Some guys have recommended to me that even on a street swap I use a motor plate. On a B/RB this is relatively simple because you can just shave off the rear of the pump housing by the thickness of the plate, and still use the existing pulley setup. This frees up a fair amount of area for exhaust, etc
you can do the same with small blocks. i had 1/4" machined off the water pump mounting face of the timing cover for a small block so the pump still sits correctly spaced and the pulleys all line up right with the motor plate sandwiched in there.
neil.
