engine placement?

I will post over here to. My Q is placing BBf into fox, is there an advantage or just preference to placing engine in standard location(offset) verses centerd in the chassis. This is where im at at this point, right now I have the plate that puts it offset standard.

With a stock trans tunnel and floor it may be hard to center it. depends really on the headers and what they were designed for (standard vs offset). Other things to look at is master cylinder clearance, driveshaft tunnel clearance, etc... I know when you stick a glide in the stock offset location it gets tight on the driver's side near the shifter linkage area. Usually need to cutout and box off an area around that.

Really no advantage to centering unless that's what you want. I know of a lot of cars that are built with them offset to help with the weight distribution...

jbozzelle wrote:With a stock trans tunnel and floor it may be hard to center it. depends really on the headers and what they were designed for (standard vs offset). Other things to look at is master cylinder clearance, driveshaft tunnel clearance, etc... I know when you stick a glide in the stock offset location it gets tight on the driver's side near the shifter linkage area. Usually need to cutout and box off an area around that.

Really no advantage to centering unless that's what you want. I know of a lot of cars that are built with them offset to help with the weight distribution...

thanks for info. Decided was gunna use the offset plate that I have. I have it down in the car now I need to square it up, make the platform for glide to sit on and get a midplate for it to install. Then gunna build the headers.

I'm using a skinny Kid front plate and a generic BBF mid plate that I trimmed. I set the trans mount on the old Fox crossmember and worked from there to keep the offset and squareness and worked from there.

jbozzelle wrote:I'm using a skinny Kid front plate and a generic BBF mid plate that I trimmed. I set the trans mount on the old Fox crossmember and worked from there to keep the offset and squareness and worked from there.

just came in from the shop, took some measurements and wrote them on the floor under car to see how far offset was and from the pinion to the front of the crank snout the motor is exactly 1inch to the passenger side from being perfectly squared to rearend. evidently that little bit of an angle from the trans to the pinion must not be of an issue!! I did get the crank and trans lined right up to the center of pinion though without to much of an issue. I had moved my trans croos member from stock location back a few inches for the C6 last year, now it needs to go forward again for powerglide.

So you lined up the crank and trans in line with the pinion? Or is the engine and trans truly offset still ?

stanggt wrote:

jbozzelle wrote:I'm using a skinny Kid front plate and a generic BBF mid plate that I trimmed. I set the trans mount on the old Fox crossmember and worked from there to keep the offset and squareness and worked from there.

just came in from the shop, took some measurements and wrote them on the floor under car to see how far offset was and from the pinion to the front of the crank snout the motor is exactly 1inch to the passenger side from being perfectly squared to rearend. evidently that little bit of an angle from the trans to the pinion must not be of an issue!! I did get the crank and trans lined right up to the center of pinion though without to much of an issue. I had moved my trans croos member from stock location back a few inches for the C6 last year, now it needs to go forward again for powerglide.

Got any pictures? I'd be interested in seeing how you had the trans mount moved back previously. Also, any pictures of how the engine sits in the engine compartment with your "offset" plate.
Gary

got to watch where you put the motor for header fitment. Most headers commercialy avaliable are intended for the offset Like the mustangs come stock with.

Also need to watch steering shaft clearance.

jbozzelle wrote:So you lined up the crank and trans in line with the pinion? Or is the engine and trans truly offset still ?

plum bob off center of pinion, outputshaft on trans and front off crank, lined up on a strait line under car with offset plate puts the motor 1 inch off twards the pass side. So the driveshaft will be at a slight angle from left to right to the pinion. Im sure from the trans back it not an inch off but at front of crank it is. Wish I could draw it to help understand. Motor looks like it sits about where it did with motor mounts.

dfree383 wrote:got to watch where you put the motor for header fitment. Most headers commercialy avaliable are intended for the offset Like the mustangs come stock with.

Also need to watch steering shaft clearance.

Gunna build the headers from scratch once its where I want it. There is a good amount of room for master cylinder and steering shaft

GTmustang wrote:

stanggt wrote:

jbozzelle wrote:I'm using a skinny Kid front plate and a generic BBF mid plate that I trimmed. I set the trans mount on the old Fox crossmember and worked from there to keep the offset and squareness and worked from there.

just came in from the shop, took some measurements and wrote them on the floor under car to see how far offset was and from the pinion to the front of the crank snout the motor is exactly 1inch to the passenger side from being perfectly squared to rearend. evidently that little bit of an angle from the trans to the pinion must not be of an issue!! I did get the crank and trans lined right up to the center of pinion though without to much of an issue. I had moved my trans croos member from stock location back a few inches for the C6 last year, now it needs to go forward again for powerglide.

Got any pictures? I'd be interested in seeing how you had the trans mount moved back previously. Also, any pictures of how the engine sits in the engine compartment with your "offset" plate.
Gary

I can get some pics for ya.

I gotcha. What I did with mine was used a GM single bolt trans mount and drilled a hole between the two Ford trans mount holes in the crossmember. I did that to put the trans where it belongs. I just used the motor plate to center the engine...

I also set the car at ride height and moved the driveline angle around (up/down) to get it all in line with the pinion. In my case I had to raise the trans mount because of the 32" tall tires and low ride height. Came out nice though... As the tailshaft came up so did the collectors. They tuck up nice and tight to the floor area...

I may just buy a new plate for front as I need the mid plate anyway, and center it and be done. Its not that far off really and it will help with a little more clearence on pass shock tower for header. Do u (jbozzelle)run aluminum plates or steal?

The Skinny Kid front plate is 1/4" aluminum. My mid plate is .090 steel. I had planned to use the Skinny Kid 1/4" aluminum mid plate as well (BBF to Glide adapter plate) but it interfered with my headers...

you cant put it in the center and have a good header tube/bend, let alone the trans shifter cable mount,collector.trans mount, it has to be off to ps side, just like the factory

dont put it in the center, theres lots of reasons

BOSS 429 wrote: you cant put it in the center and have a good header tube/bend, let alone the trans shifter cable mount,collector.trans mount, it has to be off to ps side, just like the factory

dont put it in the center, theres lots of reasons

ok, I will leave it where it is, that saves me some money and time. Thanks for info. i will get a pic up of how it sits as soon as I set the motot back in it. Had to remove to finish welding the bracket's for plate

stanggt wrote:

BOSS 429 wrote: you cant put it in the center and have a good header tube/bend, let alone the trans shifter cable mount,collector.trans mount, it has to be off to ps side, just like the factory

dont put it in the center, theres lots of reasons

ok, I will leave it where it is, that saves me some money and time. Thanks for info. i will get a pic up of how it sits as soon as I set the motot back in it. Had to remove to finish welding the bracket's for plate

Yes, sometimes it's just better to "not open that can of worms"! Sometimes it seems like a pretty simple project, and then one thing leads to another and it turns into a nightmare.
Gary