So the other day the question was raised about build , buy used or get one built. Having just ran into a situation thought to share.
Last year when I made the (fairly painful) decision to sell my altered and get something closer to track ready. Had a pretty good idea as what to look for (or so I thought) when jumping to a FED.
Now the thing that I thought was most advantageous about the car that worked to my benefit caused me to be lackadaisical and ended up being a huge problem.
So worried about issues like the pan. Pumps configuration. Mounting, wiring, tranny configuration etc. The fact that my car is 20 inches between the rails at the engine plate blinded me to see my situation. My headers wont clear. The vintage hemi has a very obtuse angle at its exhaust side.
Have managed a little time this week to draw, measure layout a plan. But the most simplest solution is most likely just scrap the whole hemi deal and go to a different engine combination.
Not one to give up easy I can make this work. But it will involve making a adapter plate of sorts to bring the exhaust face to a right angle to deck, then raise the port exit point in the plate , Fabricate a zoomie that come up at angle to the header flange to some degree. This will also involve making a new steering rod with a bend in it, some welding on the heads and moving a couple of the exhaust fastener locations.
Not best photos sorry but again just wanted to share. I have really gotten attached to the idea of running an old hemi but regroup and carry on. Theres people around us fighting much worse issues.
carry on thank you
Luke
Some ref photos attached . The one you can see the head exhaust side relative to the frame rail. This photo does not show the bigger problem of the steering rod.
Then you can see with the header in place how far it is from its location.
I made a wood model of the Header plate to get a quick visual of what I was looking at.