mount brackets. I can't wait. gotta make sure things are centered up where they're supposed to be first, but eh.

long long day. numerous small things rose up and added hours and hours to what should have been a simple task- time the engine up, roll it out in the driveway, and bolt up the transmission. but no. some <insert derogatory term> mis-labeled the bolt size holes at autozone, so when I was out getting bolts for the new bellhousing, I sized it up wrong. They didn't have them, so I went by lowes today... and already 'knowing' what I needed to know, promptly bought the wrong ****. that was a cool hour-hour and a half that I didn't really want to burn.

spent some time making the plate for the driver's side mount (block plate) since I didn't/couldn't find the old broken bracket to use as a template.. that took a bit longer than anticipated. as did making the VR sensor bracket (which I think turned out pretty slick regardless.. it's almost finished, I'll take a pick later. used parts off the b234). once everything was finally out in the driveway (starting to get late, reduction in power toolage to maintain a semblance of non-aggression with the neighbors) the wheels came off. almost litteraly. got the engine off the stand and swingin', no problem, got the converter stuffed in the trans, again, no problem, attempted to bolt everything up... problem.
****in' trans won't sit flush. I'd noticed a few 'irregularities' with the J&W, but I suppose in the heat of combat, forgot to see if the goddamn thing would clear the starter. It wouldn't. Out came the heavy artillery in the form of my big die grinder and a half inch bit that would really massacre aluminum if it would stop clogging the flutes. short work of that part of the bellhousing later, and things go together like butter. I'll not mention the self- ownage that results when you mis-place parts of the hardware required to bolt things together, suffice to say that also added probably an hour to my time line. At this point, it was nothing more than dropping it all in the car, putting a piece of 2x4 under the pan between it and the cross member, and bolting up the transmission cross member. I will address other feelings of inadequacies tomorrow. might even toss a few manifolds on it for an impromptu photo shoot. probably not til I start on the brackets though.

Something I find helpful when making brackets and mounts is to use cardboard for a pattern. It is easier to mock up with it than cutting up metal.

gsellstr said:

I've had the pleasure of using one of those once as well. Compared to even a quality pressure washer, the difference is awesome! We had one at the dealership I worked at years ago. Something like 3500psi, 150*, it'd take off just about anything you put it to...including skin.

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I use them all the time at work, made by karcher, great pressure washers, and you can add a strong degreaser/detergant and it will move ANYTHING.

today was largely a wash, exhausted myself yesterday, so there was bound to be a lapse anyway. made an adapter for the 16v driver's side motor mount bracket. tomorrow hopefully I can bash out the passenger side bracket.

WOW, you have adult ADD like I do! Nice to see your build coming together

more of a rebuild, but I was relieved to get the engine and transmission back where they belong. Yeah, I've embraced ADD most of my life hahaha.

my ****ty welding:


took a couple pics whilst working on the passenger side bracket.

an overall pic:


and from another angle:


the blue isn't paint. anyway, the bracket is now complete (no pics), and drying along with the adapter bracket for the driver's side. I didn't take pics of the welds I threw on the frame rail real fast while I was out there, I might do that tomorrow. or I might just bed liner over the cuts and welds and call it a day.

oh yeah, my left thumb is on double-injury reserve after getting sucked into the bench grinder (heeeyyyy) and shaving/burning off about 12 layers of skin right on the damn tip (not wide enough to say it got circumcised though), I double bandaided and then wrapped it up to keep it out of harms way only to have another piece of steel get grabbed by the drill press and shave some skin (and part of the bandage) off the side. :sigh:

oh well, at least my passenger side bracket is pretty bad ass.. and if you don't like it.. **** you.

awful welds

booger machine?

what's the bracket for? tilting the motor a bit or something?

olov said:

what's the bracket for? tilting the motor a bit or something?

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no it's to use a b230 block on a b234 cross member. I didn't feel like digging a bunch of **** out of the junkyard,

cool, good to know(had no idea they were different)

they are, and I wanted something that would work with the cheap ass generic rubber 740 mounts, the 16v mounts are ever so slightly different (And without a good reason, I might add), the brackets are completely different. I futzed around and made the driver's side bracket work (basically a solid plate with mount holes for the b230 block, and then holes for the 234 bracket, drilled out, with nuts welded on the other end). there was no adapting anything to get the passenger side to work, so I just rolled it on my own.

I have heard tell on savar, that once one gets past a certain power threshhold, the oem aluminum brackets are a threat to break as well, so who knows, maybe I'm averting future disaster.

You don't want to spin the block like I've heard can happen to a big block?

When in doubt, add more chains.

might make a brace at some point. As asher carefully pointed out on facebook.. Yes, I could have cut the bracket off the driver's side of the cross member and just used standard 8v mounts... but.. my set (and the only one's i've personally seen) for solid rubber mounts got a little... adjusted. I haven't seen any in recent years in the local junkyards, and I didn't really feel like messing with things that much. So I rolled my own.

As long as they will tear away incase of an accident, no problems eh?

And I really feel your pain on the skin loss. That would hurt SO much.. Just thinking about it is getting to me.

double post

VQ said:

As long as they will tear away incase of an accident, no problems eh?

And I really feel your pain on the skin loss. That would hurt SO much.. Just thinking about it is getting to me.

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Yeah, I haven't altered the design of the mounts in such a way as to prevent the rubber mounts from coming loose, so all of that should still function as intended.

new lower mount installed:


the angle of the dangle (so to speak)


and of course the image everyone wants to see: