In the front, everything ties in together so I’ve spent a lot of time figuring out how I want to do things most efficiently. I don’t want separate brackets for each part that needs to be mounted, the redundancy would just be more weight.
Everything is centered around the new cross-beam between the two frame rails. But, this time I made it bolt-in so it can be removed entirely for engine removal/install. Making it removable involved welding captive nuts inside the frame rails… that took some creative problem solving.
Here’s the cross-bar. The radiator, intake, power steering cooler, and some of the air ducting will all tie into this:
The radiator’s upper brackets mount to the two outer threaded points on the cross brace, via rubber standoffs to isolate vibrations:
The center two tabs that you can see above are for the intake. Again, rubber standoffs used here to absorb the twist the engine will put on the intake. Here’s a closer shot:
To mount the intake to those tabs took some more aluminum…
And some welding…
And the intake is officially done! The radiator is now fully mounted as well, and I also did the power steering cooler mounts, but will save that to post all at once when I cover the power steering system.
Now, before anyone starts asking about the filter location getting debris thrown at it through the bumper opening, don’t worry – there are plans that tie in with the ducting that will take care of that.