200R4 update

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Okay. Got the adapter plate cut down. Brought it in and ground the sharp edges off. Everything bolted up well. Dropped motor in to test fit everything. The tall Moroso valve covers hit the brake booster, so we loosened it to give a bit more room. It was a tight squeeze and we had to lower an inch, go back three inches, lower an inch. Finally got the mounts to line up and bolted the motor in. Got it up on the hoist and put a tranny jack under it an cranked it up. It hits the upper partion of the crossmember that curves around the tunnel. I took pics and will post them here, but unless you can stand there and see it, it's hard to tell and describe. My initial thought was, just cut out that section of metal. The bottom gets the under tranny crossmember bolted on anyway. However, the rear of the torsion bars go through this piece, and I don't want to lose all structural integrity. I think we can notch out the front side of the offending piece enough to clear the piece of transmission casing that hits. That will leave the bulk of the cross piece intact and we will still have the lower crossmember bolted to keep it all rigid. I think this will gain us 5 to 6 inches more in height, which we really need. The motor is sloped toward the rear far too much as it sits. Technically this is not part of the tunnel, so I guess Art can still say no tunnel mods are needed. I think we are going to modify the mounting of the original lower crossmember to move it back a couple inches. Then we can turn the mount around and gain another 3 inches. That should be very easy and I can still use my Mopar mount from Schumacher instead of buying a new GM mount. I need to bolt a plate to the 200R4 mount and drill holes a little further out for the Mopar mount because they don't line up. That's the easy stuff. I did get all new door and trunk rubber seals installed today and also the front cross drilled rotors. Productive day, but somewhat frustrating.

Adapter plate cut down and being cleaned up. It was a ***** to cut. Must be billet.
View attachment Cut down adapter plate.jpg
View attachment Cut down adapter plate 1.jpg

Adapter plate on motor and with tranny installed. The top two tranny mounting holes have no place to attach. I am going to drill through the plate and use nuts and bolts to bolt it to the adapter.
View attachment Cut down adapter plate on motor.jpg
View attachment Motor, tranny and cut down adapter plate.jpg
View attachment Motor, tranny and cut down adapter plate 1.jpg

Motor and tranny going in and then in place.
View attachment Motor and tranny going in.jpg
View attachment Motor and tranny in place.jpg

Pic of the casing hitting the upper crossmember. I think we can notch out the front side, but we will have to cut so far back as to leave just a lip in front of the curve, and it will have to carry up to almost the top of the tunnel.
View attachment Casing hitting upper crossmember.jpg
View attachment Casing hitting upper crossmember 1.jpg
View attachment Casing hitting upper crossmember 2.jpg
 
rednesss said:
318350SM.JPG


It may be a little more money, but it looks a bunch nicer than a flat, square piece of aluminum. Looks like it's worth every penny. Looks like this type runs $550 here:

http://www.riley-auto.com/ADAPTERS.html

And the TCI is $471.38 here:

http://www.race-mart.com/TCI-TCI-149160.html

I think the Wilcap is $80 nicer.
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The Wilcap is nice, but it's more than that. I am also swapping to a 2004R and ordered the Wilcap kit. The $550 is for a neutral balance kit, but they charge $100 extra to build flex plate for an external balance 360.
 
Oh, you might want to get a different tranny pan (an aftermarket one) with a drain plug in it. Trying to change the filter will result in tranny fluid all over the play due to the way the plan is designed (ask me how I know!).
But looking good so far! Gonna ask a dumb question but wouldn't a Big Hammer do the same job as cutting?
 
1970Duster said:
Oh, you might want to get a different tranny pan (an aftermarket one) with a drain plug in it. Trying to change the filter will result in tranny fluid all over the play due to the way the plan is designed (ask me how I know!).
But looking good so far! Gonna ask a dumb question but wouldn't a Big Hammer do the same job as cutting?
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No. I still need the bulk of the upper to attach the lower we are making. If I beat the **** out of it, it will not only look terrible, but I won't have a good surface to attach and weld the homemade lower to. My next post will have pics of the cutaway part, the tranny up higher, and the beginning of a mocked up lower crossmember.
 
Mopar to ya said:
No. I still need the bulk of the upper to attach the lower we are making. If I beat the **** out of it, it will not only look terrible, but I won't have a good surface to attach and weld the homemade lower to. My next post will have pics of the cutaway part, the tranny up higher, and the beginning of a mocked up lower crossmember.
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Ah! Just thought I'd ask about the cross member and it be flattened.
 
Do you have subframe connectors?? If so, you can just triangulate from the subframe connectors to the torsion bar crossmember, thats how the fab guy did mine. The entire top of the torsion bar crossmember was cut out of my car and repllaced with a piece of flat stock, as well as the triangualtion.......
 
