65Custom Build Thread

[65Custom]

A few update pics

[Grounded63]

Is the engine staying in the stock location. And, only the crossmember/suspension is moving forward ?

Because, if the engine/trans drags forward with the cross member. And the rear moves further away. It will actually be worse.

[65Custom]

Originally Posted by Grounded63

Is the engine staying in the stock location. And, only the crossmember/suspension is moving forward ?

Because, if the engine/trans drags forward with the cross member. And the rear moves further away. It will actually be worse.

The plan is for it to stay in the stock location or as close as possible, moving it forward with the crossmember would cause too many other issues with clearance for accessories & fan & radiator etc. Keeping it in the stock location should also help with the weight bias keeping the engine weight as close to the center of the truck as possible.

[65Custom]

Front suspension is installed still have to install the front & rear sway bars. the rear sway bar needs custom mount brackets due to the heavy duty axle housing, The housing extends out further, it has shorter axle tubes than the std housing and the sway bar mounts sit right where the tubes are welded and so a stepped mounting bracket is needed, so another custom piece needed to make it all work together

[65Custom]

rear sway bar mount bracket

[65Custom]

We set in an engine to test fit everything and it looks like we will have to push it back, as it is right not it is about a 1/2 in front of the stock location. The front cross member is 1 inch forward but when installing the engine mounts first install as the instructions pushed the engine even more forward so we were able to flip sides and bring it back a 1/2 inch.

It really looks strange with all that space between the firewall and the back of the engine.

Probably will have to run a low profile valve covers (hope I can do that as I want to run a good set of roller rockers ) and also modify the firewall to be able to set it back more than it is right now, I'm not sure right now how far back we can go because the 4l80e has to also fit in there and pushing that back will surely have some interference somewhere, I believe it will be on the seam between the firewall and foot well. I may have to cut that off and weld it up to gain that 1/2 inch to clear the trans but we need to get a empty case to test fit it. So just to get the engine as far back as we can to get it as far behind the crossmember as possible there will be more modifications.

[cwcarpenter98]

Nice! Did you have that done locally? Eventually, when I get to that point, I'll probably end up doing the same thing