???I was wondering do I need to reinforce the front chassis to install a 302 in my 78 sedan? I cut the two inner fender wells out due to alot of rust. Maybe through the years there was a leaking battery. I have a firewall and two frame rails under the hood, Is this going to be enough support?
no thats not enough, i will be adding support to my Pinto too as i cut out the inner fenders and will be dropping in a 408 stroker.
Hey 78 pinto, What whould be a good way to do this? I have already put in a 6 point cage in my car. Which has tied the sub frame together. I really dont want to run a full roll cage. Is there any other way to support the front frame rails. Thanks for any info.
you can run some tubes frome the firewall down to the framerails like this.
frontview. These ones here actually go through the firewall and attach to the down posts in the cage inside, but you could weld them to a pad (for strength) then weld the pad to the firewall. I have a better idea what i'm going to do tomorrow.....i have an idea i might try.
8)Thanks for the info. @ pictures. Let me know about your new ideas. Thanks again, Andy
i think iv'e got it solved. I'll post some pictures when i'm done, i'll be putting perforated sheet metal back in for inner fenders (so it doesn't look soooo wide open and yet will let the hot air escape from under the hood) The brace bars are hidden pretty much behind it so they are not so noticable, they go from the firewall just on the outside of the old inner fender down to the outside edge of the framerails.
this is what i'm doing. The pipe is 1 1/4 .125 wall. It was bent to keep most of it out of the engine compartment. It will be hidden behind some perforated sheet metal, seen in the background of one of the pictures. The perforated sheet metal will fill in some of the emptyness of the open fenderwells while allowing the hot underhood air to escape.
another shot
welded to thicker steel plate, then to the firewall in fenderwell. (watch out for fires inside the car!)
and to the outside of the framerail (perforated sheet metal in background) I'll take more pictures after the perf sheet is installed. The brake lines, linelock, and such will be mounted behind the perf sheet, in the fenderwell out of site.
final result, more pictures in "my project" area under title "408 stroker, rewire ect"
:oThanks again for the photos. That looks good. Maybe I'll have the 302 in this weekend. If I do my tubing similar to yours will I have any problems with the Hooker Super Comps headers? What tranny are you running? I've got a built C6 and it looks like I'm going to need a big hammer to get it to fit.
big hammer LOL your gonna need a saws-all! It will not fit in the tunnel trust me on this, my buddy had one in his '71 and it required major reconstruction! There is lots of room for the headers on mine, yours likely won't fit past the C6 i'm sure.
I found a C4 today and put it and the engine in the car. I mounted the tranny in the origional position as the 4 cylinder tranny. I'm having lots of trouble getting the headers on. I don't know if I was sent the wrong headers or not but they are not working out. Is there a different header I can run? Thanks