ok, heres the deal, once upon a time my '84 toyota had a front shocktower bust off. someone with (well, less than ideal skill) welded the tower back on but didnt see fit to weld the top of the frame. so, i have almost a 1/4'' crack along the top of my frame along the shock tower.

now, i had planned to drill some stop holes in the edges of the crack, clamp it all tight, and weld the crack shut then add bracing perpendicular to the length of the frame (clear as mud yet?)

problem...

called my pop, and in his infinite engineering way, he told me this COULD actually move the stresses and POSSIBLY make the frame weaker.

so, what should i do?

thanks

Weld it up, after you drill the ends of the cracks, and see how it works for ya... right now you have a cracked frame, there ain't no shifting that.

toyota frames are not t-1 steel you can grind a groove where the crack is if you want to get a full pen weld (if your the paranoid type or cannot weld very well). just make sure the area is clean and free of paint and have someone who knows how to run a bead weld on it. drilling the end of the cracks is a waste of time. I have fixed quite a few cracks in toy frames just layed a bead over the crack. Never was a problem again.... these where frames that where under HEAVY abuse as well.

hmm...

I have a 76 chevy half ton that has developed a crack where I notched the frame to fit my hedders. Should I do the same thing? (just weld it up) Or should I plate it in?

http://www.alaskaoffroad.com/images/Tech/Exhaust/header_clearance.JPG

this picture does not show the crack, but it shows how I had to notch the frame. The crack is small, but it goes from the top flange and down the verticle face about 1/2" starting at the thinnest point in the notch.

Crack doesnt show up in the pics i took of it sorry.

Thanks,

Brook

you clearenced your frame to install headers? Now thats dedication to exaust flow...

Well, the clearancing was only supposed to be a little bit. After the very spendy headers hit the frame a couple times, making nice sized dents, :mad: I decided to make plenty of clearance. Bad Idea. I will probably plate the frame on the outside for now, and box the inside the next time the motor is out.

Besides, you cant be running a 500hp motor through stock exhaust manifolds.:D

Brook

Originally posted by bgreen
Well, the clearancing was only supposed to be a little bit. After the very spendy headers hit the frame a couple times, making nice sized dents, :mad: I decided to make plenty of clearance. Bad Idea. I will probably plate the frame on the outside for now, and box the inside the next time the motor is out.

Besides, you cant be running a 500hp motor through stock exhaust manifolds.:D

Brook

Brook, Some time I am going to have to pick your brain on how to set up my Caddy engine. You seem to know quite a but about them. I plan to run my 500 stock for now, but I would mind doing a little mild work to it to relaease some of the potential. I really don't want to do anything expensive though, as I am sure it will already have waay more power than I will ever need.

One thing I know that I want to do is add fuel injection some time. Anything that you can recommend for fuel injection? I have heard that there are places that make cheap conversion plates that allow you to mount a stock Ford 460FI intake manifold to the Cad engine.

Thanks,
Sean

Brook, Some time I am going to have to pick your brain on how to set up my Caffy engine. You seem to know quite a but about them. I plan to run my 500 stock for now, but I would mind doing a little mild work to it to relaease some of the potential. I really don't want to do anything expensive though, as I am sure it will already have waay more power than I will ever need.

One thing I know that I want to do is add fuel injection some time. Anything that you can recommend for fuel injection? I have heard that there are places that make cheap conversion plates that allow you to mount a stock Ford 460FI intake manifold to the Cad engine.

WOW! thats way off topic! :flipoff2:

but really, I would go to this board (http://members.boardhost.com/BadCad/) and ask those questions. I dont have any experiance with FI. If it was me, I would just do throttle body injection.

If you want to only soup it up a little bit, get some Sanderson block hugger headers, and a good mandrel bent 2.5" exhaust and call it good. Or add an edelbrock aluminum intake, and a JET q-jet, good HEI and a decent fuel pump.

Brook