Chevy Bigblock swap

[glenn]

I just picked up a wrecked 93 chevy dually two wheel drive truck with a 4L80E transmission. I am planning on swapping the engine and trans into one of my M715 projects. Has anyone done this before using spicer plates for the mounts or do I have to cut the stock ones off and weld in some.

[ryanroo]

i swapped a BBC in my truck with a nv4500. so did barrman. Barrman used the spicer plates. i opted to fab a crossmember and enginemount combo. the plu side to my method is that you have a choice as to where the engine sits. since you are swapping transmissions and the tranny mount will likely not work iw ould go that that route.

Barrman used the stock tranny crossmember and used the jack shaft to dictate the for/aft placement of the engine i believe. i used a married 205 and remade the entire engine and tranny mount assemblies.

this long thread has pictures of my set up

found one

ryan

[Barrman]

As Ryan wrote, I used the spicer plates for the engine and angle iron/square tubing to connect the stock NV4500 mount to the stock M715 cross member. Here is a 4 year old picture of my rear trans mount. I have since changed it to look better and not cut my hand when I unbolt the mount:
[IMG][/IMG]
I was daily driving the M715 back then and needed the truck to get to work. I started the swap on a Friday evening and was driving it around Sunday.

You do what you want. It is your truck. I have since done several more swaps. My advice is to use the spicer plates for the engine and scrap the stock trans cross member. Buy a 28" length of 2"x2"x1/4" square tubing and have some 4"x1/4" flat laying around along with some 1/4"x2" angle iron. Bolt the square tubing to the bottom stock crossmember mount using the 4 holes already in the mount(drill and tap the holes in the square tubing.), use the flat to get you under the new transmission mount and then weld the angle iron to that to set your highth. If you already have the angle iron sized and drilled to fit the bottom of the new transmission mount, you will just need to tack the flat steel to connect the angle iron and square tubing, remove it all from under the truck, weld it without burning your arms or setting anything on fire, paint it and bolt it back in.

You probably already know this, but find the biggest transmission cooler you think you will need and then find a bigger one. Buy one that is bigger than the biggest one you already found.

[glenn]

I am keeping this swap as simple as possible, I want to have it going very soon or I would try to do the custom crossmember. I seem to be real good at trying to go real fancy like my cummins/superduty drivetrain swap and then don't the time to work on it much. Does anyone have pictures of the spicer plates. I remember seeing them a while ago but don't find anything in archives.

[Barrman]

Here is another swap I am involved with:

SBC to 3053A Progress