Next, I test fit the new structural components that would be holding up the engine mounts. The kit manufacturer has mistakenly sent me two driver side rails initially. This turned out to not be an issue as I later decided to not even use these pieces.
Now it's time to start test fitting the engine in place and make some motor mounts. The front motor mounts were (kinda poorly, I've since gotten better) fabricated from scratch using a set of generic motor mount pucks I found on Amazon. The rear motor mounts were retained (even though the kit supplier said they wouldn't work and I needed to buy some fancy / expensive poly mount) after adding a spacer between the mount and cross member.
Oh wait, I forgot to mention that I DID wind up using those frame rails from the kit. The beauty of having a massive gaping hole in the firewall during initial test drives, is that you can watch how much the engine moves around during normal driving. I decided to add an outrigger to the lateral cross member to prevent it from rotating during acceleration and engine braking.
Now that everything is bolted in place nice and tight, let's rip it all out again and prepare for...
STEP 5 - START THE ENGINE
I will spare the wiring details. It's lost on most people anyway, but I LOVE a good wiring project. As an automotive powertrain controls engineer, it's part of my job. This project did not disappoint in terms of complexity. I estimate at least 50 hours of my personal time making the wire harness alone. To be fair I completely disassembled the entire GM harness, removed all unused wires and then custom fit each wire exactly to my specification. Again, I'm kind of a masochist when it comes to wiring projects.
Before putting the engine back into the car, I decided to start the engine on my bench. This required me to finish the exhaust down pipes off the headers and quickly mock-up an intake system (yes, I know. The MAF is too close to the throttle body. This was moved further upstream once the engine was back in the car.)
