Engine Angle for Swap

[jfbrink]

 

Hello, All,

 

I am back to swapping an engine into my '67 wagon. I had posted a while back about putting a 2000 JDM Miata 1.8L and 5 speed into it, but that engine ended up going into my '68 Toyota Corona Coupe. I happened to buy a 2000 JDM Miata 1.6L with automatic for a few hundred buck off eBay around that time, so it's been waiting to go in the wagon. The fit is great.

 

I'll post details about the swap later on, but for the moment I have a question about what angle to give my engine. With the engine in the car, and the car level, I measure the angle of the pinion yoke face as 0 degrees. Now, I know the stock engine was angled down quite a bit, but it's long gone and I can't find my measurement of what that angle was.

 

Does anyone know the downward angle of the stock engine? Is the assumption that the wagon will get loaded heavily, tilting the pinion up from zero to have the correctly corresponding angle? Or did removing the helper springs somehow (I can't see how) change the pinion angle? Would I be better off setting my swap engine at 0 degrees to match the pinion yoke?

 

 

Jesse.

[derekg]

The phase angles can be run at 0 degrees and you will want slope angle to be less than 3 degrees at full extension of the suspension (not jacked up off the ground, but what you believe will be the extent of your suspension travel while driving). With a fixed center like in a 510 it is not good to run both at 0 degrees, but with a live axle you will have movement constantly changing the slope angle. You should also triangulate the lateral (side to side) alignment of the centerline of the crank to the tailshaft as one plane and the input and axis of the pinion as the other plane. This can't be done with the inclinometer, but can be done with string, plumbobs, and a lot of patience. If lateral alignment is off then the driveshaft will have a jumprope affect as well as stress on the U-joints. Funny thing is that nobody speaks about it in any engine swap article since it is a pain to set up and measure.