More "bad news": These engine mounts (http://www.engineswaptech.com/forums/thread/1074.aspx)are about 3 thoughts away from convincing me to ditch the stock crossmember and replace it with a fabbed X-brace (with accomodations for the steering rack). Advantages include increased oilpan clearance, possible engine repositioning (hood clearance anybody?), potential steering rack repositioning (bump steer anybody?), dropping some deadweight, clearance for (2) 3" downpipes... U get the point. $120 worth of materials (ChroMoly tubing + spherical rod ends or double threaded jam nut), $50 worth of TIG welding (or MIG/stick some DOM tubing if u desire) and and odd-job fixture to hold the tubes in place while u tack. Viola! U have a X-brace and u can't even properly pronounce the material it's made from. Yes that's $200 you coulda saved if you didn't do it but u'll spend that $200 in beer and hydrogen peroxide or buying cutoff wheels and reinforcing something else while "motivating" the engine to fit. Ok. That's a mild exaggeration but I'd say the introduced clearance is well worth it. And one cannot put a price on something like seeing a police officers face when he pops your hood for "suspected illegal modifications"... Of course we're talking about "off-road use only" cars here...
Then there's the whole steering rack mount issue which is easily resolved with some $60 custom machined rack mounts. I could get all the measurements for locating (from the frame) and have files (drawings and for machining) here on www.engineswaptech.com (that was a shameless plug to help persuade you Fred). So okay, the cost just went up to $260...
And then there's still the engine mounts to deal with. The possibilities are about as wide now as they've ever been since this thread was started. Shear type, compression type, stock rwd VQ, stock fwd VQ, stock 240sx, stock 300zx... U pick your mount and [easily] make it fit (and stay outta the way of the exh manifolds and steering shaft in the process). And u get to put your engine where you want, not where the evil crossmember tells you to.
I'm pretty convinced this is even more useful (and no harder to fabricate) than modifying the stock crossmember as was mentioned in my earlier "look at this crossmember for the VG30dett swap" post.
Based on the design of the stock crossmember and the general design of the parts of the chassis it connects to, it was designed with specific features to resist bending (i.e. the resulting motion if the two fenders were pushed together or if the engine was heavy enough to cause a dip in the middle of the crossmember). The engine torque applied to the crossmember could also result in a bending action (offset from center), especially from a fatigue (repeated loading) pov. These forces should be relatively easy to accomodate with the X-brace, given that the engine will now be mounted directly to the frame itself rather than mounted to the crossmember. And since the frame already supported the weight of the engine combined with the stock crossmember, there are no added stresses (weight) to the frame.
If anybody has a hard time understanding the 'bending', imagine a rubber crossmember (shaped just like stock). Picture what would happen when to the crossmember while driving the car (and from the weight of the engine).
For you Tech Heads *cough-nerds-cough*, think polar moment of inertia of the stock crossmember's cross section. (Is that technical enough for you Mike?).
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Think about it and gimme some feedback (resist the urge to turn this into a chassis rigidity thread if at all possible).
Regards,
H. Kurt Betton
Argh... guess I'll stick w/ the plan...