Billet SB Motor Plate

I had always planned to run a motor plate on my car. When I got my Jesel belt drive and saw how much of the belt was exposed, I figured why not make a plate that would also enclose the timing belt. If I was enclosing the belt, this would also give me a place to mount the cam sensor. So I started templating accessory locations. Went through many paper templates trying to figure out what fit where, does it have enough clearance, etc...



The layout really came down to what fit where, with enough clearance. I then made some wood templates so I could actually hang the accessories. This took a few tries as well to find out where everyone was happy.




With this complete, time to put it in CAD and print a template.





This last pic shows the belt cover/water pump back plate. No need to reinvent the wheel here, so I picked a 4" Meziere billet mechanical pump:




This pump has a back plate that is removable. We will make a new back plate that intersects the block feed holes, provides mounting to the motor plate, and has auxiliary water feeds for the fittings at the side of my block.

Big thanks to Jesel and Meziere for the .DXF files of the timing cover and water pump outline. Saved me a bunch of time and hassle.

It was at this point I got my engineer friend involved. He solved some issues on the backplate and really just went over everything again. He is much more proficient at CAD than I am, and as a bonus, is also a machinist.

I then moved to measuring all the accessories. Huge PITA. Used a surface plate and height mic, but allowed everything to get transferred into Solid Works:



It was coming together, but still not happy with belt wrap, so more tweaks were needed. Ended up adding 4 idlers and a mechanical tensioner to achieve proper belt wrap and length.
Also wanted to incorporate the crank sensor bracket.



Performed some lightening on the plate and then ran some FEA test.


Made a few modifications that affected weight very little but increased strength 35%.

At this point, needed to see if I had a viable piece to machine.
I had the motor plate CNC routered, and the brackets 3D printed.





And bolt it up. Glad I did this extra step, a few small tweaks and it's ready to machine:

WOW that is cool . what are you a rocket scientist ? or a rich guy with to much time on your hands .... lol

vance.dykes said:

WOW that is cool . what are you a rocket scientist ? or a rich guy with to much time on your hands .... lol

Click to expand...

Neither, maybe an idiot for making small block stuff...Building this because I need it, knowing full well it has no resale market.
Then again, I have a Mopar, so pretty much used to making what I need!

all that in one day???

i feel pretty low on my project progress right about now


watermelon

watermelon said:

all that in one day???
watermelon

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One day?...before lunch!

Actually have about 70 hours in it so far.

Wow! That's impressive. How do you like the Engine Works header kit?

CJD AUTO said:

Neither, maybe an idiot for making small block stuff...Building this because I need it, knowing full well it has no resale market.
Then again, I have a Mopar, so pretty much used to making what I need!

Click to expand...

i see and relate to what you are saying. been there and done that .