440 '48 Plymouth Coupe

[racingsnake440]

Moving back round to the front it's time to see how the engine fits - not very well, it's a lot bigger than a SBC... Even after taking the steering out there's still no room. Nevermind, that's what grinders are for, a quick bit of cutting on the firewall and the engine sits in there nicely. Front suspension off next, ready to straight axle it...

[hauen]

Nice! It's practically a mid-engined car now. With all that setback you could build a pro tourer.

[1946Austin]

Looks good tucked in there, and unlike the SBC you don't have to worry about distributor clearance! Make sure you've got enough to remove the valve covers over the rocker assembly though!

[milner351]

NICE!

Fender well headers will be the order of the day with that engine placement! Sweet mother of set back!

[Bully]

Hi Nick...thanks for the lead to this forum,car is looking good,this will be a nice place to watch your progress.
You made a decision about going auto or manual with this one?
Mark(viewing from the UK!)

Quick question about the original front suspension...do the dampers go up through the centre of the spring?

[mrocketscience]

That '55 De Soto sounds cool - any pics?

Back to the Plymouth, I've never really liked the rear wheel arches and with bigger tires going on it's time to cut them out! Before and after pics - what you can't see is that there's now a Dodge Polara 8.75" rear end hanging under there. Haven't welded spring perches yet as I need to set pinion angle etc.

Will probably need to cut a bit more out to allow for suspension travel but at least I can roll it around for now.

See, now that looks a lot better already!!

[racingsnake440]

Nice! It's practically a mid-engined car now. With all that setback you could build a pro tourer.

Lol! No corner carving for this one, but hopefully the engine setback should help the traction.

There is just about enough room to pull the valve covers - I would have cut the firewall recess higher to make more space but there was a nice swage line that made a good place to cut to. Anyway, with hydraulic lifters and non-adjustable rockers there shouldn't be too much need to get in there...

Hi Mark, good to see you made it on here. It's going to be auto for the moment but I plan to leave room for a clutch pedal so I could always switch to a 4 speed later. As for the front shocks they're probably the worst designed part of the suspension. They mount on the upper and lower arms so they aren't very effective. You can just about see the top of the right one at the back of the upper arm in one of the earlier pictures. I believe you can get kits to relocate the upper mount to the frame.

Milner, I was originally planning on running the fenderwell headers in the pic below but unfortunately I'd have had to cut away lots of the cowl and the front body mounts to make them fit. Plan b is a set of b-body headers which fit straight in - the steering is going to be a challenge though...

[racingsnake440]

I was hoping to use some late 70s Mopar 'spool' type engine mounts as I thought it would make the frame brackets pretty easy to make and they're failsafe as even if the rubber breaks the bolt is still captured by the mount. I'd heard they're getting hard to find so when I saw engine mounts for a 400ci '76 Fury on Rockauto for about $8 I ordered them up rightaway.

Unfortunately once they arrived it was clear they weren't going to fit and a quick check on my Dart's 360 proved them to be small block mounts. So, back to the drawing board. I noticed that a piece of 3x3 box section was a good fit between the mounting ears on the block so a few holes and a bit of work with the grinder and I had a couple of engine mount brackets. Next I cut some 4x3 box to make the frams brackets and it all bolts together with Mopar biscuit mounts as used on trucks and vans through the 70s and 80s.

[Bully]

Hi Nick.
Could i ask you to take a measurement off the car for me?I have a bit of a concern that mine might not fit on my trailer when it arrives,width wise.Could you measure across the bottom of the body at its widest point?Across the firewall as you have the fromt panels off would be ideal.
Ta.
mark

[BigDad]

I built a 46 sedan and put a 440 in it ..along with suspension from Jim Wiemer rod garage ..

Car is now in Italy

[racingsnake440]

Mark, it's about 67" at the widest point - I don't think they're any wider than something like a Jag.

BigDad - cool looking sedan, got any more pics? Engine bay shots in particular would be interesting.

[BigDad]

I lost all my pics in a computer crash ..

It was a SOB doing the IFS on it .. those frames are massive !

Turned out really nice but, tons of engineering to get it proper

I would use the avaliable bolt on stuff for the stock suspension if I ever did another

Had a 4-bar rear with a 8 3/4 out of a 66 Monaco

I'll dig around the net and see if there are anything left out there of it



440 / 727 .. The tough part is clearing the starter with R&P steering shaft

Neat car, hope new owner enjoys it !

[Bully]

Mark, it's about 67" at the widest point - I don't think they're any wider than something like a Jag.

BigDad - cool looking sedan, got any more pics? Engine bay shots in particular would be interesting.

Thats good,i`ll have around 6" spare.Thanks for that.

[1946Austin]

Those fenderwell headers sure look good! Too bad they wont fit your project!

[racingsnake440]

Those fenderwell headers sure look good! Too bad they wont fit your project!

Yeah, I was bummed about that - still I'll just have to find another project to use them on!

More pics: front suspension completely removed and engine bolted in. My friend Dave mentioned he had a tube axle he'd picked up years ago that would probably work for this, mine for the price of a ticket to see the Supersuckers and a couple of beers. It's got Chevy spindles and hubs and is set up for push/pull steering. Looks like the drag link will be pretty close to the frame. Haven't decided what I'm going to do about that yet... Put the front clip back on just as a mock up - looks promising!

pics aren't in order for some reason but you get the idea