The custom mid-plate will be plenty strong and hopefully still leave me room to build headers. BIG headers!

I modified the old solid mounts to drop the engine about an inch and clamped it into position. As it sat, the main caps were only about a ½” from touching the factory-style manual rack. I had originally planned to use a semi-finished front plate from Competition Engineering (# C4001) but I discovered that the water pump holes on the Yates-style belt drive cover are not in the factory position, along with a couple bolt holes in the plate that are designed to mount to a factory Ford timing cover. So, I bought a piece of ¼” thick 6061 T6 plate from the local welding shop and made my own.

I cut the plate to the required width and then I used the Yates front cover as a template to transfer punch the mounting holes onto the plate. I will go into more detail on the fabrication of the plate next month, including the cut out sections for the belt drive. For now I just made the basic plate and bolted it to the engine through the timing cover. I then made some marks on the frame rails where the plate mounts will need to be positioned and wrote down some measurements for reference.

For the mid plate I am using a piece of .090” thick steel, which is the same thickness as the factory block plate. Following the same method I used on the front, I used a factory bell housing to transfer the bolt holes and locating dowel holes along with the starter opening onto the plate and drilled them out. The plate was sandwiched between the block and transmission and I also had to make a hole to allow the steering shaft to pass through. I made a couple simple plate mounts out of 1 inch angle iron and welded a step to the bottom so that the weight is supported on the mounts instead of the bolts. The mounts were welded to the frame rails and the holes were drilled with everything in place to ensure alignment. I paid special attention to making sure that the plate was mounted in a straight line without any bends. This way the entire surface area of the plate standing on edge is taking the load instead of twisting. Even though it is only .090” thick it is very strong on edge and should work well. I also won’t have to use a special length torque converter or spacers like you would with a thicker plate.

Well, that’s it for this month. Next month I will go into detail on the front cross member modifications, front plate mounts, steering rack mounting, and possibly start building custom headers using a kit from Hedman Hedders. I’m on the down hill side, I think, but I can’t wait to be done and on the track! See you next month!

Remember, there is always hope.

And, when in doubt… DO A WHEELIE!!!