Hey Cnd Chevelle, I'm right in the middle of development of a full system of swap components coming from Hooker for 68-72 A-bodies and can give you some hands-on advice to help you achieve your objective. You can indeed get a 4L70 installed in your car behind an LS without cutting the floor and while achieving desirable U-joint working angles. In order to reach that objective, you will have to move the engine/trans mating plane 1.25" forward from the stock position, which is possible to do using one of two sets of Hooker engine brackets that will be available soon and the Holley 302-2 oil pan. The 4th-gen F-body accessory drive set-up will not be installable in this engine position, so you'll have to use a truck, Corvette or Holley accessory drive system. A side benefit to this configuration is that the trans bolts right onto the factory Chevelle crossmember without having to drill any new holes in the frame.
Any idea when the mounts will be available?
My best quess from where I'm at in the project would be 45 days.
That's excellent..... Would you recommend holding off on ordering drive assembly? The plan is to order LS376/480 and 4L70E from Trailblazer SS to save $$$. The controllers are an easy plug and play. I had expected to order
I've validated the fitment of the standard truck accessory drive set-up with a smaller pulley on the power steering pump, but the TBSS set-up is one I don't have in my inventory of mock-up parts to test. None of the new Hooker headers being designed these days bear resemblance to the Comp or Supercomp headers designed years ago. If you haven't been exposed to products from the Hooker Blackheart line yet, which these will be, you will be surprised by your experience with them. I'm far enough along in the project that I can post some fitment photos for you guys here (especially the oil pan and mounts) next week if you want.
Yes Please, esp. with truck acc., factory location mounts, manual trans, mechanical clutch.
I'll be able to show all of that with the exception of the mechanical clutch linkage, which the long tube headers will not be designed to be compatible with. You could of course use the mounting components and try to source your headers/manifolds elsewhere.
Looks like you made good use of the Holley 302-2 pan there Les.I used Dirty Dingo sliders with Energy Suspension mounts and Holley 302-2 pan. The fit is perfect. It ended up with about 3/8" pan clearance above and behind the cross member and the tie rod end grease zerks clear. I had hope the 06 Vette exhaust manifolds would fit but, not to be. I ended up buying "cheapo" shorties off eBay and I was pleasantly surprised at the fit and quality. I was able to use the stock transmission cross member but, haven't yet been able to assess the drive shaft angle.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/151712365421?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
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Nice job, your engine placement would be very close to what is provided by the forward-position set of Hooker engine brackets, so if they provide relatively the same elevation height as them also, you will be able to use your factory crossmember and achieve great U-joint angles. A little more information that will be helpful for you to know is that the Hooker engine brackets include two 3/8" thick shims that get installed between the ends of the crossmember and the frame and a 3/16" thick shim that gets installed between the center pad of the crossmember and the trans mount to produce optimized U-joint angles using the factory crossmember with the Hooker engine brackets. You can try the same thing, but If your engine mounts are higher, this won't work for you
That's great, I'm curious to see how the headers work out with swap plates. Remember that the Hooker brackets will place the front of the engine lower in the frame than swap plates will, so if you run into difficulties achieving desirable U-joint working angles, they are an option for you to use over the swap plates.
No mods are needed to the stock trans cross member. I used the Energy Suspension trans mount & the OEM Powerglide cross member. This mount is a bit taller than other mounts, the trans can only be raised ~5/16" before hitting the tunnel. And the engine is only ~1* down as referenced to the rocker panel.
