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4.6 32V 240 Wagon

General rule of thumb - 3/8?

I should have researched this a little more before "declaring victory." I think I'm going to fix that before taking it to the welder. What better time to do this than when I have the convenience of looking through my oil pan?? Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
 
Yeah...damn overhead cams. I envy you LSx folk and your overhead valves that don't take up a lot of space. I saw your vacuum booster still in place and cried a little inside. Lol.

Like Chris, I too am having interference at the u joint at the firewall, except mine is with the cylinder head. The second picture in post 31 shows this. There's this seemingly random chunk of block with an allen plug going through it and it wants to sit right on top of the u joint. I want to chop it off but I need to learn why it's there first. As far as I know, my exhaust manifolds and studs don't interfere but I'll double check.

That chunk of material with the plug on your head could be an oil gallery drill location. Or maybe a coolant plug for a cast-in water core. Definitely best to check into it before cutting.

I think the main reason the pushrod small blocks including LS fit so well is that the exhaust side of the head isn't flush with the side of the block. On the Ford Modular engines both of those surfaces are co-planar and at 90 deg. to each other across the engine, and 45 deg. to vertical. On a typical pushrod V8 the exhaust flange surface is much more vertical and angled inward from the side of the block.
 
I think the main reason the pushrod small blocks including LS fit so well is that the exhaust side of the head isn't flush with the side of the block. On the Ford Modular engines both of those surfaces are co-planar and at 90 deg. to each other across the engine, and 45 deg. to vertical. On a typical pushrod V8 the exhaust flange surface is much more vertical and angled inward from the side of the block.

Actually, the main reason that OHV V8's fit so well is that the heads are just much, much smaller than the OHC variants. But I know you know that.

OP - yes, now is the time to fix your pickup-to-bottom-of-pan gap. ESPECIALLY since it appears that there is absolutely no baffling at all to help keep oil from moving around in response to g-loading.
 
This should do the trick...

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The chunk with the threaded thru-hole looks OK to remove - I'm guessing that back face was used for machining setup of the head at the factory. Unless of course there is some bracket or dongus that you don't have that attaches there.

The lower boss with the threaded plug installed looks like a drilled oil gallery; I would proceed with caution on that one.
 
keep us posted with the motor mounts you use. I am working on the same swap but with a manual trans.

Awesome! Start a thread! I'd love to see your progress and I'm sure I'm not the only one. What car is your engine out of?

Motor mounts, I think I'm just wing it and gonna go custom working with what the Mark VIII came with for mounts. This is a budget build, after all. I bought steel the other day and plan on coming up with some preliminary designs as I figure out the steering shaft interference issues.


In other news, parts came back from TIG welding today. They look good and have been leak tested. I'll paint the pan when I'm done test fitting because I know I'm going to scratch it during that process.
 
Did some more test fitting tonight. I've more or less narrowed the engine fitment down to three issues. Steering shaft, passenger exhaust manifold, and sway bar.

Sway bar is easy. Just add spacers and longer bolts. The new sump fits well. Almost a little too well. Maybe I could have spared some metal but I didn't want it to not fit. However, I have the engine sitting pretty far back to the firewall. It might need to come forward a little to fit heater core hoses.

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The passenger exhaust manifold seems to want to dump right into the body of the car. I can modify this with either the cutting wheel and some fresh metal, or bash it in with a hammer. Thoughts?

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I loosened the steering column which allowed it to move around in the firewall hole a little more. This time around I was surprised at how much more room I had. I think that chopping the block in the previously mentioned area will help me quite a bit there and potentially solve the issue. However, I still don't have the transmission attached. That will probably change things.

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I took some pics regarding the mounts, too. Right now I have the Mark VIII mounts attached with their U brackets that attach to the Mark VIII K-member. Here's some pics of how they align with the 240 crossmember:

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It's almost as if I could cut four tabs, drill a hole at the top of each one, weld all four to the crossmember, and stick the long bolts off of the Mark VIII through and call it good. The only other thing I want to explore is the Crown Vic mounts as discussed earlier. I think I'm going to buy some at the auto parts store and see how they fit. I can just return them if they're not worth pursuing. I'll post an update on that soon. I know Chris really wants to know about these!
 
Nice progress. Your Mark VIII mounts seem to align well!

I'd try hard not to modify or bash the "frame rails" for exhaust clearance. You may lose some stiffness if you start pre-buckling those structural members. For an NA engine it may be interesting to start with a set of cheap ebay shorty headers, then cut and re-weld as necessary to relocate the flange to a nice spot.

Note to self: I should swap in the same style PS rack that you have. Mine in the '84 is the type with external hard lines and they will foul on the front of the oil pan, even after notching the rear for clearance. Good to see you have no issues with that rack.
 
