351w engine perches

[fordman]

i was working on my 67 tonight. the truck is kind of rigged up as far as the engine and trans swap someone done to it. this truck is a 67 lwb styleside bed. it has a 351w with dual exhausts and a c4 transmission. i think this is out of a engine trans combo is out of a car. the trans has that weight thing hanging off of the back of it. anyway when they installed this setup in the truck they used the fe perches. but they are in the back holes and not the front holes. the two piece drive shaft has been moved forward at the carrier bearing a slight. maybe one bolt hole forward. they re drilled the carrier bearing mount and bolted the carrier bearing to the new holes. a few months ago i pulled the rear drive shaft so i could tow the truck without ruining the transmission. when i did the splines slip joint was barely on the front half of the drive shaft. i thought that was stupid. and i have ignored it since then. but tonight i got to looking at the engine and trans install. and figured out that i cant move the engine forward with out changing the fan spacer. and or maybe some other things like a different drive shaft. so anyway i think i am going to leave it as is. on the fe perches and with a different single drive shaft i have from a van. it will fit in there perfectly. its the right length and everything. no mods needed at all.

so my question is. why did ford feel the need to move the small block mounts forward to install the small block in these trucks? what was gained by them doing this change?

[fordman]

here is another problem i may have to deal with. i planned on putting a saginaw power steering box in this truck. so if i use the fe power steerign perches. and the saginaw box. my engine may no longer line up withthe power steering perch. ha ha this is great. so i may have to end up keeping that bendix box. or i dont know. i doubt the small block perches were made to go under the saginaw box like the fe perches are.

[70_F100]

My guess about the perch locations is that what they tried to accomplish was to put the engine-to-bellhousing location in a single plane on all of the vehicles.

That would allow them to use the same linkages (clutch, z-bar, shift linkage) on all of the vehicles, rather than produce multiple configurations for each engine/tranny setup.

Imagine all of the additional driveshaft, crossmember, etc., components they would have had to produce otherwise!!!

[FORDification]

It's not that the engine is moved forward. The reason for the different set of holes for the small-block was because of the difference of where the motor mount attaches to the block vs the FE and I6 engines. Sounds to me like whoever did your engine swap wasn't aware that the perches needed to be moved to mount the small-block, and that a different set of perches was also needed to properly mount/locate the small-block (you can't use the FE/I6 perches with your 351W, since that will allow the engine to sit an inch too high.). He just dropped the engine/trans in, and when he found that the engine now sat too far forward, he jury-rigged the carrier bearing to work with the driveshaft. However, I seriously hope you don't plan to drive it on the street like that. Please don't compound his jury-rigging with more of your own...fix his screw-ups and have some peace of mind.

The FE/I6 power steering perch continues to use the same set of lower holes, it's just that the upper part of the perch has been angled more towards the front in order to use the front set of holes to clear the Saginaw steering box. All small-block perches use the front set of upper holes. Trucks before mid-'69 didn't have the lower set of holes for the small-block perches, so you'd just bolt it in with the upper set of holes, and then using the perch as a template you'd drill the crossmember for the lower set of holes.

[fordman]

i am probably going to leave the engine where it is at. since i havent seen any small block perches in a few years around here. and since i have a driveshaft that will fit and work better than what is in there now. if i ever find small block perches i might have a custom driveshaft made. to fit and work with this combo. i just couldnt remember about why the perches were placed forward in are trucks when putting in a small block. i have drove this truck once since i got it like this. i do have an fe i could put in it. but that would possibly ruin the feel of how the truck runs and drives for me.