Please don't take this sarcastic or anything negative, I'm genuinely wanting serious information: Since you have this neat stuff, why not use it to figure out how thin the plate can be for SBC / Getrag 5 speed, if using a turned-down flywheel, and a Fiero starter-ring gear mounted onto said flywheel, rather than the 153-tooth?
I've already finished R&D on an LS1 / F40 adapter plate, so no need to pursue that. FieroGuru already figured out the SBC / F40 combo, so no need to do that one. The only other combo left, not yet mentioned above, is what I'm now working on: LS1 / Getrag.

are there any differences in the flywheel and bell flange design between the LS1 and SBC? Does the crank snout stick out the same distance as the SBC? I would think they would be the same so GM can interchange all the transmissions, I don't have any data on the F40 transaxle what vehicle does it come in?

quote Originally posted by Isolde: Please don't take this sarcastic or anything negative, I'm genuinely wanting serious information: Since you have this neat stuff, why not use it to figure out how thin the plate can be for SBC / Getrag 5 speed, if using a turned-down flywheel, and a Fiero starter-ring gear mounted onto said flywheel, rather than the 153-tooth? I've already finished R&D on an LS1 / F40 adapter plate, so no need to pursue that. FieroGuru already figured out the SBC / F40 combo, so no need to do that one. The only other combo left, not yet mentioned above, is what I'm now working on: LS1 / Getrag.

The SBC with a modified 4cyl fiero flywheel (neutral balance) will need the adapter plate to be right about 5/8". To go any thinner, the flywheel surface must be closer to the engine and you run out of room real quick for the clutch hub (especially if it has springs) clearing the crankshaft bolts. Zumwalt used countersunk crankshaft bolts as an after thought.. to adapt his auto adapter plate (about 1/2" thick) to a manual and they were problematic on removal and many people had clutch issues.

Now the LS(x) family engine have the crankshaft flage closer to the engine than the SBC (the spacer I just got was .400" to make the LS flange be the same as the SBC), so you might be able to run a thinner adapter plate in the 3/16 to 1/4" range for this combo... but it requires a tranny mounted starter. The LS(x) flywheels are quite thin to begin with, just way too large of diameter. Check the distance of the clutch surface from the bellhousing and subtract .810" from it... this will give you the approximate thickness of the adapter plate (but you would need to turn the flywheel down to fit within the tranny and install the fiero ring gear.

[This message has been edited by fieroguru (edited 09-23-2010).]

quote Originally posted by fieroguru: The SBC with a modified 4cyl fiero flywheel (neutral balance) will need the adapter plate to be right about 5/8". To go any thinner, the flywheel surface must be closer to the engine and you run out of room real quick for the clutch hub (especially if it has springs) clearing the crankshaft bolts. Zumwalt used countersunk crankshaft bolts as an after thought.. to adapt his auto adapter plate (about 1/2" thick) to a manual and they were problematic on removal and many people had clutch issues. Now the LS(x) family engine have the crankshaft flage closer to the engine than the SBC (the spacer I just got was .400" to make the LS flange be the same as the SBC), so you might be able to run a thinner adapter plate in the 3/16 to 1/4" range for this combo... but it requires a tranny mounted starter. The LS(x) flywheels are quite thin to begin with, just way too large of diameter. Check the distance of the clutch surface from the bellhousing and subtract .810" from it... this will give you the approximate thickness of the adapter plate (but you would need to turn the flywheel down to fit within the tranny and install the fiero ring gear.

I had already concluded that the ideal plate would be 0.220" thick, then using WCF's blank-center aluminum flywheel. My adapter plate thread on RFT shows my drastic variation on the SDbR plan of mounting a starter to the adapter plate. But my steel plates will be about 1/3 the price of his, I won't be doing aluminum. Not at 0.220" thick.
Cajun, Guru has pretty well mastered the concept of mounting a starter to a transaxle, and the F40 transaxle version of most interest is the MT2, used in the Pontiac G6 GT 3.9L. They're still available new for $400 each, Schram Auto still has several.

