Jose I need some help.

[61Alpine]

Jose,
On my #2 V6 conversion, I am finally back at it after a long HOT HOT summer here in Utah. Spent way to much time on the golf course.

I have the engine in after cutting the Dampner/Pulley down to one grove. When I have the pulley back far enough to clear the cross member (approx. the same location as #1) the drivers side steering linkage hits the rear header pipe about in the middle. I figure I will have to move the engine forward about 3/4" to clear the tube. But then I will have to cut and weld the crossmember.

Have any of the other V6 conversions had to cut the crossmember to fit the engine?

Thanks for you info guys.

 

[Pembertoltd]

Pulley problems

I had the same problem with mine and what I ended up doing is place a few washers under both sides as spacers just enough to rasise the front of the engine a little. Hope this helps. I never did any cutting or welding and I even kept the original 2 groove pulley.

 

[weaselkeeper]

I originally had the problem with the dual pulley cut down to a single hitting the crossmember. I found the pulley I had cut down was nearly 1/2 longer than the original single belt pulley when measured with the pulleys sitting side by side on the table, which effectively made the cut pulley sit further forward. (The hub portion was noticably longer) I changed to a single belt pulley and the trouble went away. No small chore to find a single pulley.


Just an hour ago, crawled out from under my welding helmet after finishing the last of four floor section replacments. HORRAY!! Took much longer than I imagined, somewhat due to my job sending me out of town so often. Those shiny floor pans make my eyes hurt. Now to get this thing on a rotiserie and make some real progress, providing I can stay home for a while. But then there is hunting season just around the corner... Priorities.

 

[61Alpine]

Pete,
Thanks for the info on the difference between the single and double pulley.

Can you tell me what car I am looking for to find the single pulley?

 

[V6 JOSE]

Hi Rob,

I'm in Seattle and don't have a regular access to a computer, so haven't been apraised of your problem. Pete said that he had a pulley that was longer in the hub part, but that too can be remedied by turning the hub to the length of the shorter one. All you'd need is the length of the shorter one and then have a machine shop turn it to length.


I'm surprised that the driver's side header is being hit by the steering arm, because it is the other side that is closest to the steering arm. These cars are all a bit different, so it isn't unusual for the engine not to fit in exactly the same location. I would suggest having your pulley cut to fit , so that the groove matches the water pump pulley groove, then place the engine. I think it will fit close to where your #1 does.

Jose

 

[sunbby]

Hi Rob,

I'm surprised that the driver's side header is being hit by the steering arm, because it is the other side that is closest to the steering arm. These cars are all a bit different, so it isn't unusual for the engine not to fit in exactly the same location. I would suggest having your pulley cut to fit , so that the groove matches the water pump pulley groove, then place the engine. I think it will fit close to where your #1 does.

Jose

Just a wild question... Can the front end alignment effect this? Specifically, if the alignment was done without keeping the 2 tie rods the same length could one steering arm then have less clearance somehow?

I have not done a conversion or even looked at this area on a completed one so please ignore me if I'm way off base.

 

[61Alpine]

I don't have the front suspension in the car so the tie rod length won't make any difference. Thanks for the ideas.

 

[Jim E]

Todd,
The header to tie rod clearance on these is about .050 or a little less at one point when turning the wheel.

When I installed the v6 in my SV to get the tie rod clearance had to heat and beat the frame rail to get any header clearance on the drive side [RHD]

The S3 had no problems at all, but the ride hieght is a lot different, not sure if that makes a diff though.

One thing, well when I fit a V6 anyway, the car is up in the air on jack stands and the front suspention is dropped all the way. Which makes the angle of the tie rod more severe, passes lower on the header and the lower you get the farther toward the rear of the car the header pipe that fouls the tie rod. Hard to describe. The point if there is one in this ramble is that with a load on the suspention the tie rod is more level to the ground and up higher in relation to the header pipe. So to reproduce the jack stand/install condition you would be totally unloaded on the front suspention and turned to lock.... right about then I imagine things would get interesting...

 

[61Alpine]

Jim, I don't have any of the suspension in the car so there is no load. It is the steering arm at the front end where it comes out of the steering box. I had the same problem with my #1 V6 but the engine was still able to sit further back.

 

[Mod_Squad!]

I'm RHD so I don't know if we have the same issues. But I think I remember grinding a little off of the tie rod end where it fouled the header. It was just rubbing so I nibbed a bit off. Sure beat moving stuff all over again. I think I had my engine in and out a couple dozen times .
Good Luck,
Bryan

 

[weaselkeeper]

61 Alpine. Not sure what pulley. I found one on a core engine and didn't check serial #s. I do know the pulley I didn't use came from a bronco.

Good point Jose about cutting the back side of the hub down so long as the mach shop gets the sealing surface in the right spot. P.