For those that have installed a 200r4...

[KevinB]

mine is a 66 dart. From what I understand, you have to trim the upper crossmember to get the tranny output to be high enough to get the engine level.

For ***** and grins, whats the differential between how low the output land and how high it needs to be? Is it something that could be avoided if the engine were maybe 1" lower?

 

[pishta]

as long as you match the output angle of the shaft to the differential yoke, youll be OK (minus about 3 degrees) ie. the trans is pointing down 4 degrees, you position your diff pinion to be up 4 degrees. This is a simplified example but in the real world, you want your pinion down a few degrees to compensate for spring wrap under acceleration. Does the 200R4 have a thicker cross sectional area in the tunnel? Im sure it does as the 904 is pretty skinny back there.

 

[KevinB]

It does, which is why others have had to trim above it. I haven't set my pinion angle, so obviously that would be done after the engine and tranny are in, as well as the Coilover system. If I could lower the engine an inch I think it might work, obviously headers will sit 1" lower, but that shouldn't be too bad, depending on the final ride height

 

[Treblig]

You can lower the back end of the transmission but there is a limit because as you lower the back of the transmission you're forcing all the oil to the rear of the pan and the rear of the engine. Then when you "launch" the car the oil in the engine and the trans pan get forced further towards the back. Normally an engine will sit at 2 to 3 degrees down towards the rear, this helps the oil flow to the rear of the heads (rocker valley) and back down to the pan. If you can lower the front of the engine it would solve most of the problem. As far as pinion angle is concerned.....you can adjust the pinion angle no matter what angle your drive train is at. The pinion is normally set at 2/3 degrees lower than the angle of the drive train, when you accelerate the pinion will rise coming into to alignment with the driver line.
If you lower the engine you can also crank the torsion bars so that the front end is higher giving you more street clearance.

Treblig

 

[KevinB]

Thanks Treblig, yes I understand about the pinion angle, it's gonna be a long time before I can set it. In the mean time I'm gonna use clamp on perches so I have a roller.

The engine can sit lower towards the back? Doesn't the carb need to be level though?

I'm going with a Coilover setup, so I'm hoping it can be modified to drop the engine mounts a bit, so I don't have to do fabrication on the tunnel. I could go into all the reasons why I'd rather drop the engine, but regardless if someone could give me their best guess as to how far too low the 200r4 sits, that would help!

 

[Treblig]

Unfortunately I don't have an early A, mine is a '69 Barracuda with a 2004R. I do believe that the carb should be level ( a slight angle wouldn't hurt too much, 1 degree). But they make angled spacers. In fact I think most intake manifolds have an angle on the surface where the carb sits to compensate for the engine angle. Maybe someone else can verify???
Treglig