[barraza]

Positioning the engine
It sounded relatively easy to drop the engine in, and the first test fit looked great, but the devil is in the details. I wanted to keep the transfer case in the stock location, so the driveshafts could be reused, and the shifter would be easy to come through the floor in the stock location. Unfortunately, when i put the radiator support back on, the fans were too close to the front of the engine. I didn’t want to cut the firewall for clearance. The drivers side is much tighter than the passenger side. I decided to massage the firewall behind the drivers side head for a little extra room, it cant be seen so i guess i can live with it.
The first photo is oil pan clearance to the crossover steering drag link, the second picture is clearance between the firewall and drivers side cylinder head. Third photo is lifting the passenger side suspension with the hoist to check for oil pan clearance. Everything feeds into the engine placement. Put it to far forward and it would need a shallower oil pan, which is one of the $500 things that sneak up on you. My final position is hard to exactly say, as far rearward as possible. The 3 holes from the original mounts are almost centered in the 4 bolt pattern of the 6.2, but i redrilled the factory engine crossmember holes rearward on the frame 1.25 inches. The transmission crossmember moved rearward 1 7/8” . I made my own mounting plates for the engine out of 1/2” aluminum plate, and used the original engine crossmember with the center cut out and replaced with a 3/8” plate, bent to fit the oil pan as tight as possible.