I'm no mechanic, but this won't work...

[Otto1970]

Well I dropped the motor in the car, but I'm now dealing with this header clearance issue. They are BBK ceramics. the shaft is Flaming River's, and that's an AJE Racing K-member the motor's sitting on. Am I going to be able to solve this with a simple header swap? If that is the case which ones will work. I really don't want to mess with that steering linkage again because that item is not returnable, since I had to cut the shaft in order to make it work!

 

[Jack's95gt]

Sometimes you need to take a hammer to the header and make clearance.

 

[Otto1970]

If I were to take a hammer to it, what would you say is the minimum amount of clearance necessary?

 

[lang williams]

are you using solid motor mounts? if so i might try to drop a few washers under the pass side mount to tilt the motor a tad to help clear it. don't know if that would creat any other issues though.

 

[Rick 91GT]

How much did you take off the shaft?

The intermediate shaft can be pulled out a little more and this will give you additional clearance. They can be a little hard to get moving but it can be done, this is the shaft that slides up into the steering column, the one the upper u-joint bolts to. If you can stick a piece of steel rod through the hole on the shaft and pull it wil move, looks like an additional .375-.50" will take care of your issue. Are you using offset steering mounts?

If all else fails rasing the motor a little will add the clearance, I've made steel spacers to go between the block and motor mounts to get things into the correct position, it works and holds up fine.

 

[1991vert]

this might be a dumb question, but have you tried removing the shaft and installin the header then putting the shaft back in place? by the looks of the pictures you only have the collect/dome through there

 

[Otto1970]

Well I took approx. 1" off of the rod that goes between those two Flaming River u-joints. There was just not enough space between the steering rack and the shaft coming through the fire wall to accomodate the setup w/o protuding metal interfering w/ the u-joints as they turned. I don't know if I'm making sense here. The rack bushings are not offset. So, you're saying that that the shaft that comes through the fire wall can be extended from inside of the car to change the angle of the whole setup and gain a .5 inch that way? I was hoping you guys would just tell me too lose the BBK's in favor of something else thats more accomodating.

 

[Otto1970]

No I have not tried that. I lowered the motor w/ the headers attached onto the l-shaped brackets on the k-member, and it bolted right in. The steering linkage is making contact w/ the header tube not the collector flange.

 

[Redfire 05]

I'll give a second vote for the hammer. I had to dent my headers as they were touching the steering shaft. As for clearance, just put the headers back in and turn the steering shaft. If it doesn't touch and you have solid motor mounts you should be okay. If you don't have solid motor mounts you will want to give it some extra clearance although I honestly don't know how much.

 

[Otto1970]

Yeah, I think the hammer deal is becoming more and more likely to be the easiest solution here. I'm not sure what I have in terms of a motor mount. It's an "L" shaped bracket that attaches to the K w/ a long bolt sheathed in a polyurethane bushing. I'm able to move the motor longitudinally but not laterally, so I'm thinking that dimpling that runner just a bit will do the trick. What about that ceramic coating though?

 

[Rick 91GT]

The intermediate shaft needs to be pulled from the engine bay side, the bolt that holds the FR shaft goes through the intermediate shaft that will come out. If you would have cut the shaft you could have possibly pushed the intermediate shaft in further....

 

[Otto1970]

So I pulled that header off and beat the crap out of it. The result is approx. 3/16" clearance. hopefully its enough. thanks for the suggestions

 

[DrMaxit]

So I pulled that header off and beat the crap out of it. The result is approx. 3/16" clearance. hopefully its enough. thanks for the suggestions

I like the way you think Cowboy, LoL. Good stuff.

--Chuck