Posted by JEM on August 9, 2012, 10:27 am, in reply to "Re: This is what you do..."
198.144.208.110 | Message modified by user JEM August 9, 2012, 10:28 am

Well, to be fair, I'm trying to get an engine that was never packaged for the application installed in a slightly anomalous position - with the IRS I'm trying to get the engine and driveline more or less level, which means bringing the front of the engine down a bit from the 3 degree or whatever angle it'd have with the stock stick-axle configuration. I also tend to be quite fussy about ensuring enough clearance around the engine to ensure it's not going to be banging on things. It always amazes me to go to some car show and see some engine stuffed in with 1/8in clearance to the battery tray or steering box. I remember some years ago touring the collection of a rather famous athlete who had something of a jones for tri-five Chevys with big-blocks in them, quite professional conversions except that the left-side header and the Saginaw 605 conversion power steering box more or less wanted to exist in the same space, and this'd been dealt with by dimpling the header to a total clearance of about 3/16in IIRC, no heat shielding or anything else and I don't remember the header being ceramic-coated, it struck me that if you got in one of those cars and drove it pretty energetically for a hundred miles you'd fry the steering box. Yeah, okay, I'll admit my SHO has < 1/2in clearance from a couple of the front header tubes to the plastic housing of the radiator cooling fan, ceramic coated, and in a few track days of 4-5 20 minute sessions and a couple years of street driving it hasn't shown any inclination to melt, but then it's up in the airflow (and makes its own airflow with the engine's hot, too)...

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