4.6 being installed now

[RICH MUISE]

a few more

[57AGIN]

Rich:

Nice photos, they take me back to when Rick was redoing my transmission cross member to work with the TKO 600.  I'm always amazed at the ingenuity of the club members and their fabricating skills.  Yours are way up there, IMO.  Great job on keeping us informed on how your 4.6 install is going.  I couldn't help but think how fortunate you were during that hail storm your 57's garage withstood.  I?m looking forward to someday traveling eastward with 57 AGIN to meet you and James, and many of the others.

Bob
57 AGIN

[gasman826]

Just goes to show you can do anything with enough C-clamps.

Great job!

[RICH MUISE]

Thanks guys....I was a little nervous about cutting as much out as I did, but I think the gussets I'm adding will compensate ok. Some of the guys had told me the notching was common practice for many of the tranny swaps, but I didn't know if they were talking about notching this deep.
Actually the reason for all the c-clamps is the original tranny mounting  bracket was tweeked a little (maybe from road kill), so I was using the 1/4" angle to pull it back before welding.

[RICH MUISE]

All gussied up...Not sure if i'll just leave the tacs or fill it in...I'm out of gas anyway (me and my mig).

[RICH MUISE]

A little progress. I altered a urethane "bump stop" to at least temporarily use as a tranny mount. Once I get all my final ride heights, engine tilt, etc. finalized, I'll know how much space I've got to work with. I had to shorten the height of the bump stop to get me enough pad length., and I drilled the two holes where it bolts onto the oem tranny crossmember 5/16 off center to match the slots in the crossmember, but center the tranny. I then used a hole saw to make a counterbore big enough to spot weld 2 3/8-16 flange nuts on the backside.
If you look at the 2 scribe lines (between the holes)on the crossmember mount pic, the two centerlines indicate the center of the crossmember (and tranny) and the center of the two slots. I drilled from the scribed side, and flipped it over. If you look closely at the slots in the pic, you'll see why I had a smile on my face.
The pic with the crossmember bolted on is pretty close to where I think it'll end up. The tranny is within a 1/16 of being centered on the crossmember, and has 1/4 clearance to the backside of the tranny oil pan. I can drop the tranny another 1/2" before I hit the flange on the oil pan.

[RICH MUISE]

A few more pics. I'm just using spacers I have to get me to a starting point. Once I determine the final height I'll figure out a permanent mount / pad.
Now I get to throw everything back in the car and try it out.
The last pic is the project that keeps me away from the '57 most of the time. Just got the new porch railing put on and painted, and new windows, siding, ect on the lower portion of the south side.

[RICH MUISE]

Success...I think. I got the altered crossmember, gutted tranny case, and engine mock up block installed temporarily yesterday. My engine oil pan is within a 1/8 of the engine crossmember, the bellhousing clears the rack and pinion by 1/2", the tranny oil pan clears by 1/4", and the bellhousing clears the firewall by what should give me 1/2" to the oem lincoln air intake.
My car is not at final ride height. I currently have the rockers levelled, and levellled side to side. My final ride height will be about 3 degree rake. With the tranny sitting on the mount I temporarily fabbed from the bump stock, with about 1" of spacers as in the previous picture, the engine sits at about a 5-6 degree angle. If I jack up the tranny so I have just a 1/2 clearance to the floorpan, I can get the engine to about 3 degrees, and I'll be able to use about a 2 1/2 thick tranny mount pad. I think however if I do that, the engine will be too close to zero at final ride height, and may cause problems with the differential pinion angle.
anyway, I know I have enough adjustment to get a good proper downward angle on the engine and everything seems to be where I need it clearance-wise. Now on to altering the ears on the control arms...if I can do that without actually having heads/exhaust manifolds on my mock up. I also need to run my front brake lines while I can easily access the area. I'll post some questions on that in the forumn's brake post area. I also have to get the welding done on the oil pan where I altered it.
I can't emphasize enough how much easier having the plastic engine mock up and gutted tranny has made this part of the conversion so easy for me.

[hogwagon]

Rich they have shims that are wedge shaped to help with pinion angle if needed. I have seen them in our local Pep Boys so it may help keep the clearances for the engine/trans. The pads for the axle are at Speedway if you have a lot of change in angle. Crossmember looks great.

