I'm Getting to the stage where I am going to put my Escort 1300 crossflow & 4 speed box into my book chassis & make the engine mounts etc, I read in the book that I should put the bottom of my sump about 1" below the chassis rails, thats easy, but where do I put the engine/box in the fwd/aft position, it says 'as far back as possible'.

Would someone please have a measure for me & tell me the distance from the front of the gearbox bellhousing to the front of the footwell tubes

thanks in advance

I suggest you put your engine/gearbox in the chassis and block it up in position at the height you want and then experiment with how far back you can position it without fouling starter motor, clutch operation etc. You'll need to do this to work out where and how engine mounts need to be placed/sized.

I can't speak for a book chassis, I rearranged my chassis around the gearbox, to get it as far back as possible. Moving it back, in general should improve the front/rear balance.

In my case the back of engine/bellhousing junction is 40mm in front of the footwell, ie the bellhousing is mostly inside the transmission tunnel

JohnN

Yup. I'm with John on this one.
As well as the balance aspect, it also gets the gear lever into a more reachable position.
I got mine back to dead level.


Paul G

Have a look at my build record for install exactly as you described. The limiting factor as far as I remember is the clutch arm & bulge for starter on bellhousing:






Lots more images here...

And the full build record here...

Hope this helps

Cheers

[Edited on 8/10/04 by SeaBass]

Sea bass, just got round to looking at your web site, SUPERB,

thanks for the help