Two days ago, my "safety" bellhousing arrived.
I bolted it to the transmission to make sure it would fit, and just to see what it looked like:
A "safety" bellhousing or "scattershield" is made of 5/16" steel, and is designed to prevent the clutch from sending shrapnel through floor pan and into the car, if it shatters from heavy strain (from say... a 575hp supercharged 302). Besides the safety factor, this bellhousing also allows me to bolt my 64 1/2 Ford Toploader 4-speed to a modern '68+ 302 V8.
Today, I worked on getting my mock-up engine bolted in, to check for clearance and fabricate some mounts. This is the engine that I bought complete and taken apart for $50. After wrestling the block into the engine bay, and fighting the non-standard motor mounts, I finally got everything bolted in:
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get it started up today... I don't think a new battery or dousing the entire thing in ATF will help, it's in pretty poor shape:
Finally, I unbolted my bellhousing from the transmission, and bolted it to the back of the engine:
Bolting the bellhousing on was a 6 hand job. It was impossible to lift the bellhousing from underneath, pin it up against the block to keep it from falling, and starting two bolts all by myself.
Next, I'm going to push the transmission up against the bellhousing (with the aid of a large jack), bolt it up, and fabricate the transmission mount out of some left-over Suzuki leaf spring bushings that I've held onto over the years.