I'm soooo jealous. Fieroguru must own a lathe. I wish I owned one. oh the things I could do. I hate the company I work for. They have nothing. Just a torch, welding machine and an iron worker with almost no punches. I miss working for Deere they have all the nice stuff. My employer baught some really old lathes for a new buisiness venture, but they had no tools to go with them. That venture failed and they sold everything.

I NEED a better job so bad. I would love to start a buisiness of my own but no one I know has any equipment or capital to start one. I wish I had some answers.
There are a few machine shops here but they mostly deal with the oilfield industry and they charge a fortune for the simplest things.

About a mile from home there's an old retired man that owns a bunch of nice lathes and milling equipment that he hasn't used in over ten years. He won't let anyone use them and he won't sell them either. He bacame a horder and has a LOT of junk everywhere.

[This message has been edited by Cajun Road Warrior (edited 09-23-2010).]

Yeah, I do miss having use of a longer calipers. Maybe when someone buys one of my plates. guru does own his own mill, and I have use of both an old Bridgeport, as well as a CNC mill. Costs me $50 / month, but that's for unlimited use, and includes electricity. But the way I laid my pattern out on the stock, I have to cut the plates apart with a saw before I can get them to the mill, where I'll then have to smooth all the cuts I did by saw.
If you remove all the front accessories, including water pump, the LSx is a shorter block than the SBC, and the LS4 version is even shorter. My local branch of LKQ has several of the 4.8L truck version at $200 each, complete. I'd suggest you look into trying to get similar for your future offerings.

$200? for a 4.8? wow that's cheap! I wonder how much for other LS offerings? How did you work out a deal like $50 a month for access to a mill shop. I couldn't dream of that here.
And what is LKQ?

[This message has been edited by Cajun Road Warrior (edited 09-23-2010).]

LM7 5.3s start at $500, LQ4 6.0s start at $800, LS1 5.7s start at $2000. LS4 5.3Ls start at $1400. Occasionally an LM7 will turn up at the u-pull-it yards for under $200, but I've only seen 2. One of them I managed to grab on half-price day.
LKQ is a nation-wide chain of salvage yards that only do late models. Their prices are unreasonably high on 99% of everything they sell, but they usually have what the u-pull-it yards don't.

There's very large salvage shop I use to go to years ago. They use to let me walk though the yard where I would pick out things I might be able to use for a project. But that all changed when some young idiots started busting up the cars near the back. The destroyed a couple of Fieros and a few other cars near them.

Some wealthy guy buoght the place and expanded the yard. The prices went to the sky after that. They wanted $50 for and old casset player. I told them that think is 20 years old I can by new for just a few dolars more. He acted like an ass an refused to negotiate. So I left and never when back. Most yards in Louisiana are just muddy clearings with cars and trucks scattered at random. The U pull it places are a lot better. The cars are lifted and they put gravel down.

I have at least 5 yards within 100 miles of me. Pick-N-Pull is part of a large chain, and they've been at this the longest, but their prices are rising faster than inflation. That, plus more competition, is really hurting their business. So much so that they now have to do a half price day every 6 months rather than once a year. Currently that's my only real hope for a dually axle for my '83 Chevy.
My nearest yard is mostly retired pickups from local farmers and ranchers. And the guy who runs it, well, the nicest I can say is he's the stereotype of a red-neck hill-Billy. And his prices rival Pick-N-Pull. I just don't go there.
My next closest yard has excellent deals, but they seldom allow anything, that I'd want, to get to the yard. They do have some low-mile L36s and L26s with 4T65Es that I'm considering, as soon as funds permit. That's where I got my '88 cradle with rear suspension.
Then there's the yard that's in the questionable part of the big city. You just can't ever guess what to expect, but I keep going.
But the real cherry is the farthest. They do half price days every Monday and Wednesday. That's how I got my L67.

I have a elec. water pump mounted under the bat. mounting spot. You can see how I did it in my build book on youtube. "chevy v8 fiero-4" It is out of the way, stays in the car when the engine comes out. love having people try to find the water pump!

That's what I plan to use when I start getting it all back together. How well does it flow? Any issues with it at all?