You are a wealth of information. Thank You for your posts to this thread, I'm leaning more to the mid engine and already have the transfer case(205) and the dana 60 with 5:50 ring and pinion, have two ranges to use low and high with a short shaft 727 and a 4500 stall convertor, may be a bit much convertor but gonna try it. The early a bodies are a skosh lighter from the get go so it's gonna be a trial and error with the parts I have for now. the buget doesn't allow me to do otherwise
Since you're using a wagon you could possibly have the rear end mounted normally and mount the engine facing backwards set further to the rear. That would put more weight behind the axel and make it easier to pull the wheels.
