I don't see to many 3rd gens around so I have nothing to compare to. But the rear of my engine is closer to the passenger side of the car than the front. The engine is mounted a few degrees diagonally in the bay. I know that the engines are not centered in these cars, but I'm concerned about this angle because of the effects on the U-joints. I just checked the mount clamshells and they are mounted correctly on the proper sides of the block. Is anyone else's engine mounted on an angle like this?



Yes, I have an lt-1 intake, This pic doesn't really do much justice, but you can see that the rear is off to the side a little. It's more visible in person.

 

If the engine wasn't straight, then I doubt you could get the transmission to line up with the cross-member bolts.

I doubt you could even get the motor mount bolts lined up unless both mounts were using the correct holes.

 

Your motor mounts are shot. You need to replace the rubber part inside the clam shell. Have they ever been replaced?

 

Yes, the motor mounts have been replaced. The engine is only off a little, but it only takes a little to make a big difference. Its like the engine is too far to the drivers side, which makes it angle back to the passenger side to meet the trans cross member.

What do your engines look like? Is this even something you guys have looked for?

 

I can't say that I've seen the engine not true to the centre line of the vehicle but I have noticed that (in my case which was a 2.8 to 350 swap) the engine sat higher on the drivers side. I actually came across an OEM engine mount spacer (about 3/16") that props up the passenger side so as to achieve level across the carb pad on the intake.
Here are a few pics.
The view from the bottom side appears to the show the the flexplate is square to the chassis. I referenced a line from left to right parallel to the flexplate and examined the difference from that line to the k-member bolts.




Engine sits higher on the driver's side.





OEM spacer between the engine mount and block.





Flexplate square to k-member bolts.

 

There was never a OEM spacer used on any Thirdgen car. While you seem to have overcome the problems caused by installing the clamshells on the wrong sides,... they are still mounted wrong. That is why your engine didn't sit right and needed to be adjusted in the first place.

( right now your entire engine is sitting almost 1/4" to high ! )

 

We've been through this before and I had verified that the engine mounts are correctly installed. The spacer has also been discussed and seeing as at the time no other parts other than those that came from third gens existed in my parts stash, I can only conclude that it was installed in one of my previous vehicles at one time or another. Other than that, there is no explanation as to where it came from or why an OEM part such as this would even exist.(Yes, it has a GM part number on it.)
Now, all of that said, if it IS sitting about 3/16ths too high, it's a good thing because header clearance at the k-member is very tight.

 

That's right; we have,... and yet you are still telling people to install their clamshells the wrong way. For arguments sake; How do you think that level would have looked if you had reversed the clamshells ??


Your experience is based on 1 car that came with a box full of parts...... a box that you didn't even fill. I've pulled at least 30 engines from these cars and EVERY ONE has the clamshells installed the way I describe - and NEVER found a spacer installed on any of them. Feel free to believe what you want,... just don't instruct people To install their parts wrong or they will be forced to overcome the ( self inflicted ) problems caused by installing the clamshells wrong in the first place.

 

Couple of things John in RI.
Experience based on one car and a box full of parts?
Hardly.
Keep telling to install their engine mounts on the wrong side?
Never.
It's nice that you've removed 30 engines.
When you you get to 1.5 million, let me know.
In all seriousness, I'm relating my experience is all.
Engine mounts installed correctly. (yes, I flipped then with the same results).
Spacer in my parts bin that mysteriously appeared. I don't know what to tell you.

 

ACDELCO 22188497

 

You do realize that this is completely impossible - right ??

 

I think we're talking about two different things.
My apologies to the OP for gumming up his thread.

 

Yes, these are 2 different things. My engine is level, i just dont think its in the right spot in the bay. And yes, the Clamshells are mounted correctly, i checked the number on it last night.

I have made a diagram to help explain my situation. The picture is to represent what the engine would look like in the chassis from the top down perspective.

The trans mount just locates the rear of the trans, there is no room in the tunnel to move the tail of the trans left or right to straighten this out. If i could shift the engine over the passenger side just a tad, it would fix my issue...

 

Maybe your k-member is shifted to the drivers side

 

I had the K member out some time ago, it's not possible to shift around since it's located by mounting bosses. It mounts accurately in the same spot even when removed.

 

I wonder if can loosen the rubber motor mounts and move them around.

 

I knew what you were asking but somehow it turned into a conversation about clamshells.
Anyway, you're concerned about the engine centreline not being square with the chassis. What I was trying to illustrate with the last picture I posted was how the flexplate on my engine appears to be square if measured to the k-member bolts. It's tough to tell from that picture though.
What I'll do is take a pic as everything sits at the moment. I'm doing a top end rebuild but there should be enough reference lines on the short block to determine what's square.
That said, is there the chance your chassis has been in an accident?
Something else to consider to are the production tolerances these cars were manufactured with. It could be that the alignment dowels and the holes they mate to are off just enough to give you this problem. Just throwing that out there.
In the meantime I'll take a few pictures.

 

<br/>A shot trying to use my upper rad support as a reference.





Using a straight across the upper and lower rad support and measuring to the water pump mounting pad passenger's side. 11 1/4"





Using a straight across the upper and lower rad support and measuring to the water pump mounting pad driver's side. 11 1/4"

 

Sorry, I missed the post about the flex plate. But yes, it defdefinitely looks like I have an issue. Thanks for all the images and measurements guys.

 

I hope you get to the bottom of it and post up on your findings.
That said, there's something I'd like to qualify regarding the engine mounts and spacer I illustrated earlier. Not that it has much to do with your engine alignment issue but worth noting and I would be remiss if I did correct something that might be misinterpreted.
John in RI insistence that I had swapped engine mounts left for right forced me to re-visit my install to determine exactly what was up. Turns out the mystery spacer I needed to correct the "slanted" engine was due to having TWO driver's side mounts in the chassis. Thus the need for the spacer to correct a problem I created in the first place. Thanks to John for that one.
I hope yours is something as simple as that. Just some mechanical bits that need adjustment and not anything bent out of shape.
Good luck.

 

is it possible that one of your motor mounts is bolted in the wrong posistion to the k-member? like maybe it got bolted to the v-6 posistion by mistake?

does the tranns mount line up correctly?

 

Seems like there's two different conversations going on here and I'm comfused (easy to do...I'm an idiot).

The first thing that comes to mind is, how are you determining that the engine is not straight in the chassis (front-to-back)? Are you just looking at it or have you measured it from point-to-point?

If you measured it, from where are you taking your measurements?

 

The angle is visible with the naked eye both the Bay and at the front U-joint.

 

About every rwd car ever made is like this to an extent, 1 due to Ujoint function the other may help with DS pedals/room

Shoulda seen the angle in my ZR1 youd think it was wrecked.

 

I just saw this image of someone else's engine bay and noticed that his engine seems to be pointing to the drivers side, opposite of my car... Did GM just throw these engines in there and just accept where they landed?!

 

I think that was the manufacturing standard at GM in the 80's.

 

LT1 in a ThirdGen,........ can't blame GM for that one !

 

Did you notice that mine has a distributor cap? No lt1 here