Mounts or plates? BBF in Fox body

I'm at a crucial decision point with the new project, whether to use conventional motor and transmission mounts with a torque limiter as I have in the '71 Mustang, or go to a motor plate/ mid-plate set-up.

Which preferable and why?

The '87 notch will have a full cage, through body sub-frame connectors and tubular K-member. BBF makes a bit more than 800 ft. Lbs. NA, 1100ish on the spray.

Drag Week, True Street and street miles is the intended use.

Plates and limiters.header clearance for one thing.

cool40 wrote:Plates and limiters.header clearance for one thing.

Yes...

1.5 drop rack K member........skinny kid off set motor/mid plate for fox body. Best fit of anything I've used.

I'm running the Skinny Kid motor plate. Couldn't use the mid plate with the headers I had at the time

Thank you. Any best practice to locating the limiters? As you can tell this stuff is all new to me. Could the limiters run from the motor mount bosses forward? Or even foward from the plate to to the frame rails? I anticipate eventually having to run a diaper so I'm trying figure our where everything can go.

i'm happy to say I have a set of Keith Fulp Motorsport motor and midplates on the way for my 87 Notch. These really solved a bunch of problems and Keith was really helpful. I'll post up pictures when the plates arrive.

You wont be disappointed with KFM.keith does nice work and can customize orders to fill your need.

put the limiters on the trans tailshaft where the mount bolts up and run them back to the driveshaft loop at an angle. You dont need the trans mount with motor/midplate....

Fabio - when you do this do you keep the limiters parallel to the driveline? Like keep them flat off the trans mount bosses or just let them run where they need to?

I use limiters on the trans and block BUT my plates are also wide.the first run without them on the block pulled the bolts out of the tailhousing.   

The KFM plates are cut to fit in terms of width and I expect to set them up with the factory type offset to keep alignment with the pinion on the horizontal axis. The engine location will come first based on where it fits best low and back and then aligned to the current 8.8 rear end pinion location. I expect the plates wili sit on and along side the factory frame rail which isn't too wide. I'm going to leave the the wide as possible up high to tie into the heads per Keith Fulp on out to a spot ahead of the shock towers which is my idea. Is that sensible?

I'm planning to modify, brace and narrow old factory 9" housing I have with the Team Z adjustable lower and upper housing brackets and I'll be able to get the rear end in the right spot at that point, hopefully.

Because this will be a Drag Week/True Street/occasional driver it will need to have a reasonbly quiet exhuast system which I'll drop at the track. That may mean that the location of the limiters will have to leave some space by the trans and the drive shaft loop for the exhuast pipes after the collectors.

Is there a science to making the limiters? I was going to use .5" shank LH and RH clevices (.25" opening and 3/8" bolt) with .25" tabs attached to the fram and engine or frame and plate or maybe now drive sahft loop and trans. As i understand it the goal is to firmly but neutrally assure that there is no fore and aft movement of the engine and trans under acceleration or braking?

On the trans itself I was under the impression that for a car that will see significant street miles on crappy roads that a trans mount cross member was still important but I should use either poly or even a stock rubber trans mount?

A stock mount and crossmember will be fine, IMO.use the limiter on the block.

jbozzelle wrote:Fabio - when you do this do you keep the limiters parallel to the driveline? Like keep them flat off the trans mount bosses or just let them run where they need to?

this has worked for me.

just try to keep the limiters as parallel to the crank centerline as possible, its not fussy

Wow is that clean. My soon to be dirty old street car may be a bit less well laid out.

The Keith Fulp Motorsports plates arrived, packed for shipping to a war zone, and they look great. The spacers are for the Danny Bee Belt drive, original cast version. FKM has spacers for both the cast and the newer billet set-up.

I have to figure out some things regarding the attachment points for the plates. I think the best idea is a partial notch so the the plates sit on and next to the factory frame rail with some ability to slide forward to make pulling the trans or engine individually easier. Any ideas on these would be really helpful, pictures too.

The bottom picture is fornt dress I had in my '71 Mustang. With the plate in the '87 notch, I'll just have an alternator and the Peterson wide-vac. I use a Meziere remote water pump attached to the radiator.

It is good to see that the little package made it in good shape.
The frame mounts can be sculpted to your preference, but I like to have (2) 3/8" bolts on each side near the frame. I also like another attachment point near the top of the plate on each side.
A single 3/8" fastener for the top mount has proven to work well on my car and others.
On a car with shock towers, that top mount can be a section of tubing welded to the tower with a tab on the end.
On the bottom, I like a flat plate that the motor plate rests on that is part of the upright mount tab. That way, you can sit the motor plate (trimmed lower edge) on the lower plate, slide it back and install the bolts.
I bet some fellow racers will chime in with some pictures of their metal art.
Thank you,
Keith

not a fox body but a Ranger chassis you will see right above the springs I have  tabs welded to the frame rail with 2 holes then I have 2 tabs welded off the roll cage. I know this is a different setup than yours but might give you some more options on mounting.

Thanks for the picture, that's an amazing truck chassis.