Plymouthy Adams Posted March 22, 2017 Report Share Posted March 22, 2017 (edited) if you are offset to the front but the rear is center you are out of phase....HOWEVER...you may not have an issue as the frame usually will spread out a bit from the point of the upturn to the front ear....to see if you are centered, you will pop a line at center rear of chassis ore better, the pinion, center at tranny mount or better, the output yoke and then forward at the engine crank end center and use a string or at minimum three plumb bobs and verify if you are actually offset of have an optical confusion going on... lots of drivetrains are offcenter...but verify your drive line first then you do chassis centerline and compare the chassis to the driveline and if parallel..you have no issues Edited March 22, 2017 by Plymouthy Adams Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andydodge Posted March 22, 2017 Report Share Posted March 22, 2017 (edited) Until you actually get the engine & trans on a hoist and take all the front sheet metal from the car you won't know for certain whether you can install the poly without changing the steering..........when I was installing the 318 poly & cast iron auto in my Dodge I tried various ways to fit the engine still using the original steering box, even to the extent that I shortened the steering column shaft to just a couple of inches in length to run a uni joint but still couldn't get enough clearance to properly run uni joints around the exhaust manifold & head..............I even cut, yes CUT one of the engine mount "ears" off the engine block hoping it might give some extra clearance but nope........... but with a rack & pinion I found that I could run a steering shaft straight thru as the rack attachment point for the column was obviously much lower and allowed the shaft to angle backwards where the oil filter lived..........lol.........and that was an easy thing to get rid of as the LA series engines, well at least the Oz 1965 on Valiant use of them had an oil filter mounted remotely up front with an adaptor bolted onto the block and oil lines from there..........it didn't take much imagination to get a remote filter mount and an oil cooler same as that used by BMC Minis and I had solved the steering column and extra oil capacity & cooling problems in one go.....well there was no oil cooling problem to begin with but the extra oil capacity as a result of the oil lines & cooler doesn't do any harm.........and as I was using none stock engine mounts made up from some biscuit type mount I just extended the engine mount around the front edge of the head to pick up an accessory mount bolt hole and it works fine...........so my advice is to get the engine & trans, pulled the front sheet metal & radiator and have at it...........so long as its mounted properly, even if its an inch or so to one side it should be o/k..........o/h........and as for new, old or traditional schools....lol........my car has had the rack in it since 1973, long before any of these schools took classes...........lol...........its all good fun.............regards, Andy Douglas Edited March 22, 2017 by Andydodge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
40plyguy Posted March 22, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2017 You know your right "Andydodge", I had R&P on my '67 Sunbeam Imp. I don't remember if my '59 Mini had R&P or not. That's old school enough, No? Old age playing tricks again! Thanks for giving me a new outlook on the project...................Still wish I had kept the Sunbeam. Hardly ever see one any more............... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andydodge Posted March 22, 2017 Report Share Posted March 22, 2017 Yep, 1959 Mini in fact all Minis had a rack & pinion...........the 1st rack I installed in the Dodge was from a mid 50's Morris Minor, they are a neat rack that have alloy mounting brackets that allow the rack to swivel so the angle of the splined shaft can be adjusted to suit the shaft from the column, however its pivot points were too wide and after putting up with bump steer I got a heavier rack from a mid 1960's Austin 1800 which was a much bigger front drive car, essentially a mini on steroids.......lol......but had to narrow that rack 9" which was a fairly straightforward job, but if I was doing it again I'd use the Cavalier style center steer rack as they are a much better design..........the main issue with using a rack is that racks tend to not have the same amount of "throw" as a normal steering box and consequently whilst a quicker steering is felt the car usually has a wider turning circle.........my answer to this problem was to get the Dodge steering arms shortened by 1" by an automotive blacksmith, cut and reforged they have lasted since 1974.......but the neatest solution to this issue I've seen is by a guy on this forum who's name escapes me..... he mounted the steering arms essentially 1" forward on the stub axles which then moved the kingpin to tierod centreline forward resulting in the distance that the arms had to be "thrown" by the rack being shorter and therefore gave a smaller turning circle...............a Sunbeam Imp?............we had Hillman Imps here in Oz but have never seen a Sunbeam version.........come to think of it, I haven't seen a Hillman, Imp or otherwise for yrs..............look the main thing is to have a go, enjoy and learn from whatever it is you do..........I bought my 1940 Dodge sedan as a parts car for the 1940 Oz Dodge coupe( have attached a pic of my exact car that a magazine used, taken before I bought it) that as a 15yr old I pulled apart.........left school, went to work, pushing a pen and thought the best was to restore the sedan........paid various guys to do up the engine, gearbox, diff & brakes......got less than 1000 miles outa a fully rebuilt engine so V8 etc it went in & I thought I couldn't do any worse..........well sometimes that was not the case but you learn by trial & error......and its still going 46 yrs later...........lol..........Andy Douglas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dale Posted March 22, 2017 Report Share Posted March 22, 2017 If old school is what you want put the 251 Chrysler six in and outfit it with a couple carbs and split manifold. A near boltin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayfarer Posted March 22, 2017 Report Share Posted March 22, 2017 Good idea dale. 40plyguy, take a 2nd look at the 260 block and make sure that you have ears on the side of the block....generally, 1956 had them, 1955 did not. The 260 shares all of the bits n pieces with the 241 and 270. Keep in mind that MaMopar actually used the same ID on different blocks; a P27 could be a 241 or a 260 for example and one block casting, 1632229, was used for both 260 and 270. The back of the block/crank is the same for all pre-62 v-8 (except the B/RB)(except 51-53 331) so plenty of bellhousings and transmissions to pick from. In stock form, the 260 is not a power-house, but with a few goodies...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
40plyguy Posted March 24, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2017 Looks like I took too long to make up my mind. The poly eng and trans have been sold. Well I still have the flathead though I was really getting excited about the poly motor swap. As my dad used to tell me "He who hesitates is lost". Anyway I had a lot of fun researching the project and the engine. Thanks to all who chimed in.................... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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