Drivetrain Installation - 1954 Pontiac
I was thinking about building my own engine and transmission mounts until I came across Chassis Engineering Inc's website (319-643-2645 in Indiana). They have bolt-in engine mounts (CP-1109) for putting a small block chev engine into an original front suspension 54 Chev. They also have a transmission mounting kit that welds into the stock tranny mount or a universal tube crossmember mount for mounting Turbo 350, Powerglides or standard transmissions into the 54 Chev. I liked the idea of keeping the stock crossmember because it is part of a k style support system and reinforces the frame rails.
I figured that since the tranny mount couldn't move, I would work on it first and then install the motor mounts which can be positioned anywhere along the frame rails. This logic turned out to be a little bit of luck on my part as you will soon read.
Tranny Mounts
I had some minor rust holes in the tranny mount where the K members touched it. 46 years of dirt and moisture really promotes rust. Fortunately, it was very small areas and could be cut out to solid metal. A 1 1/2" plate of steel was placed from the inside and welded beneath the holes. This way the K member could sit flush and hide the holes like it hid the rust.
The Chassis Engineering Inc's T350 mounting kit is pretty slick. The only thing that I had to modify was to add another centered hole for the stock rubber tranny mount that came with the tranny. The CE tranny mount is made for their tranny mount rubber.
Here's how you install the CE tranny mount. First you weld on 2 side plates to the stock tranny mount.
Plates welded onto stock mount
Next you cut out the exposed portion of the original tranny mount. I used a combination of 4 1/2" grinder, die grinder, dremel tool and hacksaw to cut it out. It wasn't as difficult as I expected. The steel is surprisingly soft and a new hacksaw blade cuts through it quite easily.
Piece that is cut out
Next you clean up the cutout area with a grinder and fit the top plate. Once fitted flush to the rear of the crossmember, weld everywhere.
Top plate welded in place
The last step is to make it look beautiful. Grind and paint with rust proof paint. It's ready for installation.
Painted and finished crossmember
I was using the original Camaro rubber tranny mount and had to drill a center hole for it exactly inbetween the the Chassis Engineering mounting holes. They had drilled holes for their own rubber tranny mount which used 2 bolts instead of the Camaro's single center bolt.
I went to work to reinstall the crossmember and ran into a few snags. The first was that the frame rails had twisted inward from the vertical without the center crossmember. They weren't sitting perfectly vertical. This made it impossible to slide the crossmember back in. I had to loosen up all the body mount bolts, reposition the jack stands and use my hydraulic jack to apply pressure at the outer front body mount to "twist" the frame vertical.
After a little bit of elbow grease (1 hour), the crossmember slid (politely put) into place. A new problem arose: the frame rails were 1/2 a bolt hole too far apart. I could bolt up the passenger side but not the driver's side. The question was how to move the two frames closer together. I had all the tools for jacking, separating and lifting but none for pulling together something.
A come-along would of been ideal but no such luck. I was going to rent one but being cheap and not about to let something like this get the best of me, I sat down and looked at my resources. I ended up using a tow chain with its hook connected to the passenger side rail, hung under the car. By trial and error, I found the right link position for creating a loop at the end of the chain using a nut and bolt. This allowed me to use a crowbar to pressure the two rails together. A stack of 2x4s slipped under the crowbar handle, allowed me to keep up the pressure and install the bolts. Yeah, I know a friend would be nice but this was on Tuesday morning and I prefer to work alone.
Tranny mount installed finally!
Motor Mounts
Chassis Engineering's bolt-in motor mount
The motor mounts are really nice pieces of work. They fit perfectly and are bolt-in. The instructions indicate the distance from the front rail's bumper holes to position it. I will install the tranny mount first and verify that the instructions are correct. The tranny mount can not be moved but the motor mounts can slide along the rails for positionning. I will most likely spot weld the motor mounts in place after bolting them on.
