Thread: to many angles!

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Let me just add one little piece of information that may help all of us, including demano.
Way back when, when autos were built higher off the ground, engine/transmissions were installed with the crankshaft level with the ground and coupled to the differential through a closed driveline. As years progressed and the industry began to lower cars to make them look sleeker, the front seats of them began to intrude vertically into the space occupied by the floorboard. This practice reduced front seat legroom and was found to be unacceptable, so the manufacturers began to angle the motor and transmission down at the transmission end to provide a lower floorboard and more legroom for the front seat passengers. The engineers reasoned that for the carburetors to function properly, the carbs need to sit pretty much level with the ground, so they began to cut the carb mounting pad on an angle so that even with the engine/trans package angled down at the back, the carb would sit level on the motor and would operate properly. That's why all modern carbureted motors have the intake manifold carb pad cut at an angle of approximately 3 degrees in relation to the crankshaft centerline. I have always thought that Ford carried this out to its most ridiculous point with the MEL and FE manifolds of the 60's. I never put an angle finder on one, but I'd bet it's closer to 4, or even 5 degrees.
http://www.hptrends.com/JR3.jpg
Interestingly, there is one of these manifold/carbs combos (Mercury Marauder MEL 430) for sale on ebay, asking $6500.....

Of course, the auto makers could have dropped the motor/trans package down in the vehicle and kept the crankshaft centerline level with the ground, but the oil pan would have been scraping the ground. To fix that, they could have installed a dry sump system, but take into consideration that they will not even spend 50 cents on some extra nickel in the cast iron alloy mix to extend the life of a cylinder block, so the cost of a dry sump system would have made them choke on their brandy.

Also, while we're on the subject of positioning a motor in the car, it is perfectly alright to position the motor to the driver's or passenger's side of the vehicle to miss certain other components of the vehicle such as steering boxes, etc. Back in the days of the musclecars, motors were moved to the passenger side of the engine bay by as much as 3 inches, in order for the power brake cannister to miss the driver's side valve cover. (think 426 Hemi). Although there is some compliance in the u-joints, try to position the motor in the car with the crankshaft centerline 90 degrees from the rear axle centerline or within a couple of degrees of square. The main thing you have to pay attention to when moving the motor/trans laterally is the clearance of the bell housing and transmission in the driveshaft tunnel. It's very bad engineering practice to have metal touching metal, drivetrain to body.

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Finally got a chance to sit down and read this, really appreciate all the info this is my first build and I am full of questions, will keep posted, thanks again

Tech nice job of explaining this whole process. You helped me from the start here and so far so good! I wish Don and Ken were still around to join in with discussions like this.

Originally Posted by stovens

Tech nice job of explaining this whole process. You helped me from the start here and so far so good! I wish Don and Ken were still around to join in with discussions like this.

I bumped into a post by Don on the HAMB, sent him a PM, but no reply.

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Originally Posted by stovens

Tech nice job of explaining this whole process. You helped me from the start here and so far so good! I wish Don and Ken were still around to join in with discussions like this.

X2 Tech, thanks for the clear and concise explanations, and the history lesson too. I value your down to earth explanations of the processes.

Ken seems to be using Facebook as his only link to social media, other than e-mail. I've communicated a bit with him, trying to help with some ideas on forming albums for his pictures vs posting them one-at-a-time but the iPad/PC differences haunted us. He's still doing his fantastic work, but sadly the "build thread" approach just isn't there.

I tried connecting with Don too, but no luck. I see Kens post regularly on Facebook too, so I still keep in touch with him. If you're ever in So.Cal. it's worth it to connect up with him and go to his shop/business where he builds foldable trailers. He has some really cool stuff there!