rklessdriver

Doing a few additional upgrades to the chassis on my 1984 this winter for the upcoming 2017 racing season. Thought I would share some pics.

This work was done by Coupe Performance (Scott Milner) in Covington Ga.

Pinto style manual steering rack conversion. You can also see the mods to the K Member for a little more oil pan clearance and the factory motor mount tower removal.



Front motor plate.



Passenger side mid motor plate.



Driver side mid motor plate.



These are all the pics I have right now. I will update when we have more.

We took the opportunity with the new motor mount system and moved the engine forward in the car about 1" to try and get some more weight on the nose.

The Pinto rack is physically smaller which gave more room in front of the engine and it will be a lot easier to turn the car driving in the pits.

Will be starting on a couple of other chassis modifications next week. We will be doing a coilover conversion on the front suspension and moving the battery box forward so it will be located in front of the radiator/behind the front bumper support for even more weight on the nose.

I really struggled last season with the car violently wheel standing. I feel like by moving about 50 or so pounds to the front and taking some stored energy out of the front suspension, I will be able to get the car to 60ft a little better.

My best last year was 1.22 60ft.... That was with the front suspension limited to 1" extension and shocks full tight on rebound.... Even like that anytime we put more power in it, the car would wheel stand and tear something up coming down. I smashed 2 oil pans last year because I didn't catch it soon enough and I'm tired of that stuff.

We have the MPH to be a top 5 car in the class but the 60ft is really killing me.... I'm sure most of you guys would kill to 60ft in the 1.2X range but I need to be about 1.15 60ft to get my ET in line with my MPH.

We will see how these changes work out because I'm doing a few things to the engine as well.
Will

383vett

Looks great Will. I wish I had a problem with beating oilpans.
I did beat you to the Pinto style rack by a few years though. Something about 84's and Ford parts. Keep up the good work. Always enjoy reading your threads. Willie

STEVEN13

Looks great Will.

Always like to see what you are up to with this car.

Are you also going to use a limiter for the engine to work with the mid plate and front plate?

Steve

rklessdriver

Thanks.

Seems that I'm always working on making it more of a race car.... but I am doing a few things to beef up the cooling system this year that will allow me to drive it on the street a little more often.

We are going to see how much deflection the motor and mid plates have before I decide whether to add limiters or not. Both plates are 1/4", and the front plate doesn't have much unsupported area, so there shouldn't be too much flex....

I was initially worried about the width of the mid plate. Specifically that it might flex too much and break the tail shaft housing on the Powerglide but Scott at Coupe Performance told me if it didn't break before with my factory type side motor mounts.... Not to worry because just the front plate alone is more rigid that that stuff ever was.

If I see any evidence that it's driving the engine/trans reward at launch too much, I'll build some limiters or hoop in the mid plate to the cage like a Pro Mod.

I'm so excited for next season to get here.
Will

AZSP33D

Great post, thanks for sharing via PM. Helps with my motor plate project. Anyone else?

edit: here’s what I have so far.

AZSP33D

Making some headway… also taking advantage of the opportunity to raise the upper A arm aft position from 14 degree slope to 5 degree slope… while looking at the 1993 cross member I got the idea that I can insert a 1/4” angle to mount the motor plate, and also the UCA and frame. Will use 5/8” dia chromoly tube bolts, a 3/4” long stainless spacer, and SPC A-arms. So far none of this work would be required for the 1993 cross member by the way, if you prefer the 1993 engine mounts and front suspension/brakes/wheels/spindle/geometry.

AZSP33D

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like I can lower the engine 0.200 to 0.300 as planned. But it’s looking good otherwise.



One side motor plate bracket fitted:




New position of the aft upper arm attach point at 5 degrees anti-dive (was 14 degrees)… I may drill out the previous location so that there’s an adjustment for testing, but 5 degrees should really be maximum at a reasonable ride height and reasonable spring rate.