Mid plate mounting

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Matts440

Matts440

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Like to see those running one how they mounted yours. I ordered one from Chris Alston a steel one with mounts and the plate barely touches the rails on both side.
 
Okay maybe I'll get some steel and make a bracket and weld to the frame to mount it too. Thank you, if the late was just a few inches wider would work great. Will just bolt it in and when everything is mounted see where I need to brace or weld the brackets to the frame and bolt it that way.
 
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you put ears on the rails/cage and mount the plate to the ears with UCA bushings! .....Or at least the car I saw had it like that. Pretty ingenious. Im assuming this was designed for some vibration dampening?
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I have solid for the front and was going mid plate and a poly trans mount, with the engine I'm building for this car just want some extra flex protection.
 
Here's how I mounted the one on my 66 Dart. I can't recall where I got it, but I do remember midplates from most vendors were too narrow to reach both frame rails. It took some time to find one that was wide enough.

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mopowers said:
Here's how I mounted the one on my 66 Dart. I can't recall where I got it, but I do remember midplates from most vendors were too narrow to reach both frame rails. It took some time to find one that was wide enough.

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Awesome and thank you, this is perfect I'll do just the same, as soon as I get the internals off my hood from my engine course that's once I get the block back, I'll mock up the trans and see where to set the mounts.
 
Dumb question here.
How does one make up the difference of the plate?
Custom torque converter?

Also now when you pull the the engine it must slide straight out then up? Correct? No more tilting the trans.
 
Yeah when I ordered my torque converter they asked about a mid plate and told them how thick mine was. Correct engine out without the trans unless you want to remove the steering column every time then you might be able to pull it all out together, as far as I can tell, this is my first time with a mid plate.
 
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Cope said:
Dumb question here.
How does one make up the difference of the plate?
Custom torque converter?

Also now when you pull the the engine it must slide straight out then up? Correct? No more tilting the trans.
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You order a converter for a mid plate, they put thicker mounting tabs on it depending on your plate thickness.
 
if you use a compition engineering mid plate it comes with the brackets and spacers behind flex plate,used a few of those works great,some trimming to the mid plate is needed for your application
 
I like the type that uses a spacer between the crank and flex plate also. No problem swapping converters that way.
 
Don't forget the extra long pilot studs for the block to trans alignment.
 
Why run a mid with the special torque convertor issue when you can run a front plate and just use longer water pump bolts? Is there a benefit from running a midplate as opposed to a front plate?
 
For me I can't unless I want to redesign the turbo manifolds that Maddart made for this car when it was his, so I opted for solid motor mounts and a mid plate to help keep this thing from twisting lol I'd love to run both but I cant.
 
Typically a mid plate is used with a front plate. Helps tie the chassis together. That's a lotta space between a front plate and the trans mount. No need for special converter with some mid plate kits.
 
Mid plates tie the engine to the chassis in the most critcal area.
Front plate does not change the necessity.

I don't agree with the flexplate spacer to cure midplate spacing. If you look at the pilot in center of torque converter it has a flange that pushes against crank. If you use washers or flexplate shims the pilot is still .090-.125" out of the crank. When the converter is charged with 100 psi of pressure it pushes converter into crank bending the flexplate. Better to have the converter made for the midplate. Although many of us have successfully ran converter bolt washers or flexplate shim, the before mentioned is the proper way to do things.

Midplates are a great addition to any car tube chassis to stock frame rails.
 
Flex plate spacer I use is made to accept the pilot,same as the crank. Never bent anything or had any other problems.
 
hangn0ut said:
Flex plate spacer I use is made to accept the pilot,same as the crank. Never bent anything or had any other problems.
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Matts440 said:
Like to see those running one how they mounted yours. I ordered one from Chris Alston a steel one with mounts and the plate barely touches the rails on both side.
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I am doing this on my 68 dart right now. I am using the comp engineering kit. The plate is .090 thick. It uses a spacer behind the flex plate maintain proper converter position. The one thing I did different and the instructions did not specify but I felt with the mini denso starter that I was loosing too much snout engagement into the trans case so I cut that section out to maintain full engagement like stock.

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I used the the same Comp. Eng. plate, .090 thick. I used their spacer that came with the kit. I did not cut it out for the starter. Starter engagement is fine. Works just fine. However the problem I had was the spacer plate now made my flex plate bolts to short. It did not have enough thread engagement to the crank flange. Mopar does not make a longer bolt. I used Pontiac convert bolts and ground down the heads to make slim headed bolts like the Mopar's. Worked out just fine. The bad thing is I had to buy two packs of bolts because the Pontiac flex plate uses less bolts.
 
Coffee&Cars said:
I used the the same Comp. Eng. plate, .090 thick. I used their spacer that came with the kit. I did not cut it out for the starter. Starter engagement is fine. Works just fine. However the problem I had was the spacer plate now made my flex plate bolts to short. It did not have enough thread engagement to the crank flange. Mopar does not make a longer bolt. I used Pontiac convert bolts and ground down the heads to make slim headed bolts like the Mopar's. Worked out just fine. The bad thing is I had to buy two packs of bolts because the Pontiac flex plate uses less bolts.
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I am glad you pointed that out about the length of the bolts.
I have the Mopar performance bolts from way back but I don't recall checking the thread engagement after the spacer was added.
Always small problems to work through trying to put this stuff together.
 
Well glad I dont have to worry about that, when I had my converter made I told them about the mid plate and they spaced the bolts mounts out for it. But good to know for those that need to buy the bolts.
 
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Matts440 said:
Well glad I dont have to worry about that, when I had my converter made I told them about the mid plate and they spaced the bolts mounts out for it. But good to know for those that need to buy the bolts.
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O
 
On aq hot sbc vega, I did the frame rail brackets , and used washers the same thickness as the rear plate , on the torque convertor bolts to shove it back in to the stock location , mickey mouse , but a lot of chevy boys do it that way , and it works . That engine was approx. 600 h.p. too ----
 
What you all doing for fore and aft support? Those motor plates will flex.
 
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