Originally posted by t-bonewilliams

I guess I still have a few questions. First, I understand the 283 will mount to the stock front mounts. So that's not a problem. However, will my Muncie mount up to a stock tri-five V8 bell housing? If so, I could just use the stock bell housing mounts as well? T
Here's the link for CPP lots of good info on the site even if just for reference; http://www.classicperform.com/5557STX.html

Your stock trans has been "just hanging out there" all it's life, so that's not an issue. As Crush intimated, using a rear crossmember with the front mounts is believed to put undue stress on the bellhousing and front of trans because of the long span. I'm not 100% convinced of that, but then I'm not real comfortable with it either. I've seen lots of aluminum case Muncies with the front mounting ears welded back on. Personally I've had lots of Muncies and never broke a case, so is it an inherent weakness, or sloppy installation that causes the breakage? I'd vote for the latter. If everything were torqued up correctly and maintained that way, you could probably get by with the front/rear mounts as long as you weren't really hammering it constantly. Or go the tri-5 V8 bellhousing route.

Just another note, but you may have already figured that out too, the V8 won't use the same mount location on the front as the six, there's another pair of holes in the crossmember further back for the V8.