1965 Plymouth Barracuda & Valiant Center Link Mods?

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gwmax65

gwmax65

Magnum V8 Mopar
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Hi! I got a '65 273 'Cuda with the V8 center link installed and at the moment the 273 oil pan obviously clears the center link. I also have a slant six center link in my '65 Valiant, and the main problem is all about oil pan clearance.

At the moment I am pulling my 273 drivetrain out of the 'Cuda and working on a nice '86 LA 360 small block build, and will use an automatic 727 trans with that motor in the 'Cuda. I don't have a motor in the '65 Valiant at the moment and just got finished with a '96 318 Magnum small block build for it, and will use the 904 automatic trans off of the 273 for this 318.

Anyways, I got to looking at my oil pan clearance on my 273 to the V8 centerlink and it looks like it has about 3" of clearance stock.

My main question is, can I some how get both of my center links modified a little to drop down enough to clear my oil pans, on my LA 360 and 318 Magnum oil pans? (360 & 318 have the same oil pans) They both do not have the truck style oil pan, that has been assessed and they both have the car-mid sump oil pans.

Comparing the 273 oil pan to either the 318 or 360 oil pans, it appears the rear part of the oil pan that has a difference of 2-3 inches (318/360 basically drop lower than the 273's oil pan). So has anyone ran into this dilemma before? What should I do? Rack & Pinion set-up is not up my ally anytime soon (price wise).

I've heard of some people using two center links, chopping the ends where it starts to angle down, and add more material from the other center link and weld it to make it longer. In this case I need both center links modified instead of one. Any suggestions, or comments would be greatly appreciated.
 
Center links take a lot more stress than you would think, and any bends tend to be weak spots that will kink up if you hit a curb for example. And the nature of the material used tends to be that once bent, they will rebend much more easily the 2nd time.

Much, much better to mod the oil pan. A kinked, bent link would be bad news on highway or strip, and a weld break would be far worse....
 
Sorry all for the late reply, for some dumb reason I don't get notified until the proceeding Sunday that somebody replied to me on this thread. Anywho, bOb, 273 oil pan won't work due to the journal sizes on the 360 crank being bigger, plus oil pan surface design on the rear is different. mm9, I would rather not chance having to mod that oil pan and end up having it interfer with the crank shaft. Kenton, yes it will barely fit, and I'll have to deal with trans noise since it will ride against the trans tunnel. So basically I got my answer on The early Plymouth Valiant/Barracuda club. Will be ordering some performance drag center links for my '65 'Cuda and Valiant from a Mopar junkyard here in a week, should solve my problem!! Thanks all for the quick replies, will have to just get on here and check if anyone's replied to my threads every day since their notification system sucks.
 
gwmax65 said:
Sorry all for the late reply, for some dumb reason I don't get notified until the proceeding Sunday that somebody replied to me on this thread. Anywho, bOb, 273 oil pan won't work due to the journal sizes on the 360 crank being bigger, plus oil pan surface design on the rear is different. mm9, I would rather not chance having to mod that oil pan and end up having it interfer with the crank shaft. Kenton, yes it will barely fit, and I'll have to deal with trans noise since it will ride against the trans tunnel. So basically I got my answer on The early Plymouth Valiant/Barracuda club. Will be ordering some performance drag center links for my '65 'Cuda and Valiant from a Mopar junkyard here in a week, should solve my problem!! Thanks all for the quick replies, will have to just get on here and check if anyone's replied to my threads every day since their notification system sucks.
Click to expand...

You could always put a spacer under the engine mounts to raise the engine up to clear, 1/4 inch thick piece of flat stock would probably do it..

The fact of the 273 oil pan not fitting the 360 has nothing to do with crank shaft journal sizes..........the difference is the shape of the rear portion of the pan as it seals over the rear main bearing cap, AND it is the 273/318/340 pans that are larger than the 360. Before the aftermarket stepped up and started making pans for the 360 years ago, people would make spacers out of epoxy.
 
11/30/2014 update: Turns out the 273 pan was creating some strange illusion (while still in my '65 'Cuda) to make me think that it would sit higher/have more oil pan clearance than the oil pan I got from summit racing (sum-g3536). Got the 1997 Magnum 318 motor installed last week in my brothers 1965 Plymouth Valiant 200, accidentally had the motor mounts on the wrong sides (remember to put both of them on the correct sides) but switched them and it sat flush in place. It looks like I have the same amount of clearance as I had with the 273 in there, maybe less than 1/2" of clearance difference.

For anyone who is having trouble with installing the 273's passengers motor mount on a Magnum 318/360 motor, go to my other thread that covers this easy trick to get it installed with no mods:

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?p=1970647049#post1970647049
 
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