My 6.1 retrofit thread

Rat Patrol said
Very interesting!

Im going to call TTI about the fitment issues I've had - its nothing that can't be fixed - but when you pay $180 for two steel brackets, you don't expect to have to re-fabricate them to provide firewall, right front guard and hood clearance.

Something else I've noticed is that the motor is sitting slightly "askew" - front pointing more towards the right front corner than central - along with it being close to the right guard overall.

It looks like its been put in by a drunken sailor! LOL!

Rat - There was a lot of slop (AKA extra tolerance) in the original build of these cars. Add to that the many years of things "settling" and being knocked about it does not surprise me that generally aftermarket parts fit poorly. When designing these parts they usually have a test vehicle or part of a car that is used. With all the tolerances the test vehicle could easily be 1/8 inch off in one direction, and your car 1/8 inch off in the other. Really good design allows for some degree of tolerance stack. Designing parts or kits for vehicles that are 40 years old that fit perfectly is nearly impossible. The best one could do is design a kit that allows the installer to make adjustments.

One example for me is when installing my engine in a '75 k member I had to lengthen the slot in the mount ear on the drivers side about 3/16 inch to get the engine to sit far enough down to be level. Prior to elongating the slot a 3 foot level on the carb flange had to be lifted by almost 1/2 on the passenger side end to put the bubble in the center. Now was that a problem with the manufacture or design of the aftermarket mount? Was it a problem with the fabrication of my K-member? The 4 door valiant taxi that I removed the K from was in a junkyard and one of the lower control arms was bent badly. Could it have been this impact moved the mount? I can only guess, but it was easiest just to grind the slot in the mount and let it sit down farther... even though I had to pull the K-member twice to get it all sitting right.

Another little adventure I went through was my radiator. I have the first 27 inch core 32.5 inch wide radiator built by Be Cool for an A-body. Be Cool does not list it as a catalog part because you have to trim the pinch weld on the frame to get it to fit and open the radiator support to 27 inches, it is not a bolt in by any means. When I received the radiator it was too wide to fit between the frame rails - by a lot. The tanks kick in for clearance at the bottom. I called them and discussed. The measurements I made did not match what they said it should be. I had them send me the print. It was very crude and not dimensioned properly. By that I mean the drawing left too many items open to interpretation by the fabricator. I made some edits and suggestions and sent the drawing and the radiator back. They built me a new one and it fit perfectly.

Now the mount interfering with the block off plate - I agree, no excuse, this fitment should have been accounted for. Is the 5.7 and 6.1 dimensionally the same in this area?