Reply to "custom ZF mounts"

When you relocate the engine in a compactly designed car like the Pantera, there are unanticipated effects. In 1995, I shifted our engine/ZF back 3/4" by using already-drilled second motormount bolt-holes in '72-up Panteras. Why so little? Because more than that causes the lower frame crossmember to hit the forward edge of the Aviad oil pan notch. As the Aviaid pan is a race-proven assembly, I chose not to alter it. My custom removeable crossmember (circa 1990) is also a proven piece. This much powertrain movement is accommodated in back by bending the rearmost steel frame tabs into a shallow 'S'. Bending the tabs lowers the rear of the transaxle, so I used 3/4" longer tie-bolts and a custom aluminum spacer, with a new hole in the front (unbent) tab. The slight tilt in the engine did not affect the carb float heights significantly for 20,000 miles.

A decade later, I sectioned & TIG-welded the stock upper motormounts, taking 1" out of them to lower the engine height and level out the carb for air cleaner clearance. !" turned out to be the max I could lower it, as the bottom of the Sankyo AC compressor then hit the crossover water pipe. By notching the lower frame's pinch-weld seam and slightly oval-izing the stainless pipe, I managed to lower the pipe enough that the two parts do not rub. More than that would have required running the pipe THROUGH the lower subframe while pulling the engine for frame welding/bracing. 1" engine lowering also brings the edge of the harmonic damper VERY close to the rubber hose that supplies coolant to the surge tank. By adding a 90 degree copper bend with careful routing of straight sections of hose, I minimized the interference but I know things move around more than you'd think when hot. So I added a small metal rub-strip to the hose where the balancer gets closest. So far (5000 miles), there's no witness-mark on it.

FWIW, I did all this NOT to fractionally change the weight & balance of the car, but to achieve a flat firewall and eliminate the cockpit bulge around the 351-C water pump & alternator. It also allowed me to run a big-cap distributor without the fragile cap hitting the firewall. The alt still needed repositioning and custom aluminum crank/waterpump pulleys finished the job. Our firewall is now flat but my air cleaner still hits the early screen cover, all due to the aluminum SVO heads & mandatory high-rise intake. Everything affects everything else!