80 Malibu V6 to V8 motor mount issue

[80maroonbu]

ok, so i have been searching this forum section for an hour, and cant find what i need.

i am swapping a V6 for a 350. my question to you all is, is there an easier way to swap the motor mounts than dropping the lower A arms to get to the bolts on the inside of the K member? Chevy for some reason decided to box in the K member to a point that its almost impossible to get to the nuts for the motor mounts. i cant for the life of me figure out why they did it this way. access is VERY limited.
its another days work if it cant be done.
i was just curious if anyone has done this swap without dropping the A arms.
are there any special tools that anyone used, or is it just drop the arms, or fight like hell to get at the bolts.

i have many things that have talked about just swapping motor mounts. but i think people would have mentioned a problem that takes a day to fix. doing this part of the swap is a major speed bump.

any help will be greatly appreciated guys. thanks in advance.

 

[80maroonbu]

oh, quick mention; i am going to be using the Energy Suspension motor mounts.
just incase that helps with any knowledge you guys have.

 

[81Regal]

To remove the mounts I would grind the old bolts off and replace them with new grade 8 bolts. I don't remember right off hand but I think they were 3/8 x 1/2 long. You can get in from the front of the crossmember with a box end wrench for the top bolts, for the bottom you can get to it from under the car.

 

[clean8485]

As 81Regal says, if you have a box end wrench, it can be done, you just need to be patient. The only other way I know of, would be to remove the lower A arms, but that would require removing the springs, which is a whole lot more work.

 

[Peter]

yep cut the original bolts and thats easy. a swivel, some masking tape and some lock washers up thru the gap of the a arm and the crossmember can get those bolts in (i ran the bolts in thru the bottom so i didnt need to worry about starting a thread in a tight space) and honestly i remember thinking it was going to be a pain in the *ss but it went right together for me. the lockwashers worked really well and i didnt even have to worry about holding the bolt inside to my surprise.

 

[All Motor Boys]

I swapped mine yesterday I used vise grips to hold the top nut (because I didn't a second person to hold the nut). and turn the bot from the bottom with a 3/8 swivel with electrical tape wrapped around it and 12 inch locking extension. it took me 30 minutes that included installing the new sbc mounts. to install the new mount I used the swivel to guide the bolts and I put locking washer on the bottom so I didn't have hold the hex head while tighten the bolts from the top.. Get New Hardware!!