Will GM 200r4 work with factory floor shift location?
Sucker fits right up in there! Gonna paint it all before all said and done?
My plan is to paint all the bare metal. But to get back to the problems during install...when I removed the tranny (for the third/forth time) I found the culprit. I was half wrong about the BOP bolt pattern. The tranny housing does have two bolt patterns but it doesn't have a bolt on the top center of the housing like I thought. It has two bolt holes that protrude way above the Chevy bolts near the top (SEE PICS). These two extra protrusions stick up quite a bit and it was these two parts of the housing that was hitting the top of the firewall. They were keeping the housing from going high enough to line up the rest of the holes. These protrusions also have reinforcement webs to support the upper bolts on BOP. I also cut the webs off because they can also hit the upper tunnel and keep the tranny from getting high enough to align properly.
In my case the other problem was the dual exhaust pipes. On the passenger's side the pipe passed so close to the 2004R that it actually kept it from moving far enough to the right. I couldn't move the pipe (has a cross over pipe) and my exhaust was made all in one piece, no connections. So I got the sawsall and cut the pipe. Now that I have the tranny where it needs to be I will re-weld the pipe in the correct position in case I ever have to remove the tranny.
In the last pic (if you look real close) you can see one other small problem. The area that I cut out of the upper cross member on the driver's side. I posted pics of that area already. But in the last pic you might be able to see that the tranny housing just barely touches the edge of the place I cut. I didn't know exactly how much to cut and I didn't want to cut more than necessary. Either way, if you ever do try this all you have to do is lower the tranny and cut a little more. With the 1/8" plate I installed between the upper cross member and the floor I'm not too worried about any weakness from the cutting. You can see the blue tape I had covering the speedometer connection on the left side of the tranny and just to the left of the blue tape you can see a silver (magic marker) arrow (looks like a "V"), anyway this is the area that needed extra cutting. I'll try and point out this area tomorrow and take a good pic.
I also had to trim off the extra ear off the housing on the passenger's side. Not sure what this was used for but it's a large piece of aluminum that sticks out on that side. It has a hole in it as if it was used to support an accessory on the trans. I had no use for it and it was hitting the passenger's side of the upper cross member.
Tomorrow I plan to bolt up the torque converter, install the two upper bolt on the tranny housing (they're hard to get to), make the trans fluid lines to the radiator then to the extra cooler in front. Finish torqueing down the starter, paint, hook up the speedo and route the cable, and make the connection between the tranny shift selector to the lever on the torque shaft. And maybe work on the drive shaft length.
PS - The transmission angle came out real close to 3 degrees DOWN.
Treblig