Srut brace with superram and poly engine mounts
 

Ok so I finally got my new 383 in the Camaro. It was a pita. I broke the windsheild washer motor while dropping the engine because the Superram intake sits so close to it. :banghead: I complete forgot to take it out before I started working. Now I replaced my motor mounts with new poly mounts and the engine does sit slightly higher. I tried to reinstall my edebrock sturt brace but it will not fit. It hits the superram intake. Im not sure if its beacuse the engine is sitting higher or the edelbrock brace just will not work with the superram. With my old enegine I had about a 1/4" at the most of clearance between the brace and the old TPI intake.
Any suggestions?

If you have clearance between the brace and the hood you might be able to shim the brace up a little bit.

- Justin

I was thinking of that myself when I was looking at it but Im not sure how much clearance I have between the hood and the brace. Theres not much room to elongate the holes either. I do have a cowl hood so there is slighly more clearance in the center and if I had to I could modify the center of the brace where it hits the intake and raise it up slighlty.

if you modify the brace or shim it, would that not take away from its strength and thus making it kinda pointless to be in there? Unfortuneately I say ditch the STB, chances are its a combination of intake and the new mounts, and i dont think there are any STBs that will fit.

Shim it with gr8 washers - I think you'd lose little to no effectiveness. If it fits, well, I dunno....

I was thinking of using some aluminum flat stock to shim under the mounts, but until I get the front sheet metal and hood back on I wont be able to measure clerances. If I modify the center section I was thinking since the brace is basically hollow tubing I could replace a section with solid steel flat stock and I dont think it would loose any of its strength.

Pretty sure there isn't enough hood clearance to even shim a STB above a SR. Check TGO but I believe nobody has really been able to make it work.

Yeah I did and your right. Ive only seen one person that made it fit but Im not sure how and I cant find the post on it. From what I can see looking at it again today. All I need is about 1/8" inch on either side. The only other problem is the way I have the wot swicth for the NOS mounted on the tb. The bracket hits the brace so I will have to come up with a solution for that as well. Im going to put the trans in next week and then I will see how the engine sits and then go from there.

time to make a sweet homemade one :nod:
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Video Review

Well got the tranny in and now I can see what Im really working with. Its not bad at all now like I thought all I need is a 1/8 of a inch to clear the intake. I think I may be able to shim the mounts on either side an 1/8 to clear if that doesnt work with clearance against the hood then I will have to notch an 1/8 out of a short section in the center of the brace.

I got my brace to fit after some modifications to the center of the bar. I notched it out and welded a peice of flat stock steel to close it up since it was hollow tubing. I dont think it lost any strenght but if it did, its still better imo than not have a strut brace at all. I will take pics of it after I get it repowder coated.

Get some heavy duty washers and put them on the mounting bolts to raise the strut tower mounting brackets up a little. Then bolt it down. Its a cheap way to try and make it work.