I'd try hard not to modify or bash the "frame rails" for exhaust clearance. You may lose some stiffness if you start pre-buckling those structural members.

Note to self: I should swap in the same style PS rack that you have. Mine in the '84 is the type with external hard lines and they will foul on the front of the oil pan, even after notching the rear for clearance. Good to see you have no issues with that rack.

Couldn't agree more on the front frame rail clearance -- IF it's necessary after experimenting with other manifolds/shorties - then cut/weld; even cutting/welding is going to alter the way that rail is designed to crumple. I wouldn't hammer there. Sheet metal in/around the tunnel -- not so critical.

FWIW - I worked hard to mount my V8 as low as possible. Lowered the rack a bit and the external hyd lines were still the high point. I found that with some patience, a little block of wood and a hammer I was able to massage the lines into a position where the crossmember was the high point...so no more line interference. A before and after below....



 
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Awesome! Start a thread! I'd love to see your progress and I'm sure I'm not the only one. What car is your engine out of?

Motor mounts, I think I'm just wing it and gonna go custom working with what the Mark VIII came with for mounts. This is a budget build, after all. I bought steel the other day and plan on coming up with some preliminary designs as I figure out the steering shaft interference issues.


In other news, parts came back from TIG welding today. They look good and have been leak tested. I'll paint the pan when I'm done test fitting because I know I'm going to scratch it during that process.

I was able to score a totalled 1997 mustang cobra with a manual transmission. I've been having trouble situating the engine in the engine compartment. As the fellow did in the last post, I have notched the crossmember and notched the oil pan to gain clearance.

I have just completed a garage project of mine and will be tidying up some loose ends with sheet rock and heat so that it's more conducive to work in during the winter months. Perhaps i'll start a thread then.
 
I was able to score a totalled 1997 mustang cobra with a manual transmission. I've been having trouble situating the engine in the engine compartment. As the fellow did in the last post, I have notched the crossmember and notched the oil pan to gain clearance.

I have just completed a garage project of mine and will be tidying up some loose ends with sheet rock and heat so that it's more conducive to work in during the winter months. Perhaps i'll start a thread then.

Nice - great Mustang. Sounds like we are going to have very similar issues with fitment. You will probably be happy you notched both the crossmember and oil pan because I confirmed today that I must drop my crossmember if I want to get both the engine and transmission in together. Not a huge deal, but still annoying. Also, I am jealous of your garage...

Did some more fitment stuff today. Cut my driver side head in the previously mentioned area. It definitely helped with steering shaft interference. Then I put the engine in with the transmission attached for the 2nd time. It was much less oily this time. Pro tip: Don't replace the dipstick tube o-ring on a 4R70W unless you've drained the fluid from the pan. Same goes for tilting it with the back end pointing down. Otherwise you're gonna have a bad time.

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Transmission tunnel interference became more apparent this time around. Tomorrow I'm going to spend some time making some "modifications" to the tunnel.

More thoughts/thinking out loud on engine mounts: Mark VIII mounts are looking better and better the more I look at them. U bracket or not, they stick down pretty close to the crossmember. I looked into purchasing crown vic mounts, but at auto parts stores, they run about $80 each and none of the stores in my area that I looked at stock them. So I think I'm going to pass on that idea and make do with what I've got. I looked again at TestPoint's mount design and I will reconsider that as an option that uses the Mark VIII mounts without the U brackets. I like how that design uses the existing holes on the car and no welding.
 
It looks like with the transmission attached, the valve cover is not going to clear the steering shaft without it being relocated or modified. I'd like to find a way of doing this that doesn't involve widening the hole in the firewall, which would result in misaligned interior trim pieces and brake pedal interference. I got to wondering if I could shorten the steering column and add a solid coupler inside the firewall to allow a short shaft to stick out through the firewall and attach a U joint closer to the strut tower, sort of like what M.H. Yount did, but the coupler would be inside the firewall instead of outside.

Anyways, I started trying to remove the column and found these. Can anyone tell me how to remove these? Also, am I insane for thinking I can shorten the column?

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heater core piping

hey nice job, just an idea, I had a similar problem with my heater core piping so I cut them in an angle and had them tig into a 90 degree close to the fire wall. It worked perfect fpr me because I have the egr valve right in front of it with about 2.5 inches to spare after the pipes were done . Always looking froward to your build !!
Dz:rofl:
 
There's nothing magical about where the heater hoses penetrate the firewall -- if they're in the way, move them. Easy to block off the existing holes. I did this with the swap in mine -- all 4 hoses (htr/A-C) pass through on the passenger side now.
 
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