Beeman

Mid plate for motor which one fits best? Where and how did you attach the mounts? Wanting to put a mid plate and a frt. plate on my motor this year.

AlkyIROC

My front plate is custom made out of some 1/4" aluminum plate. Bit of a pain when the water pump bolts through the plate. You'll need water pump gaskets on both sides. Moving the water pump away from the block means all the pulleys/accessories need to be spaced outwards as well unless you simply use an electric water pump.

Mid plate is a little different. Since it sits between the block and the trans bellhousing, I bought a generic steel plate. It requires cutting modifications to fit any specific vehicle. It's simply bolted to any sort of mounting brackets with a couple of 3/8" bolts on both sides.

Since I Only use a very light powerglide for a transmission, I don't use a transmission mount/crossmember. The mid plate hold the back of the engine up and the transmission just hangs off the back of the block.

You will however need some sort of movement idolator. The front and mid plates will flex. You need some sort of rod or bar attached somewhere on the engine or trans that can be attached front or aft. I fabricated a rod that attaches the the trans tailshaft where the trans mount usually goes and the rod goes backward to a crossmember I have behind the transmission.

Where the front and rear plates are mounted depends on your own personal choice. I wanted my engine/trans pushed back as far as possible. The front frame rails angle inward behind the engine so header clearance prevents me from moving it back any more.

Another factor is the angle at which the engine and trans sit in the vehicle. A very good setup would have the transmission tailshaft pointed directly at the diff pinion. In my car because I run a 32" tall tire, the diff pinion sits very high up in the body. My engine/trans are pointed downward at the rear. I can't lower the front of the engine any more and the headers prevent me from raising the back up any more. Even though the angles look bad, as long as the engine/trans angle is at the same angle as the diff then the driveline angles will be good with no vibration. I run a 4-link which easily allows me to change the diff angle.

Here are some threads showing my motor plates

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/orga...tor-plate.html
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/orga...tor-plate.html
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/orga...rebuild-2.html

Beeman

Thanks for the pics. It is tight and I have a SBC with Hooker long tube headers. Have an AJE tube K member to install which is why I need to go to plates as it doesn't have any mounts I guess I really should cut the firewall too, we'll see how ambitious I get. I'm going to set the plates up while my factory K member is in so it will all stay in place, maybe it will be easier.