thank you very much for the pictures and well needed info shorty. seeing as i havent insatlled the 302 yet would it maybe be eaiser bolting them on and dropping the motor in with hearders? or more of a pain in the butt?
David, We were having difficulties all over the Lakewood bell housing so I finally went back to stock (Not racing it at this time anyway.) I did grind a little on the stock housing where one of the tubes was close. Since this isn't a daily driver I'm going to let the pitman arm "wear" in as I drive. As it sits I can negotiate left hand turns in traffic without problems. It is only when I want to turn hard left that it is noticable. Grabber70, To my knowledge it is not possible to install the engine and headers as a unit in a stock engine bay. The shock towers prevent it. I would suggest working the headers in from below as you have the engine approaching the engine mounts. I had to lift the engine off of the mounts so I did one side at a time. Bruce
Thanks for the info Bruce, I will do another trial fit with the 302 still on the engine stand with the Lakewood, just to double check clearance issues. Nice to know that stock 11"/164T bellhousing works with your combo, if need be I can go back to that........ David
So David, Did you get the lakewood in? The bell I'm using is the cast Ford bellhousing for the 164 tooth/11"clutch? The one I have, per the numbers on the bell, supposidly came from a 351 or 302 for use in a large car or light truck. I'm thinking the cast Ford part might be a little smaller than the lakewood part. Haven't seen them side by side though? David
Hi David: You have the same set up as Bruce (Shorty), you are correct in that those Cast Iron bellhousing came with 302/351 larger cars or light trucks as they can accept 164/11" clutches. Regards to my Lakewood (18200?), I have not test fitted with my Hooker 6901's yet, my main concern with them was clearance with MS pitman arm and stock Z-bar, but as you can see in Bruce's pics, cleared and fitted great! With all Ford bellhousing, they are tapered down so clearance is not a problem, especially on the earlier models as the tunnel is smaller than 73 and later?? With the Lakewood bellhousing, while depth is the same, it is not tapered to allow for racing type clutches with multi disc set ups, so because of this design, clearance issues on the tunnel will have to be addressed. When I had my 74 Comet, I had to dimple the tunnel area above the Lakewood, although it was not much, just enough to leave space so not to rub. Also, with the Lakewood, because the flange around the circumference, especially lower portion where most of the 3/8" bolts go to secure the block plate, may have to be trimmed for header tube clearance. As I mentioned in earlier post, I had to remove 3 or 4 at around the 7 o'clock area. I will probably get around to test/trial fitting in next month or so, as I am currently working on modifying my wiring harness, want to remove all the unnecessary junk that came with it. Was thinking about the Ron Francis kit, but by the time it gets shipped to Canada, exchange rate, would be $600. Anyways, will post some pics of the Lakewood/Hooker 6901 set up when I have it done. Good luck with your projects! Cheers, David
So what was the answer? I also have a manual 3 speed column shift tranny no powersteering wheel would 6901s headers work for me?
Just for information purposes: you can use the 157 tooth bell and go to a Fox Stang flywheel that uses the 10.5" clutches, I ran this setup with the Toploader in my 89 Ranger with a McCleod hydro T/O bearing. Clutch engagement suffers with the O.E. parts (pressure plate and discs) but if you invest in a better aftermarket set (I'm running the Centerforce dual friction set) clutch engagement is far superior to the O.E stuff. I'm going to use the same parts for my Comet. I've got a old set of Hedman longtubes in it, fit has never been an issue with the pitman arm, can't say for the Z bar never having used it.
carlo5m, I don't recall what the steering column/manual transmission linkage looks like but here are pictures of my 6901 headers with the factory bell housing for a 164 tooth flywheel. Bruce