Okay. Not much time during the week to work and today we are getting some crappy weather in the form of rain and sleet where the car is to a bunch of snow where I live. 35 miles can make a hell of a difference in weather. We got the upper crossmember cut out. The tranny went up another 3 inches. I would like another inch to inch and a half if I can. Right now the dipstick tube is hitting the pinch weld in the tunnel. I have to notch out the spot where the dipstick will be. Just to make sure there is enough clearance we are going to cut the pinch down to about a quarter inch and tack weld it together in a few spots. That way the tranny won't hit it under torque. I am almost clear of the e-brake cables now. The motor is sitting pretty well now. Another inch and a half and it's good. The other side of the tranny that is not hitting has a tab with a hole bored in it that almost hits and probably will when I go up higher. We are going to cut it off. Tom played around a bit and came up with a partial lower crossmember mock up. It looks good - I'm pretty sure it will work. He used angle iron, cut and welded. he boxed it in at the end to slip around the existing crossmember. We are going to build the final with heavier steel and drill the hole in the crossmember bigger on one side, smaller on the other. Then we will slip in a piece of tube steel that will give it something to pinch tight against. I have pics of the cutaway upper. It's hard to see in the pics because we painted the cut black. Progress is being made. I am missing some valve cover studs, so today I ordered the studs, the GM tranny mount, the fan blade, and subframe connectors. Once the motor is in place we will try to get the headers in. Even though the old Hookers came out the bottom, I think the motor will have to be out to get the TTi's in. We'll see. This post is worthless without pics, so here we go.

I tried different lighting, but it's hard to see. The upper crossmember was cut away on the right side of the tranny in the pic to allow clearance to move upwards.
View attachment Cutaway upper crossmember.jpg
View attachment Cutaway upper crossmember 1.jpg
View attachment Cutaway upper crossmember 2.jpg

The view into the tunnel. Just a bit higher. Before we were below the e-brake cable.
View attachment Tunnel view.jpg

Here is the mock up partial crossmember Tom designed in his head and built with scrap that was laying around with no plans. It looks damn good!
View attachment Partial mocked up crossmember.jpg
View attachment Partial mocked up crossmember 1.jpg

Here is the partial slid into place. We will bolt the final in place and will slide a steel sleeve inside the upper to give us a pinch point.
View attachment Crossmember mock up.jpg
View attachment Crossmember mock up 1.jpg
View attachment Crossmember mock up 2.jpg
 
Gotta ask, how do you get the tranny back out (if need) if you weld in that back mount?
 
It won't be welded. It will be bolted. Welding would sure be easier, but we realized it may have to come out at some point in time. If I'm not snowed in tomorrow, I am going to get some heavier angle iron and make a working unit.
 
Not much time to spend lately. Today I got the head for my daughter's car from the machine shop and went to Discount Steel to buy the 2 1/2" angle iron we will use to make the lower crossmember and the round tube steel to slide inside the upper to give it something to pinch against instead of collapsing in on itself when the bolt is tightened. Tom had already started making the tranny lines. He is a genius at that stuff. It molds along the tranny close and even so there will be plenty of room for the headers. Saturday we will get a few hours put in on it and hopefully get everything test fit and we will be ready for full scale install.
View attachment Making tranny line.jpg
 
Got any pictures of the upper cross member after reworking it?
 
Not clear ones yet. We cut it with the motor and tranny still in the car. I posted some pics a few posts ago, but they aren't clear, and we painted it black as well. Once everything is test fit and looking good and the lower crossmember is made, we will pull the motor and tranny out again. Then I will have clear picks to show what we did and why. With any real luck that will be Saturday, though we only have a few hours to work on it then.
 
I went to Discount Steel and bought 8' of 2 1/2" angle iron in 1/4" thickness. Tom spent a good part of the day making the cross member and here it is. We still need to cut down the piece in the middle just a bit where the motor mount goes. And it needs clean up and paint. We ran out of time to notch and cut the pinch weld to accommodate the dipstick tube. Once we do that, and we find everything is at the proper height, we will pull the motor and start cutting for the floor shifter. Oh, the tranny cooler lines are bent and run, but I forgot to take pics. The fan, ARP valve cover studs, and subframe connectors all arrived as well.
View attachment Final cross member.jpg

View attachment Final cross member 1.jpg

View attachment Final cross member 2.jpg

View attachment Final cross member 3.jpg
 
Nice! Any plans to reproduce/market the crossmember? If so, how much?
 
I had no plans, but if the money is right .... I am a little worried about the exhaust. The original cross member had a slight curve that the exhaust went through, giving it a couple inches more room. I don't have that anymore. I did buy new Calvert Racing mono leaf back halves that will give me a 2" lift. That will allow me to crank up the torsion bars and give the whole car a higher stance. Maybe that will make exhaust clear just as well.
 
Mopar to ya said:
I had no plans, but if the money is right .... I am a little worried about the exhaust. The original cross member had a slight curve that the exhaust went through, giving it a couple inches more room. I don't have that anymore. I did buy new Calvert Racing mono leaf back halves that will give me a 2" lift. That will allow me to crank up the torsion bars and give the whole car a higher stance. Maybe that will make exhaust clear just as well.
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More then likely it won't give you that extra room because, you're just jacking up the suspension and the motor doesn't move/change or change its location at all which means, nothing will change.
What about some sort of notched (and reinforced) in the new cross member?
Or how about using oval exhaust tubing? http://www.spintechmufflers.com/oval-round-tubing/oval-tubing/cat_41.html
 
Funny you mentioned that. We were discussing ways of making oval exhaust tubing because it would keep the volume of exhaust flowing. I didn't know it was available to buy. I am planning on running the car on open headers about 10 blocks to The Wonderful Muffler Man. Ozzie has been doing my exhaust for years. His tubing could be used to make shotguns, it is so thick. I will have to ask him if he has oval tubing or if he can get it.
 
I think summit sells it, I just remember it. Being the "biggest" thing since sliced bread about 5-6 years ago (saw it in a Chevy mag). Might being a good way around said problem and not getting raped by TTi.
 
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