Need suggestions, intermediate shaft hitting S&P headers

I made half inch crossmember spacers and the hood shut perfectly, but the intermediate shaft hits the second primary tube. So, I cut the hood support, took the spacers out and dropped the crossmember to 1/4 inch drop. The hood still closed and the intermediate shaft still hits the second primary. Rather disappointing as I slightly dimpled the hood prying the adhesive off and damn near cut a hole in the hood.

I slotted the front crossmember and will do the back crossmember to try and slide the whole drive train back to create some room. I have half and inch to the dual master cyinder mount on the firewall. When I slotted the front crossmember on the passenger side all it did was allow the upright to sit flat as it was binding a little before.

Any other options to create some room for the intermediate shaft?

How bad is it hitting? which type motor mounts are you using? Old or new style?

With a half inch drop I can't mount the steering rack. With a quarter inch drop it is rubbing but the rack can be mounted. I don't know if the mounts are old or new style. The mounts are red eurethane, not the rubber mounts.

Arth, did you lengthen the steering shaft?

No need to lengthen the shaft, if it didn't hit the header it would be long enough. I know the guy that originally made the headers that these were copied from did not use spacers. Even without spacers, the steering intermediate shaft is pretty close to the primary tube.

I know you have my Dual MC housing/mount and you can get the rear of the driver's head to sit 3/16 to 1/4" away from the alloy plate even with rubber engine mounts it will not hit under hard revs or hard braking.... this is the reason I designed the V8 trans mount to sit the drivetrain back because my modded 2312 headers hit the steering shaft at such a big X-member drop..... get it as close as possible.

That was my plan. I have about a half an inch before I hit the alloy plate. If I can move it back a quarter of an inch it should give enough clearance.

If you are running Poly engine mounts, I wouldn't even be afraid to go right under 3/16" clearance. Keep up the great work. It'll all come to fruition soon and be worth the hassle.

I'm running a set of the s&p headers from last year's first group buy organized by Sloan.

I was disappointed to learn that even after the custom fabrication, the steering shaft interfered very slightly on the #5 cylinder down tube. I ended up removing the header and - the horror - pressing a dimple into the header at the point of interference. In my car's case, I'm not running spacers and using Sloan's uprights with stiff Energy Suspension urethane mounts.

Note on those headers - I also needed to trim the passenger side crossmember and cut off the v-band clamps and modify the collectors, because they were so low and pointed at a downward angle when mounted in the car. It was a shame to have to mess with those things, especially after they'd been ceramic coated and customized by the fabricator.

With those modifications, the header clearance no longer a problem.

Dan.

I have those same headers and am having the same problems as you. The only plus is mine would clear the shaft without a spacer. Not excited to hear about having to trim the collector on the passenger side. I had read you did that and was hoping I would not have the same issue.

Have the same headers on my car, Eric had to dimple that tube for clearance. Don't think he had to mess with the collector though.

Is there some trick to moving the drive train backwards? I slotted the front and rear cross members, put a jack that is on wheels under the transmission and hung the motor from a hoist. I tried to pry it back from the dog ears in front of the transmission and it moved slightly, I think, can't find my tape measure. The last time I saw it my daughter was playing with it.
Doc, your headers are different than mine. The model I have has V-band adapters welded to the collectors and the passenger side dumps straight down almost parallel with the ground. It looks like it was welded backwards, if it was turned 180degrees it would point to the back like it should.

Arthropraxis wrote:Is there some trick to moving the drive train backwards?

Is the car level when trying to do this?

I don't know why it wouldn't move last night. This morning it went back without any effort to 5/16ths from the master cylinder plate. The rear of the transmission is closer than that to the spare tire well. I think that is about as close as I can get it.

The steering rack clears by 1/8th of an inch and the hood shuts with some space above the throttle body. All it took was to use .25in spacers, cut the hood brace and move the drive train back about .25in. Looks strange to see the car with the hood shut.

That's fantastic - great news.

Also, that's funny observation. I remember the first time seeing the car with the hood closed was just about as satisfying as hearing it fire up. And, once the car was finally off jack stands and standing on it's suspension (about 9 months) everything seemed so impossibly low to the ground.

Dan.

Funny , I just had that conversation with someone the other day. I have only sat in the car one time that was not on jack stands and have never driven it.
Dan do you have any pictures of how you modified the passenger side collector and V-band?

Just wait until you drive the thing...

I'm traveling now, and can get you pictures next week. Really I wasn't very happy about how those collectors worked out. I took the car to a muffler shop for the exhaust fabrication and as we were going over things with the car on the rack, they mentioned that the collectors pointed down - that it may be a problem. I returned at the end of the day to find that they'd cut the manifolds in order to make it work and the welds aren't the prettiest. They did replace the v-bands after grafting in a 90 deg section.

It added to the cost and didn't look the way I wanted. In other words, not a part of the conversion I'm most proud of - but very functional and I think redirecting the exhaust is necessary for clearance.

If anyone is making longer tube headers that would be a good option as long as they are custom for the 944 fitment.

Results are good though. Here's a recent track day at Oregon Raceway Park. The car loves that track.
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Dan.

Eric is/was making long tube headers for the conversion. I would appreciate the pictures so I can show the muffler guy what is going to need to be done.
That is a nice smooth, flowing track with good elevation changes and nicely banked turns. I can see why it would be fun. Reminds me of VIR.

Eric has long tube headers on his site for sale...

wow ORP looks like an awesome track - virgin asphalt, elevation changes, wide run-off areas!

That does look like FUN. I hope I will experince a road course with my project upon completion day (somewhere in the future). It would have been nice to hear the exhaust as you were working that Vette over. I'm only in the infant stages of my conversion but you guys have done some awesome work.