Engine ground clearance
 

Yesterday I got curious about how much can the engine stick out from below the bottom of the chassis. The engine mount boxes in the book are 68 mm high, sitting on top of the bottom rails, which makes their height 93 mm above the bottom of the chassis. I looked at my Pinto, which is still on its crossbar. It looks like the bottom of the rubber mounts is about level with the bottom of the block (which always coincides with the crank axis, right?), maybe some 5 mm higher (might be due to worn rubbers). I measured the height of a Type 9 transmission from the center of the input shaft to the bottom of the bell housing flange at 155 mm. So, if the sump is cut at about 150 mm from the bottom of the block, the engine would stick out some 6 cm below the chassis, is that right?

In other threads AshG mentioned that you need 100-110 mm to clear the speed bumps, and the roadster's ride height is 100-125 mm at the front, an inch higher at the back.

This does not add up to me. What am I getting wrong?

Hi alga, I have been working on fitting my dohc engine, I started from knowing that the scuttle is 260mm above the top rails. I dropped my chassis over the engine and continued dropping it until I had about 10mm to spare between the top of the engine and the scuttle / bonnet level. I was a bit shocked to find that I will only get about 3 1/2 inches ground clearance:eek:
The DOHC mates to an MT75, trimming the sump does no good as it is the same level as the bottom of the bell housing.
Speed bumps are a max of 4 inches so a lot of roads will be "no go" areas. The short bumps are the bad ones, at least with the longer ones the front wheels are raised before the sump reaches the bump so clearance is less of an issue.
I think the Pinto is shorter than the DOHC by about 1-2 inches so you should be ok as long as the engine is pretty much as high as you can get it.
Enoch

i took about 40-45mm off my sump if that helps. seem to be able to get over speed bumps without too much drama

Ash, but how much does your sump and bell housing stick out below the bottom rails?

Enoch, I have a Pinto I took off the Sierra, but I'm fitting a Zetec.

Hi Alga,

mine has the CVH engine ( same block as a Zetec ) & my sump is 25mm below the bottom rail, bottom lip of the bellhousing is 30mm below the bottom rail.

cheers
andy