I had to make a slight modification to my new Founders camber/caster plates because I am using an Edelbrock strut tower brace and the mounting brackets are kind of big. I couldn't move the brace forward any further otherwise it would hit the hood, so I really had no simple solution other than modifying the plates from Founders.

As you can see, they leave quite a bit of material in between the forward two slots. I shaved this down so I can move the plate more forward. The angled material is where my mounting brackets were hitting.


After doing this, it should fit quite nicely and still give me the adjustability I was looking for. I filed the grind marks down and sprayed it black to match the new finish.

 

which edelbrock strut tower brace? i had the three point and the same plates when i had a tbi and didnt have a problem. i converted to a tpi i want to get another edelbrock three point and hopefully use the same mounting holes.

 

I would tell Founders. Not to complain but to allow them to make the decision as to whether or not they want to modify their design to avoid any future fitment issues. One less thing for anyone to ever complain about.

 

This is the version I'm using. I couldn't move it more forward because the middle brace would start rubbing pretty bad on the hood. The strut towers have an incline to them as I'm sure you're aware, so the further back on the tower you can mount the brace, the lower it will sit under the hood.

 

Since you have a LS, you can cut the strut tower mounts shorter, redrill the holes & "lower" the cross bar by doing so, giving more room for the hood.

 

This is true, however this causes two other hurdles.

1- if you lower it a noticeable amount it will throw the geometry off for the two rearward support bars and they won't mount flush to the firewall ledge

2- if I cut down the brackets for the main brace, I'd have to file and re-powder coat the brackets. It was easier for me to grind on the CC plates and then repaint than to pay to have the STB powder coated a second time.

 

You've already altered the geometry by moving it back (moved the 2 firewall mounts together) & not the strut mounts aren't sitting flat so the "ultimate" strength & they could have is already gone. I'd add a plate to shim the mounts up to sit flat (the UMI STB is built that way allowing it to overlap the strut mounts). You have already cut the Founders mounts & spray painted them so just spray paint the STB mounts to.

Do you really think that firewall lip is all that strong & that the slight downward angle hurts it any? The angle isn't gonna hurt anything.

 

No I realize the lip of the firewall isn't a major part of the integrity here, but I'm not really getting what you're saying about the strut mounts not sitting flat. This is exactly how I've seen these STB's mounted on other cars. The mounting plates are angled so that no matter where you mount the thing on your strut towers, the top side of it will be level. But in my particular case, I needed it to be where it is so that it doesn't hit the hood. I already had holes drilled because it was mounted here before I did my engine swap.

 

Maybe I was seeing it wrong, but I thought I saw it sitting on top of the strut mounts & overlapping the edge. My UMI one uses the strut mounts nuts to hold it on instead of having to drill new holes & use new bolts to hold it down.

 

It looks like they will still limit your camber adjustment as the plates are sitting right on top of the brace.

 

There's still about 1/2" of adjustment that I won't be able to use but it was closer to 1" or 1 1/4" that I couldn't use. It will not hinder my alignment though as I dont need them adjusted all the way out to their limits.