'66 Pontiac Resto-Mod Update

[wmhjr]

Well, over the weekend I worked on the car some more. Worked on the firewall/steering setup and the clutch master cylinder mounting. As I was getting ready to finish up, I noticed that the headers on the passenger side seemed really tight against the frame. I had to leave, but thought about it for the next day or so. I was pretty sure it looked a lot tighter than when I installed the motor and the headers.

Well, I checked a day or so later, and my fears were confirmed. Remember how the car was "dropped" (slid off of) from the floor jack and it trashed my fuel pump? Well, when it did that there was so much force that it also damaged the motor mounts. The passenger side motor mount bolt (the long bolt that bolts the engine mount to the frame plate) is almost right on the frame as opposed to being about 3/8" away from it. That lowered the entire right side of the motor.

This weekend I need to remove the upper AND lower motor mounts. I had to get new ones. I went with solid mounts this time since even the MityMounts are only rated for 500hp, and I'm well above that. I'm not looking forward to this. I need to unbolt and lift the motor a little, unbolt the headers, try to tilt the motor enough to get to the motor mount bolts, possiblyl remove the lower control arms in order to get through the spring pocket to where the nuts are for the frame plates, and put it all back together. I am desperately hoping I don't need to completely pull the motor. I'm also very much hoping that the passenger side header was not damaged by hitting the frame during the accident. They are ceramic coated. If they're damaged, it probably delays the entire project by 3 weeks. Can't reassemble the front clip for the final time until that's all done.