I installed the motor and tranny in place and then positionned the motor mounts. Minor problem with interface between a frame "support" which I don't have a clue what it is used for. My best guess is a support for the inner fenders. If you know what it is for (see following photos) give me an email.
Frame to motor mount interference
I drilled out the two spot welds that held the piece on and off it came. This allowed me to position the motor mount anywhere along the frame.
UFS - Unidentified Frame Support
Installing the motor and tranny
Now the fun began. I positioned the motor/tranny combo and hooked up the rubber tranny mount. Then dropped the engine onto the correctly positioned motor mounts which were not bolted in yet. Excellent fit. Absolutely no frame or firewall modifications required. I was so happy I was whistling dixie out my a**hole!
I decided to install the stock camaro driveshaft to see how lucky I was. Well the camaro shaft is about 8 1/2" too short. I phoned around and found out that the driveshaft should be 3/4" to 1" less in length than measured from the center of the tranny end universal joints (when the yoke is up tight to the tranny) to the rear universal joints. The cost to lengthen a driveshaft and balance it was $150 Cdn. Too much for me!
We were having a unusually warm spell here and I figured that this would be one of the last times that I could go to the self serve autowreckers and crawl around looking for a replacement driveshaft. Off I went with a tape measure in my hands. I found quite a few 8", 9" and 10" longer driveshafts. The 8" was off of a 71-76 Impala, they had a CV joint at the differential and would need some minor grinding to work but would be 1/2" too short.
The 10" longer driveshafts were not an option as they would have to be shorten. The 9" longer driveshaft was found in almost any 80s GM fullsize stationwagons. I found one in very good shape in an 82 Caprice wagon that had a T350 and 10 bolt rearend. This meant it would bolt right in if I could lose 1/2" someplace.
Camaro (on top) and Caprice wagon driveshafts
I decided to move the tranny bolt hole on the tranny crossmember forward 1/2". This put it very close to the edge of the tranny crossmember which I didn't like but planned on welding up a bigger plate later. Out came the engine/tranny combo, higher up went the jackstands until I could get a drill under the crossmember.
During the reinstall of the engine/tranny, I connected up the tranny mounting bolt and went to position the engine mounts (still not bolted in) when the tranny suddenly popped up. The Camaro's rubber tranny mount was defective (probably just 24 years old) and had split in two!
Camaro's rubber tranny mount broken in two!
A quick run to the local parts source found out that they had none in stock for the T350 but they did have one for a 4 spd Muncie. I took a look and found out it had a 3/4" offset between the tranny bolt holes and the tranny crossmember bolt hole. This looked real good because then I could use the first hole I drilled in the crossmember and use the Caprice's driveshaft.
4 spd (on left) and T350 tranny mount
I popped in the 4 spd rubber tranny mount, slid in the engine/tranny combo. Properly positioned the motor mounts. Installed the driveshaft and "surprise surprise" everything fit. And it was all bolt-in too - no major welding or cutting of the frame or firewall!
Engine/tranny installed and no clearance problems!
Tranny clearance
Clearance under the frame, bottom of oilpan on right
There is about 3/4 to 1" clearance between the firewall webbing and the block, lots of room to work around the distributer, adequate room for exhaust (another story), lots of room around the tranny and plenty of room underneath the engine for installing a rack n pinion unit and there is about 1" of freeplay in the driveshaft yoke for installation. I am very happy!
Just a quick note! The rearend is moved back 1 1/2" from the stock position. I don't know if this is factory stock or because someone had changed the rear springs. My driveshaft requirements are longer than usual.
Gas Pedal
I used the 76 Camaro gas pedal since it came with the engine. It was very easy to install - 3 bolt holes for the swivel mount and a small square hole for the firewall cable grommet. I positioned the gas pedal where it felt comfortable then marked, drilled and mounted the swivel.
Under the dash view of gas pedal and swivel
I had to bend the pedal's rods so that I could tromp on it and have full carb linkage travel. Otherwise it was pretty straight forward install. The firewall cable grommet is square so I used a sheet metal nibbler to nibble out a square hole in the firewall.