Preparing the engine

IT’S WISE to spend time making sure everything on the engine is correct and ready to connect before the engine is test fitted into the vehicle. Although this engine will be coming straight out again after we’ve measured up for the engine mounting modifications on the chassis, it still needs to fit perfectly, and the job to run fluidly without any distracting problems. Especially important are clutch plate alignment so that the back of the engine will slide easily onto the gearbox’s input shaft, and also confirming the bellhousing bolting arrangement so the engine and transmission can be quickly secured together. Because this is a new installation, we’re using new bellhousing bolts, and we take time to test fit each into the engine back plate. This is partly to confirm all the engine threads are clear, but also to confirm the bolt enters with maximum thread depth and clamps the bellhousing to the engine without hitting the bottom of the threaded hole. That’s a case of entering the bolts fully, then screwing back a little from the bottom of the hole, and using an engineer’s rule to confirm the distance under the bolt head is suitable for the thickness of the bellhousing flange at that point. Simply inserting a rod to measure the depth of the threaded hole doesn’t work because the drilling is always deeper than the thread.

The V8 engine’s backplate does not extend down to the bottom of the bellhousing, so there are no bolts there, and the resulting aperture at the bellhousing is covered by a closing plate.