A518 / 46RE going in a 1972

[Paul_G]

Ran in to a problem. Called JVX Racing for a big block to small block adpter plate. Find out he is having health issues and wont be shipping for a while. I need to get the engine and trans bolted together and in the car to modify the tunnel. So I made some 1/2" plates to temporarily hang the trans on the back of the engine.

So this is how I modified the floor and cross member. First was to center the tail shaft in the tunnel. Then mark and cut away the cross member to get the tail of the trans at 2° down in relation to the chassis. I leveled the chassis on the hoist to make it simpler. I have seen most people just cut the crossmember section in the tunnel completey out. I cut away enough to get the trans where it needed to be, no more, which left the area closest to the floor still there. The floor needed to be hammered out in severel locations for clearence. The trans went up and down at least a dozen times until I got it to fit and clear everything. I gutted the trans first to make it lighter and easier to handle. The empty case was still around 75 pounds is my guess. I boxed in the remaing section of the crossmember.

The car will be lowered a couple inches. The trans needs to be as high in the tunnel as possible to get the pinion angle right. I ended up having the trans at 2° down to the diff, with the diff pointed 1° up to the trans.

More to come. I am making swiss cheeze out of the trans mount portion of the cross member.

 

[Curiousyellow71]

Maybe try A&A for your adapter. They have 8 bolt and 6 bolt but the descriptions are vague..probably have to call.

Cope "had" bb to newer od transmissions?
https://www.coperacingtrans.com/?product_cat=trans-adapter-sb-to-bb

From A&A transmission

 

[junior340]

Nice work. Similar to how I did my Dart.

 

[Paul_G]

The trans mount is mocked up. I am going to hold off on welding it together till I have the correct engine adpter plate. Using my home made spacers for mock up, the trans is probably not at the correct orientation. I am using the original trans isolator body with poly isolator rather then rubber. The rubber ones we get today are crap compared to the original rubber ones. I also have the factory trans isolator mounting plate still on the trans. Trimed off the lips on the sides a little. I plan to make holes in it and weld nuts on the top side to bolt the isolator to it.

Had to trim away the front side, of the inside, drivers side, bolt hole. I drilled out a new hole for that bolt an inch away and welded a sleeve inside it to keep the crossmember from colapsing. For the original bolt hole that is trimed away on the front side, I got this idea to put a nut inside the factory hole where it is trimmed away and weld it in place. I could then use a shorter bolt in that hole and keep it. You can see the end of the bolt circled in the last pic.