Spinnin' Fours 4x4 Club of Southern California

You just can't find good help anymore. Here today and gone tommorrow.

Tell me about it. If they weren't so cute I'd fire them.

I finished running the engine harness today and then picked up some new motor mount and dropped the engine in.

That looks better.




Here's how the steering box looks in relation to the oil filter location. I think I'll be okay with a remote mount filter. I'll order one from Summit and see.






I still have a ton to do but I'm realy excited to have the engine in the truck.

I was going to install the trans today and started with instlling the flexplate and filling the converter up with ATF. However, while doing the remote oil filter kit arrived. So I held off installing the trans so I could check and make sure there was going to be enough room for the adapter plate. Unfortunately there isn't enough room to install the lines with the adapter plate on the engine. So I pulled the flexplate back off and pulled the engine again.

It's sad to be back on the stand.



I've decided what I'm going to try is to notch the frame to and move the steering box away from the engine some. Here's what I did so far.

The bracket in the old position.




The hole in the frame.



The piece I removed.



I'll reinforce the inside of the frame before I weld the bracket back in and I think with a couple 90 degree fittings that I'll have enough room to clear it.

I think I have the steering box bracket where it's going to clear now. However, I'm not going to use the block adapter that came in the kit I ordered. The one in the kit comes straight out and Summit carries a low profile one that exits at 90 degrees. It's also only 1 3/8 tall and I have 2 inches of clearance now at the closest area. As you can see in the before and after pictures I moved the bracket about an inch inside the frame. I still need to weld the bottom though.

Before:




After:

Worked on it again today. I was able to drop the engine in and bolted up the trans. Moving the steering box mount inside the frame and using the low profile adapter worked perfect! There is now plenty of room.

Pictures from today.