Thread: And more questions: Front suspension & clearance

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Updates on engine height.

Hiboy was on the rack again yesterday. It gave me a chance to really look at my suspension, clearance etc... I aso looked under the belly of several other hiboys friday night at Bob's Big boy cruise night. People must have wondered why I was spending more time lying down on the ground with my head under the cars than standing upright hehe... Anywhoo, I found that my engine is sitting lower than anything else I saw that day. Consequently when you look inside my car I do not have a transmission buldge between driver and passenger size which results in lots of leg/feet space. In short my transmission is mostly under the car compartment. I noticed I have only currently about 1/4 inch space clearance between firewall and transmission. I also noticed the bushing on engine mounts are tired. Jeff (my significant other - who is a certified Chevy tech) mentioned we could get new bushings, which will bring engine up a hair, but the transmission doesn't have alot of room to go up. I know we are looking at a triangle, so if engine goes up 1/2 inch for ex transmission will go up less, maybe I can get away with a little raise of engine this way... New bushing cant hurt anyways, right? Worth a try since Jeff can do the work himself (saves me $$).

As far as leaf springs, I thank you all for yoru warning, I do cherish both my arms and I think I'll let the rod shop battle with the springs on their own.

As far as Panhard bars, all the roadsters here have them and I can tell you from experience that not having one is making my hiboy handle very poorly when we hit potholes, especially on the freeway... The car will suddenly jump sideways, by a good few feet!! Pretty scary. Me no likey.

It sounds like you're running the 48 Ford rubber biscuit style mount.

They do tend to give up the ghost - some of them are made of overly soft rubber.

Take a look at the white motor mount biscuits on my 31.
They're cut from UHMW (Ultra High Molecular Weight) plastic.
Similar appearing to Teflon, but 70% stronger from what I understand.

Hard as a cotton-pickin' rock too, but they do damp vibrations and after installing a pair of them in my 32 that uses the same style mount, the car seems smoother than it did with rubber biscuits.

UHMW is available at industrial rubber stores - places that cater to farms and oil field - in sheets of varying thicknesses.

Cut em out with a hole saw, clean up, drill for motor mount bolt size and you're in business.

If you buy some small UHMW sheet pieces from the remnants pile, it's usually pretty cheap.
UHWM costs about 1/3 of what Teflon costs fwiw.

Maybe $3.00 invested in both sets of motor mounts on my two cars - four biscuits.

Here's a slightly thicker pair on my 32.

I failed to mention that there is a small UHMW biscuit on the underside of the frame motor mount bracket.

The whole design is pretty much the same as the 48 - & earlier - flathead Ford motor mounts.

Thickness doesn't seem to matter much as far as vibrational harmonics go.

UHMW cuts easily with a regular saw if you need a square or rectangular shape.

You don't need the aluminum load spreader plates as seen on my cars.
I have a lathe and make lots of little goodies for the hot rods....