With the powerplant down at the build site and staged to go in, the first thing I had to do was remove the old engine mounts from the Ranger frame. This involved removing the mount brackets from the frame, which involved two large nuts on a double stud piece and a single bolt with a wing on it and a nut underneath the frame. I ended up chopping the single nut and bolt off before realizing what this was, but the two large nuts on the double stud piece were zipped off with the impact wrench. Once the brackets were off, I zipped off the single nut on each engine mount, removing those two pieces. The first thing I did for shits and giggles was see if there was any possible way the engine can sit right on the frame and use the tabs on the 289's mounts. This proved to be pointless, so I ended up reinstalling the Ranger engine mount brackets. When I situated the engine over the frame, I noticed the first roadblock. Even though its small, it's still a roadblock. That roadblock is the idea that the oil filter sits right where the steering gearbox is located on the frame. Because of this, I would have to remove the filter to allow the engine to sit on the mounting brackets on the frame. I will have to source a remote oil filter kit for this engine. This incorporates a plate that is secured over the oil filter base on the engine, has a couple hoses plugged to the plate and to a remote base that holds the oil filter away from the engine block. Such a kit should not be too pricey and will solve this first problem. Upon setting the engine down on the Ranger frame motor mount brackets, I noticed that the engine had a lean to the right side. The motor mount brackets on the frame were not at the same level, with the left one being higher than the right one. Even though this would've been a minor inconvenience, being a stickler for details, I wanted to correct this. The only neat way to do it was to remove the left mount bracket, cut the top off, trim it some, then weld the top back on, which would put the left side at a lower level than before, and should help level the engine as it sits on the frame. After trimming the main part of the motor mount bracket down, I burned a couple small welds to the top so I could test fit everything before welding the thing completely. My test fit looked better than before, not perfect but better than before. I didn't want to keep trying to cut too much from the bracket otherwise things might not fit right, even more so than we're already looking at. With that, I welded everything up then moved on to the next stage in the installation. With the oddball way the Ranger engine mounting setup is done, I found that I was unable to tighten up the stud on the 289 mount bracket as it sits in the Ranger mount brackets. None of the pieces were made to fit perfectly flush with one another, I could only get a partial fitting. In order for me to secure the Ranger mounts back to their bases on the frame, I had to leave the nuts on the 289's mount studs loose enough to give me the wide angles that would allow everything to "fit". After wrestling with trying to get all this garbage to fit together, I had to settle on having the loose fitting 289 mounting brackets on the Ranger mounting brackets. I added some shims in a vain attempt to try and tighten the studs down against them to maintain the angles, but even that didn't work out. With the engine down on the brackets, I figured the only easy way to remedy this shitshow would be to weld the 289 brackets to the Ranger brackets then have the engine mounts themselves be permanent. Since one of the mounts are already set up to be a permanent setup, I'd just have to bolt down the other one to make it permanent. In order to remove the engine I would have to remove the two bolts securing each engine mount straight to the block. Hopefully by welding everything in place with the engine in place, everything will fit. Of course, I could just replace both engine mounts and the flex of the mounts would give me the play that would allow me to get the bolt holes lined up to install the bolts to the block to hold everything together. Once I get the engine mounts finalized, I will need to gather up some metal to start the fabrication of a transmission crossmember. Now, I could use one of the other crossmembers I may have laying in the auto scrap pile and just cut and weld it as needed, along with drilling several holes in the frame to secure the crossmember. Once I get that piece made and secured, I can write off the engine mounting part of the project and move on to actually mounting the body to the frame. With the engine in place, I will definitely need to see how the body fits relative to the engine to determine just how low on the frame the body can sit. I can't put the body too low, otherwise the top of the engine may stick up above the engine bay on the body, not allowing me to install an air cleaner, much less install the hood. Of course, worst case would be installing a cowl hood to make up for the higher sitting engine. Other option will be mounting the body at a height where the wheels will have a good amount of clearance between them and the fender wells. In that state, the car would indeed look like a truck/car. Of course, as stated before, this whole project is a shooting from the hip type of project, very little real planning is going on here. I'm just looking at the setup and figuring things out little by little as I go along.
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