Hi guys, New to forum, and hope to get some info on a problem thats driving me nuts. Just replaced my 327 small block with a rebuilt 454 big block. Was told that I would need "BIG BLOCK" motor mounts. Not even colse to being able to line them up and get both bolts through!!!!!!! Went back to my original small block mounts, and with a little elongating of drivers side hole, was able to get both bolts in. Now however the headers (even with slight modification to them are right against the steering colum. Had to go with smaller oil pan as well because it sat flush on the crossmember. HELLLLLLP!!!!!!!!!! With steering colum so close to headers with the original mounts, there is much vibration felt in steering wheel.

 

engine? and year of the car would help out

 

Sorry. !969 Camaro. Covered the engine though.

 

You're going to have to pick up some BB mootor frame mounts.

 

it's not the right way to do it but you should have been able to use the small blockframe mountswith minor problems.

what is your oil pan?

when using small block frame-mounts you are actually locating the engine lower, more to the driverside, and farther back in the frame.

for future reference, your best bet if doing that is to use solid engine mounts so the engine won't rock. you might have to dimple the #3 header tube if using big tubeswith power steering, you should also run a power steering cooler. also, sometimes depending on the distributor, you could have clearance problems with the firewall if it has a big cap. an MSD Pro-Billet would take care of that though

best bet is to go the way of the factory and buy big block engine and frame mounts

 

Boy did you nail it!!!!!!!!!!!! Thats exactly what I had to wind up doing, right down to modyifing the number 3 header tube. Finaly got it in though. Sure wish I'd checked in here earlier .Thanks much for your help!!!!!!!!

 

your welcome.

if you stick around long enough, you can get a lot of so-so advice in this forum and some good stuff too.

I try to be as clear as possible when I put advice out there, and if I'm not 100% sure I'll also let you know that too. I never will give out advice that is just a "good enough temporary" fix because I know most of the time people ask for that, they will never fix it right down the road.

I have experienced a lot of different scenarios so most of my advice usually comes first hand and not just hearsay from things I've heard and never seen. you canget a lot of that type of stuff from online forums. I swear it's almost like a bunch of people get their advice from some online urban myths automotive forums

anytime you have a question, don't hesitate to ask

 

Great. Thanks again. I'm sure this won't be my last need for assistance with my project. Great to know there are those such as yourself who KNOW Camaros to turn to!!!!!!!!!!

 

I have had a 396 that went onto the small block motor mounts no problem. I didn't have headers so I don't know about the power steering box clearence. The only problem I had was the small block heater core was too close to the engine and the head hit it when I went to reinstall the engine and therefore broke the heater core inside.

 

what needed to be done was to buy a big-block heatercore andfill the holes in the firewall, and either redrill the cover and make new mounts inside it to mount the new core, or buy a new cover made for a big-block.

the covers are actually the exact same with just different holes, even down to theedge were it's contoured for the small-block hoses