1967 Chevy Camaro Project - Transmission Clearance

Before going into the calculation of what moving the engine 8 inches will do to the weight bias of Unfair, let's quickly recap where we are with the car's weight:

Stock: 1,900 front/1,500 rear/3,400 total
56/44 front-to-rear weight bias

With a weight loss of 75 pounds for the engine and 90 pounds for aluminum sheetmetal before we move any weight (assuming 80 percent of the weight savings comes off the front, and 20 percent from the back)

1,900-0.8*165 pounds front, 1,500-0.2*165 pounds rear
1,768 front/1,467 rear/3,235 total
Putting us now at 54.5/45.5

In order to drop the engine, we have to go back 8 inches before going down because we have to get the engine behind the Tony Woodward rack in order to lower it. Making these changes was a last resort solution: We didn't want to have to do this.

Hopefully the use of a hardware store wheelbarrow is a trick you can apply to your own projects should you decide to grab your torch and welder and make a similar fix.

The math shows a significant gain in the weight bias front to rear. The mass of the engine/transmission is now completely between the axle centerlines (a factory Camaro has the number one spark plug even with the front axle). Let's assume that the car started out as 54.5 percent of the weight on the front tires, the engine/clutch/tranny combination weighs 800 pounds, and that the car will weigh about 3,000 pounds empty and 3,200 pounds with driver. We are moving the engine 8 inches and our wheelbase is 108 inches.

The approximate effect per axle can be calculated using the following equation:

Wb = (Mm/WB)*(M/TW)
Wb = change in weight bias
Mm = movement of mass (the engine/transmission) in inches
WB = wheelbase
M = weight of mass
TW = total mass of car

Plugging in, we get Wb = (8/108)*(800/3000) = 0.0197, then multiplying by 100 to get percentage gives us 2 percent.

Since we are moving the engine back so much, we are compromising the foot well quite a bit. We plan to move the seat back 4 inches also, which will put the driver's back at the forward edge of the rear quarter window. Back a bit from stock, but not so far back it feels like a Funny Car either. We will build an interior toe board 4 inches closer to the driver so the pedals are not hanging in free air. We realized after tacking in the main hump (wheelbarrow) that we still need some extra room.
Since we are moving the engine back so much, we are compromising the foot well quite a bit
We looked over clearances on the engine side of the hump and decided we could do a relief that would give us a few extra inches of footwell width and still allow room for headers and clutch removal.
We looked over clearances on the engine side of the hump and decided we could do a relief
The 2.5-inch fill strips will be welded in, raising the tunnel for transmission clearance. The passenger side footwell has plenty of space, and that extra 4 inches may turn out to be a great place to stash some electronics. For strength, we are using all 16-gauge on the closeouts on either side of the hump to tie together the cowl, floor, rockers, and tulips on the side of the cowl.
The 2.5-inch fill strips will be welded in, raising the tunnel for transmission clearance.

A few custom pieces will make our closeout around the blower look very clean.
We used easy-to-work 20-gauge for these little parts.
This could all have been done with everyday cutting tools and bent on a vice, or even with your thumbs for rounding a part, but Michael Serafine likes playing with the slip roll every chance he gets.
This could all have been done with everyday cutting tools and bent on a vice, or even with