Bowtie Overdrive 700r4 Cossmember Question

[C10forDad]

After searching the interwebs for way too long, I am beginning to feel like the only person that ever purchased a 700r4 crossmember from Bowtie Overdrives.

History:

I am doing memorial build for my dad. I hit a snag when trying to mock up the transmission crossmember. The previous owner swapped the the straight six with a 350 and decided to remove the original transmission crossmember.

So, I have front and rear engine mounts and no idea which holes are the original bolt holes for the transmission crossmember.

Pictures would help a lot.

Thanks

[cableguy0]

To use the 700r4 you can use a regular factory th350 crossmember. You just have to slide it back and drill new holes in the frame. Sit the engine and transmission in the truck. Bolt down the engine mounts. Sit the transmission crossmember in place and bolt the transmission mount to the crossmember. At that point make sure the crossmember is straight and then drill the holes in the frame to mount it.

[C10forDad]

That was the one thing that I wanted to avoid since the Bowtie Overdrives' description says it was designed to bolt to the original bolt holes. There are two pairs of holes that match up to the crossmember holes.

[GASoline71]

Just drill new holes. EZPZ.

Gary

[DMT]

Originally Posted by C10forDad

That was the one thing that I wanted to avoid since the Bowtie Overdrives' description says it was designed to bolt to the original bolt holes. There are two pairs of holes that match up to the crossmember holes.

There should only be one set of holes that line up to the cross member holes with it bolted to the trans with a trans mount in between.

Install the trans first, that will tell you what you want to know. GL

[clinebarger]

IIRC, The I6 mounts (Frame stands?) sit further back than factory V8 mounts.
If I am correct.....The engine is sitting too far back.

[C10forDad]

This is the only photo I have of the engine placement prior to tearing everything down. The was a fair amount of clearance between the engine and the firewall.


That is unless, you mean that once I put the engine and trans back in, then none of the holes will align. Is that what you were thinking?

[Captainfab]

It looks to me like your engine is in the correct forward location for a small block in a '67-'72 truck. Have you removed the bellhousing crossmember? If not that will need to be removed to install an auto trans. Sorry I can't help on the BTO crossmember. I have always just used a factory crossmember and drilled the necessary holes. If that crossmember is truly a direct bolt in, it should be fairly easy to find the correct holes once the trans is bolted to the engine.

[C10forDad]

Originally Posted by Captainfab

It looks to me like your engine is in the correct forward location for a small block in a '67-'72 truck. Have you removed the bellhousing crossmember? If not that will need to be removed to install an auto trans. Sorry I can't help on the BTO crossmember. I have always just used a factory crossmember and drilled the necessary holes. If that crossmember is truly a direct bolt in, it should be fairly easy to find the correct holes once the trans is bolted to the engine.

The truck is completely disassembled right now and the k-frame is removed. I should be able to get back into the garage next weekend and re-install the k-frame. After that I can mock up the engine and transmission and let you know how it all went.

[C10forDad]

Looking back, one of the things that was screwing things up was that the previous owner mounted the 350 on the original I6 mounts. This is the main reason why the "bolt on" crossmember from Bowtie Overdrives was not bolting directly onto the original bolt holes.