Engine Tiedown questions

[dgoodhue]

I have two questions. I already have some S hooks and a turnbuckle.

First where to mount the tiedown on the frame. I have seen two examples where you drill a hole in the frame or use the existing brake line bolt with a metal bracket. Anyone have any better ideas, (reasonable fabrication of bracket isn't a problem) I would prefer not to drill the frame. Has anyone broken the brake line bolt off? I was thinking of using a steel sheet of metal with a slight bend and two holes in it (one for the bolt, one for the S hook)

How much do I tighen down the engine tie down? Do I want a slight amount of play so that the Engine mounts absorb all the vibrations and have the engine tie down hold the hard launches or will the slack be more prone to break the tie down?

 

[Loeryder]

Mine was an 8" turnbuckle and 3 3" S hooks.

Hooks attach to the upper control arm mount, there is a gap big enough to slide one of the S hooks into.

Tighten down until there is slack in the line but it is pulled out immediately when being torqued over. You just don't want to bind it down so tight that when it torques over it rips out the pass side motor mount.

I put some loctite on the threads of the turnbuckle so it can't vibrate itself any looser.

 

[Ian Turgeon]

jas, can you post some pics, more specifics on the parts.

we went looking at home depot, and these parts look like a good 20-30 bucks.

the large turnbuckles where expensive as hell.

as for wratcheting tie downs, looks like you'd have to use a towing strap to get one with enough strenth. They dont advise using 1/3 of the maximum load under constant use. So the average strap does about 1200 lbs, meaning 400lbs recommended load.

 

[dgoodhue]

Mine was an 8" turnbuckle and 3 3" S hooks.

Hooks attach to the upper control arm mount, there is a gap big enough to slide one of the S hooks into.

Thanks, I had to bend one of my S hooks a little bit to get it the hole I wanted. Otherwise I think I have it correct. The turnbuckle that I bought at HD was around $6, it was a 9 7/8" as they were out of 8".

Ian I will take a picture if you want.

 

[Syclone#1992]

I made my tie down out of ratchet type deal. I took the nylon strap and wrapped it completely around the frame and then ratcheted it down. I connected it to the bracket on the altenator (the heavey duty one) It worked pretty well. When I did a launch with it, I had to tighten it again. I guess it did its jobs holding it down if it loosened a little. that was during a 10PSI launch, so I guess it did its job.

 

[GM TURBO]

I like the look of the tailgate one that someone else did - but I don't care for the cable stretch and not being able to adjust it again without buying a new cable. The turn buckle is just so.....ugly. I guess maybe I'll just take the turbo off and convert to a regular Blazer.

 

[dgoodhue]

The turn buckle is just so.....ugly. I guess maybe I'll just take the turbo off and convert to a regular Blazer.

I like the way the steel cable tiedown look better also, I may fool around with those later. I really would just like do the poly engine mounts w/o a tiedown... but it look like a PIA to do, after pulling motor in the part Sy.

 

[crazykaese]

Leoryder - please post a pic of where you hooked an S-hook into the upper control arm bracket - I'd like to see how you did that so I can possibly do the same.

 

[Sy#26]

The chain type tie downs can cause intermittent false knock. Went to a cable type for that reason.

FWIW - Barry

 

[Loeryder]

8" turnbuckle and 3 3" S hooks
Uses stock alt bolt. put locite on the turnbuckle threads to keep it from vibrating loose

looking in the driver fenderwell, use the forward most upper control arm mount.
Fish the hook in from rear towards the front and it will sit the correct way to hook onto.
No false knock for me, hell I only 2* at the 2-3 shift and thats it... Spraying the smc of course.

rest of my pics since my clean up act.