Thread: New Project

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".....Yes, many times engines were set off to one side......."

".....I've done many engine swaps over the years and I've always struggled with wanting the engine centered in the engine bay. Unfortunately, the pinion location really dictates where the engine sets......."



"........I'm thinking it wasn't uncommon to mount the engine off center or canted back in the day......"


Oh yeah. It was done more often than you think from the factory. I run into it a few times when building some of my projects. The 80s G bodies (like my 83 El Camino was offset to the passenger side).

The mid 60s Ford Full size cars had the engine canted down in the rear pretty severely. Their trick was to either mill the carburetor flange at an angle or use wedge spacer plate under the carb so the air cleaner was level and that a glance you didn't notice the angle of the valve covers.

The best one I ran into and didn't catch during the build was the Cobra II I put together. It was a factory V8 car and when I put it together I used factory mounts etc so the engine was where the factory put it. I never noticed it until I decided to cut the hood for a shaker style air cleaner. It's hard to tell in the picture but the Cobra II hood stripes have about a 1" strip of body color between the 2 white panels. That body color stripe goes exactly down the center of the hood. When you looked at the car from the front you could definitely tell the hole and air cleaner were offset about an inch.

When the wife claimed it for her daily driver, I replaced the the hood with a flat one and put a (centered) fiberglass hood scoop on.



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