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 Some GMPP E-Rod engines are...  Some GMPP E-Rod engines are plucked off the Corvette assembly line and arrive with Corvette center-dump manifolds, but will include the appropriate rear dump ones from ’10-and-later Camaros. This is the one pretty much all muscle car swaps will require.  Holley has made life easy...  Holley has made life easy for second-gen F-bodies, fourth-gen Novas, and any other GM cars that use the clamshell-style mount with these exclusive steel adapter plates. They bolt directly to the block on the forward bosses. Holley offers four variations of the adapter plates that position the engine differently; ours is the “stock” location, which effectively puts the engine as far rearward as possible.  Luckily, the interference...  Luckily, the interference is in a noncritical portion of the bracket with plenty of reinforcement. Bodie Stroud used a plasma cutter to make quick work of the thick steel, but a grinder or torch could do the job as well.  Next, with bolts snugly threaded...  Next, with bolts snugly threaded into new ⅜-16 hex nuts rather than the original flanged-style nuts, we positioned the lower plate of the clamshell on the subframe so the nuts dropped into the holes. Stroud then TIG’d the nuts onto the plate.  Interestingly, simply cutting...  Interestingly, simply cutting along the outline of an embossed triangular shape on the mount creates the perfect clearance. It’s almost like GM saw this swap coming …  The best we can figure, GM...  The best we can figure, GM never intended for the rubber isolators to be replaced, since getting to the nuts is damn near impossible—unless you feel like removing the springs and lower control arms. With Stroud’s help, we managed to finagle ’em out, but devised to make reinstallation easier. First, we drilled out the rivets to separate the two sides of the clamshell mount and drilled out the SBC mounting holes on the subframe to ⅝ inch.  We backed the bolts out while...  We backed the bolts out while the mount was still hot and then chased the threads. The subframe holes were hogged out to 11/16 inch to account for the welds and then Stroud positioned the plate per factory SBC location and welded the plate flush to the subframe. We followed up with Eastwood’s Extreme Chassis Black paint for corrosion protection.  The top bracket of the clamshell...  The top bracket of the clamshell bolts to the plate with the supplied Allen head capscrews from Holley with no issue on the driver side, but on the passenger side this boss will prevent the bracket from meeting the adapter plate.  Speaking of isolators, future...  Speaking of isolators, future replacement is probably a moot point if you replace the original rubber ones with poly pieces from Energy Suspension. These have a much longer service life and fight torque roll much more efficiently.
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