Yesterday I installed all of the goodies on the flywheel side of the engine and stuffed it in the truck. I did this to make sure I was not going to have to shave any of the input shaft, and where the motor mounts would be located. Nothing had to come off of the input shaft but the motor mount stands had to be relocated.
This morning I removed the engine and all of the stuff on the back side of the engine. I then cut off the old motor mount stands. Then cleaned the Herculiner from the area.
I then installed and attached the engine to the bell housing. I used a bottle jack on the axle to hold up the engine and make adjustments to the height.
I installed the bracket for the AC and air compressor because the ac compressor is the highest thing on the front of the motor. Then I set the hood on the fenders and raised the engine until I had about 1 inch between the hood and the top of the compressor. The following pics will show the rest of the clearance issues.
The engine in a messy engine compartment. Still that little V6 looks pretty comfortable in there.
After doing all of the research on the 4.3 swap, I was a bit concerned on the firewall and distributor location. Well on my setup there is about 1 inch between the distributor cap and the firewall, no sheet metal work needed here.
As for the front of the engine and the radiator, again no issue there. There must be 9 inches between the lower pulley and the front frame. When the radiator and fan are installed I should have, at minimum, 4 inches from the pulleys to the electric fan.
Now I am stuck, I thought I had enough material to build the mount stands but dont. The top of the motor mounts will sit about level with the frame when all is said and done.
