I'm going to chain the engine in this week, in my 86 Z28.

How much slack, if any should be in the chain. I figured on as little as possible.

Right now the plan is to attach it to an accesory bolt on the driver's head, and then weld a link to the flat part of the "frame"

any other method's, places or suggestions as to where the frame side of the chain goes

The heads are iron, and the only accesories are the waterpump, and the alternator, so there's not a lot of intereference here.
thanks

 

No slack. Should even be preloaded a hair. Alot of people use a turnbuckle or rod ends instead of a chain so they can adjust it. What I did was run a 1/2" bolt vertically through my frame, with a good 4" sticking up through it. By making the chain with minimum slack at the end of the bolt, I was able to make it as tight as I wanted by sinching it down closer to the frame.

 

yea i used the turnbuckle method. sems like it loosens up sometimes , jester notice it with your method?

 

Done this several times on a dual purpose car. I prefer cable to chain just becuase it doesn't jingle around during regular driving. An adjustable turnbuckle is good idea.

I always left just a smidge (I mean a tiny amount- just short of stretched taut) of slack for a daily driver. I wanted the rubber engine mount to do the work during regular driving so I had nice quiet, smooshy behavior around town, with the chain/cable there to catch it only when you got hard into it and take the force off the engine mount.

For a racer, run it tight. Believe me, there's still gonna be some movement even if it's stretched tight to begin with.

 

mine has stayed tight. If you're gaining slack..thats a sign of stretching somewhere. Use heavier whatever it is you use. My chain is pretty overly heavy just because it's what I had lying around. I keep mine tight enough that it doesn;t jingle....either that or I just can't hear it over the exaust