[RICH MUISE]

Jon...thanks. I'll keep those shims in mind when I get to that point. I may be up your way Friday if they are still having the NSRA show in Pueblo. Wouldn't surprise me if they cancelled it with the Royal Gorge fire going on. I'll check on that mid week.

[RICH MUISE]

Al...are you still thinking the exhaust pipes that hook to the manifolds from the '04 Mustang are gonna work? I may have a lead on a pair...ebay Mustang guy parting out an '04 Cobra.
Also, Al...I couldn't remember if you had the exhaust manifolds on that engine sitting in place. If so, did you have to trim the control arms or corresponding brackets? It's looking like my trip to Colo. for the weekend is on. Did a brake job on the Jeep yesterday, and the weather is looking to be good there.
Also, does anybody here know what is required, if anything, electrically or electronicly to change the Lincoln coil packs to cop? I know I'll need the cop valve covers, and of course the coils. 

[RICH MUISE]

Motor mounts...I discussed this once before, but I'll bring it back up. Both Canadian Ranchero and Claborn posted pics of the mounts. Both of theirs had the drivers side sitting flush and the passenger side at a slight angle. Both reported the passenger side pulled down flush when tightened. When I got my mounts, even with the plastic mock up block, I had the same thing. My thoughs were even though the passenger side would pull down...it is an aluminum block and I was worried about possibly creating too much stress on the block. Instead of just pulling it down, I opted for a spacer between the mount and the block on the top 2 bolts. The 3/16 thick washers you see in that pic (passenger side only) made the mount flush with the crossmember almost perfectly.
Any comments on my approach??
Also to remention what I had discussed in another post, the mounting studs for the two mounts are not in the same place...the passenger side is up about 3/8 (if I remember correctly) from the driver's side. That means the slot in the oem crossmember pad is in different locations side to side. It's hard to tell from the pic I took of the two mounts, but the left crossmember stud is off centered from everything..the right side is centered. This was confirmed to be correct as oem by the manufacturer of my mounts.

It took me a while to find this, so I just quoted me so you won't have to look. The spacers on the right side, between the block and mount won't work. It kicks the engine up too far from level. In fact, even with the spacers out, I'm still about 1 degree from level. I'm thinking a shim under the left side mount, between it and the crossmember pad, will kick the left side up a bit, and still help with the right mount not exactly sitting flush.

[RICH MUISE]

Al. The pipes you have that connect to the exhaust manifolds I was just told are not stock oem pipes. I forwarded a pic (below) of your mid pipes to an ebay seller (Mustang Solutions LLC) that specializes in '03 and '04 Mustang Cobra parts. I called him this morning, and the all pipes he has are a welded together H-pipe, not seperate pieces like yours. He said if you look closely you may find a manufacturer's stamp on them. He said the mach 1's had the same 1 pc welded construction.
If anybody else is looking (Rich K?)..the seller I mentioned has a set of Cobra exhaust manifolds. 80 bucks + ship.

[57dohc]

Rich;
Sorry I haven't watching this site the last couple of days and missed your questions.  I just assumed that the exhaust on my car was stock!  I will try to find a manufactures stamp on them.
The exhaust manifolds are on my engine as it sits on the motor mounts.  It seems I trimmed a very small part of the rear of the control arm "ear" on the passenger side.  No modification on the drivers side except for the water outlet.  The exhaust pipes look like they can be used without modification but I don't have the steering box or any steering linkage attached.
I had kinda given up on being able to attend the Pueblo show.  I was able to sneak away fishing today (pueblo Reservior) and on the way out meet a motor home towing a trailer with a nice black 57 custom 2dr.  Man, I would like to look closer at that car! Al

[57dohc]

Rich;
I kept thinking about your exhaust inquiry so I pulled out the Factory repair manual I recently acquired.  You are correct; the factory exhaust for all 4.6l engines shows a standard H-pipe with converters attached.  With that thought in mind, I did a search online for performance exhaust systems and found it to be a Mac offroad system.  You can research that for 1999-2004 Mustangs.  The site I looked at had it priced less than $300.  That doesn't sound too bad considering converters won't need to be purchased.  Al