DeTomaso Mailing List: December 99, Message #412

Hi All:

A couple of days ago, I got the big block measurements from Ford Motorsport
and compared them to 
the measurements on my 351C on-stand. As somewhat expected, the crank rear
on the Cleveland 
is about 3.75" (1.25" smaller than the 5" diameter of the 460). The 460
sticks out at .668" 
at the crank output from the rear edge of the block while the Cleveland is
roughly half of 
that. I don't know how the pilot shaft is compared to either crank but since
the 400C uses 
the small block FMX transmission, I'm assuming (to be checked at a later
date) that the 
pilots for the big and small blocks are the same.  Barring all unknowns and
up to this point,
I'd say that the 460 bellhousing needs to be at least .334" deeper than the
current bell-
housing depth of 4.5" (or about 4.9"). While I'm not going to start any hack
and weld jobs 
until I'm confident that all the data is in, I suspect I'm pretty close to
getting a good idea
of how the bellhousing should be dimensioned. I would opt to make the
bellhousing a tad bit
deeper (perhaps about 1/8"-1/4"). If it turns out that I made the
bellhousing too deep, 
it's a simple no-brainer to fabricate a spacer to "take up the slack" of the
extra depth and 
for the overall length, adjust the engine mounts accordingly so that I can
expect a like 
intrusion into the passenger compartment via that "rude engine hump" between
the seats. Oh yeah! Might as well throw in the aspect of thermal expansion.
A 70 Mach 1 Cobra Jet owner told me I should consider this problem too (he's
been working on a number of cars over the years and lead me on to this).
This might be something to include in the "spacer" question. I'll see as
time goes on.

In the meantime, I'm targeting this weekend for the passenger side wheelwell
restoration. 
That well brace will be cleaned of all rust and patch welded (since I saw no
major rust damage
inflicted during my initial inspection of that area). Additionally, I'll
have all the rear 
A-arms removed and prepared for powdercoating and eventual rebushing. With
the old sway bar 
coming out too, I've pondered the problem of the old ZF to chassis
centermount and toyed with the
idea of fabricating a new sidemount. Definitely interesting stuff from this
end. 

Any thoughts and suggestions are appreciated as usual. Cal #2428r.