[DeTomaso] Bulkhead Reduction Kit

[Mike Thomas]

Man, I've heard of a lot of maneuvers to keep the engine screen on, but that
has got to be the most intense one I've heard of.  I hope your air cleaner
realizes how special it is . . .

I know, happy wife, happy life . . . 

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On
Behalf Of JDeRyke at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2009 5:14 PM
To: red3644 at hotmail.com; detomaso at realbig.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Bulkhead Reduction Kit

In a message dated 9/24/09 1:37:39 PM, red3644 at hotmail.com writes:
snip.....
> And one more thing...it seems the geometry of the motor and tranny 
> mounts is pretty basic. It looks like lowering the engine &tranny an 
> inch would require simple mods to the mounts. You could move it back a 
> bit too but just lowering it straight down would give more room at the 
> front of the engine and the sometimes tight distributor area. While 
> very little is "simple" to do on these cars with the water lines, 
> shifter, throtle cable etc. being there, this doesn't seem any worse 
> that some of the other projects I and others do.
> 
MIke, you must be reading my mind.... I just finished up lowering our engine
by 7/8" (more is possible but there are some interferences which I didn't
feel like getting into right now). This brought the bottom of the pan
approximately level with the pinch-welds on the lower subframe rails, so the
pan isn't the first thing to hit the ground! 
Just lowering the engine, I think there's an interference on most Panteras
between the crank pulley and the cross-frame member just behind the
firewall. But I'd slid the engine and ZF backwards 3/4" a few years ago, so
on our car, no interference there- an easy job. All the difficulties I found
this time (not much, as you say), will be in the Nov. POCA Newsletter, with
photos. 
The most difficult part is TIG-welding the aluminum lower motor mounts back
together once you've sectioned them with a bandsaw- and thats only if you
don't have a TIG available. The die-cast aluminum mounts weld beautifully. 
All the rest was just trimming here 'n there. 
FWIW, I did this so I could fit a good air cleaner to the engine; my SVO
aluminum heads & open plenum intake lifted the carb up 2-1/2", shoving any
known air cleaner way thru the engine screen. There's likely a handling
benefit to moving the powertrain, but I just wanted the air cleaner out of
my line-of-sight in the mirror. Its been there since 1992! Cheers- J Deryke
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