can anyone give me the distance the lower chassis rails are off the floor front and rear. gonna put my chassis on axle stands tomorrow and put the engine in place to check for space (vauxhall xe).

how much ground clearance is needed below the sump?

Discussed at great length elsewhere in this forum - a search will reveal all...
BTW: 4" minimum is recommended.

David

Put your chassis on some 1" RHS same as you made it from then drop your engine in place. The sump will be at the correct level then and you won't have to balance it on anything but the floor.

1"- is that all!!!

didn't realise how tall an xe lump is. think the rocker cover and head are gonna be sticking out the bonnet!!!

has anyone else out there got an xe engine in place in a stock chassis?

i've built the chassis to the standard height and am now wondering if i should have raised the top rails a bit.

I think he means that 1 inch tubing will give you the 4 inches recomended when its on its wheels. I.e.sump is 1 inch lower than the chassis but chassis is 5 inch above the ground with the wheels on and suspension set up.

yeah i know. am just shocked that the sump only sits 1" lower than the bottom of the car.
still think i'm gonna need a periscope to see over the engine when driving it!!!

I take it your not trying to use the original sump ???

mattplace is right, put an XE 1" below the chassis and you'll need a bonnet bulge the size of a ship to cover it!!!

My sump (the caterham, very shallow, same depth as a dry sump, one) is about 50mm below the chassis, without going back out to measure! I have approx 75mm of ground clearance under the sump with 5" of chassis clearance. I wil run aroudn 5.5" chassis ride height when done I think.

[Edited on 7/2/05 by NS Dev]

Put 2 pieces of 1" RHS or some lengths of 3"x2" timber under it then. It's still going to be better than balancing the car on stands and the engine on something else and going under it with a tape to check it. I'm just thinking about the possibilities, not saying you have to set it at a certain height.

[Edited on 7/2/05 by Peteff]

good point Pete!!

ben-copeland - no i'm not gonna try and use the original sump. was hoping to hack it and tig it tomorrow but no drawings or explinations (HINT, HINT!).

come on someone must know something!

want to put the engine in position to work out how much space i've got cos i want inboard shocks (motorbike) and also to start fabricating the exhaust manifold and inlet manifold for blackbird carbs. got the week off work so trying to do as many jobs as possible.

nearly broke my finger today (long story but dropped my engine on it - trying to lift the engine myself. doh!) so that could have been my week of fun over!

Dropped an engine on my toe the other week... forgot my steel toe caps

Not pretty, but didn;t break my toe or loose the nail

I'm using a xflow engine which is set 1" below the bottom of the chassis.
I set my ride height according to the figures quoted in a Westfield build manual.
These were 5 3/4" front and 6 1/2" at the rear, both measured from the underside of the flat part of the chassis just forward of the front and rear wheels.

David