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Engine Plates & Adaptors
Pontiac V8 Engine Plates & Adaptors
Chassis Hardware — Engine Plates & Adaptors for Pontiac V8s
Engine plates and adaptors hold a Pontiac V8 in place when a side mount will not do the job, or let it bolt to something it was never built for. A front engine plate picks the engine up off the frame rails entirely, a mid plate sandwiches between block and bell housing, and an adaptor plate bridges a Pontiac to a Chevy transmission.
Butler stocks All Pontiac front engine plates and steel and aluminum mid plates, Butler and TCI Pontiac-to-Chevy transmission adaptors, the Butler starter adaptor for 1961-1964 blocks, Butler no-drill no-weld driveshaft loops, and American Powertrain adjustable crossmembers.
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More About Engine Plates & Adaptors
1. Front Engine Plates
A front plate is a race car solution. Instead of hanging the engine from mounts on the sides of the block, the plate bolts to the front of the engine and then to the frame, and the side mounts come out entirely.
| How they mount | the All Pontiac plates bolt on through the four lower timing cover bolts behind the balancer. Butler's listings note this frees up a lot of space and that you can mount an alternator to the plate itself. |
| Read this before you buy one | manual fuel pumps may not work with front plates. The plate occupies the area the pump lives in, so an electric pump is usually part of the plan. |
| Fitments Butler carries | a universal 30" wide plate, a 64-67 GTO and LeMans A-body plate, a 68-72 GTO and LeMans A-body plate, and a 1970-81 F-body plate 32" wide. The A-body and F-body plates include angles and bolts. |
2. Mid Plates
| What a mid plate does | it sandwiches between the back of the block and the bell housing, tying the engine and transmission together as one rigid unit and giving the chassis a place to pick the package up at the rear. It is chassis hardware, not shop equipment, and it stays in the car. |
| Steel | All Pontiac's 3/16" thick mild steel mid plate is 32" wide with a dual bolt pattern and includes torque converter spacers. |
| Aluminum | All Pontiac's 3/16" by 32" wide aluminum mid plate does the same job with less weight hanging off the back of the engine. |
3. Transmission and Starter Adaptors
Pontiac uses the BOP bell housing pattern, so a Chevy transmission does not simply bolt on.
| Pontiac engine to Chevy transmission | Butler's adaptor is 1/8" at .130" thick and includes hardware, fitting GM transmissions such as the TH350, TH400, 700R4 and 200-4R. Butler notes it also works with Buick and Olds engines and the 403. TCI offers a Chevy transmission to BOP engine adapter plate in the same thickness. |
| Early block starter adaptor | Butler's kit mounts a starter on 1961-1964 blocks, the ones that require a bell housing mounted starter, when running a later transmission. It is 1/4" thick, includes counter sunk starter bolts, and is for automatic transmissions only. It requires an early bell housing mount style starter and a 1965-or-later flexplate. |
| The early crank gotcha | Butler is specific here. The crank pilot hole will not accept a stock TH350 or TH400 torque converter. The pilot hole on a pre-64 Pontiac crank is 1.625" while the newer converter snout is around 1.75", and the pilot hole depth also needs to be a little deeper. On a 1963-and-earlier block, the bolt holes in a later style transmission will need to be enlarged from 3/8 to 7/16. |
4. Driveshaft Loops and Crossmembers
| Butler driveshaft loops | bolt-on, no drilling and no welding, black powdercoated. Butler offers one for the TH400 that fits A, B, F and G body cars, and one for the TH350, 200R4, four speed manual and Tremec TKO600/TKX, Powerglide, 700R4 and 4LE. Butler states they are built to NHRA spec requirements and should be accepted in tech, with a 2" wide loop, .250" material and the loop locating within 6" of the u-joint. Loop diameter is 5.5". |
| TKO clearance note | for use on a TKO you may need to remove the torque tube bolt bosses on the rear of the transmission to clear the loop. |
| American Powertrain X-Factor crossmembers | adjustable aluminum crossmembers in three widths, 20"-26", 26"-32" and 30"-34" between the frame rails. They bolt or weld in, are built from hot pressed T-6061 aluminum with high strength steel end supports, and include the main span, adjustable frame mounts and hardware. Applications run from classic four speeds to modern five and six speeds and vintage and late model automatics. |
Front plates and mid plates are a commitment, so decide early whether the car is getting them, because they change how the fuel system and the accessory drive get laid out. Transmission adaptors, starter adaptors and loops can be added later without redoing anything else.
Not sure what your Pontiac needs?
Call our tech team at 866-762-7527. Tell us your engine, heads, car, and power goal, and we will put the parts together as one combination that works.