So I've come to a point on the body drop where hood clearance is an issue. Here's my setup:
Tranny crossmember has been replaced so it is now flush and flat to bottom of frame.
Front crossmember untouched.
My front end is NOT Z'd, only the front framehorns to core support has been cut and dropped for the body drop.
I ended up cutting the hood skeleton support where my intake hits.
I am now able to close the hood on the first latch (not completely closed).
I REALLY DON'T want to cut a hole/put a scoop/add a bubble to the hood. I wanted to retain all of the original lines of the truck if I can but if I have to, then so be it.

On to my question:
I heard of lowering the motor by using shortened engine mounts to achieve hood clearance.
My question is, will I get my results I want just by changing the motor mounts to shorter ones?
Is there anything else I have to change/modify other than the mounts?
Will motor/tranny angles be an issue?
How about shifting?
Will I have to section my oil pan too?
I only need another 1"~1.5" more of clearance to close my hood.
Thanks in advance,
Alex

 

This might sound ghetto but I think you can play around enough with the bumper/grille to move it up a bit. Toss your hinge and get hood pins then use coupler nuts in the back of your hood on the hinge bolts to raise your hood up a bit. It wont be a solid line up for your hood but it will work we did this with my brothers ranger. We did eventually make a cowl hood for it but yah it worked.

 

twisted minis has dropped motor mounts and sectioned oilpans..

 

Thanks for the quick repsonses

OK, so if I do go the shortened motor mount and sectioned oil pan route, do I have to worry about drivetrain angles?

Will it alter other things I don't know about?

Will it have different driving/handling characteristics?


Thanks,

 

Just make a clean cowl or raise up the factory bubble just enough for clearance I bet nobody would even notice

 

yes lowering the motor will change some angles but not by much. shouldn't affect handling at all.

i personally like a stock hood too, so i say lower the motor. if you can keep the pan off the ground you can modify the drag link center to allow the motor to come down. if lucky you might not need to section the pan at all.

 

Thank you all for your suggestions guys

Burnzya: Gonna check the drag link and see if I'm capable of doing so then make my decision on which route to go.

I think I overexagerate about the 1 to 1.5 " clearance needed. I took a look again last night after I got home from work. I actually need only 3/4"of clearance (1/4" cushion).

 

I sold a lot of 1" drop mounts. Every truck seemed to differ a bit, factory tolerances where not super tight. Some guys had to modify the drag link oil pan and cross member to fit 1" mounts, some had to do nothing, and everything in between. Best bet is to measure and see how much room you have available, and that will tell you what you need to do. Most trucks that I did myself I would modify the engine cross member for a bit more clearance, but half the time it wasn't necessary. I always modified the drag link because I never wanted any rubbing to occur. Some where close but not touching at full turn, but I still modified them because the engine is on rubber mounts. Often times I did not need to modify the pan, but if I did I only had to remove the rearmost sump, and put in a new drain plug. I never once ran into any drivability issues, such as pinion angle problems.

I do all of these on a core return basis. But most of it is easy enough to do yourself if you are a pretty good welder.

 

welding skills

I can honestly say I am not a good welder.

weld...grind off...weld again... grind off again...weld...grind off...weld again... grind off again. This pretty much sums up my time welding. Structurally, I know it's good but appeararance wise... that's another story. I know, I just need more experience on the subject.

I'm gonna get burned for this but I prefer the wrenching on vs. welding on. You just get quicker results out of it.

 

Well everyone has their talent areas. I hate wrenching, but if you look in my toolbox you wouldn't know it. I like nice tools. I've always been more of a welder.

But what I meant by a good welder was not necessarily being able to make a "pretty" weld, but a strong one. I say this because the oil pan needs to seal and hold oil, or you will be topping off with every tank. And the drag link see's a ton of stress, so it really needs to be built and welded very well.

 

Ya a pretty weld doesn't always mean its a strong one. I've seen some stitch welding (tack tack tack) come into the shop broken on parts that see huge loads. And I've seen some ugly welds hold some ****. I try to aim for both strong and attractive, but my main focus is on strength. Vertical up is the hardest thing to make look good, that and anything overhead.

And I am that way with my Audi, its complicated and I hate working on it. But the parts are so expensive I couldn't afford to have someone work on it if I wanted to. So I slowly invest in the tools I need to do it, and I actually make a lot of "specialty" tools too. Everyone is good at something. Its perfectly fine if you enjoy wrenching more than welding, some people are just made that way.

 

I like it both but I would love to do more welding. Specialty tools huh sounds fun haha like buyin tools from harbor freight then grinding/ cutting on them. But if you wanna keep a stock hood motor mounts from twisted minis will do the trick.

 

twisted minis

See the sectioned oil pan and stock capacity sectioned oil pan but no shortened motor mounts for our trucks there

 

I actually stopped doing the motor mounts to rebuild my jigs because after building them for almost 6 years now the jig was getting a little sloppy. Only when I got rid of it I realized I only had one stock motor mount. I have not gotten another stock set to rebuild my jig yet. I need to get on that. Maybe someone has an extra set of mounts?

Lol I have several modified Harbor freight wrenches and sockets. I should take a picture of my wrench drawer. I made 3 wrenches and 3 sockets just to work on one Mercedes.

 

Harbor freight tools are great for tht cause they're so cheap

 

Do you take donations?

I already started cutting my hood and I'm really not diggin the look of it.

If I donated my mounts, could you make me a some shortened 1" mounts?