Rear cross member 'strength'?

[tadd]

I'm pulling for an engine swap/paint freshen and wanted to know how important the rear cross member is in the chassis. I'm thinking really hard about cutting it at the engine mounts and welding tabs to make it a bolt in (along with the bit of body work that the engine lid latches to) so that the engine would be a 'roll out' rather than a drop out.

Lets just say I've been inspired by all the 934/935 pics in the other thread an I like swapping motors cause I'm going to (eventually!) have two very different ones since swapping is pretty plug and play.

t

[Flieger]

I would mimic the 935 and make it a bolt-in tubular frame. I would not try to use the sheet metal in a bolt-in installation. The crossbar would preferrably bolt into a hard point from a roll cage.

[tadd]

Max:
Thanks for the reply. A cage is a bit much me thinks.

I was thinking of two vertical cuts at the very inside of the motor mounts on the rear x-bar. Then a bit of trimming to add a pair of plates on either side of the cut thus covering the now hollow open member on either side. The removed section then slides in and two (or four shoulder bolts in reamed holes) to locate and clamp thus minimizing movement.

That leaves dealing with the rear valence and the lip that contains the trunk latch.

Does that make sense?

t

[Flieger]

I guess you could just take a big gas powered chop saw and then box the end of the piece you cut off, along with the chassis and bolt them together with a good few bolts, with large washers and lots of clamping force.

Any pictures of the rear of a naked tub?

[RWebb]

I swear I've seen pics of that done before -- maybe a factory racer and maybe on this bbs...

[Flieger]

I knew you had posted here way more recently than 2009.