How it was done.....
From what I remember, 20 years ago doing a mod like this needed a lot of patience and many hours of trial and error. That engine & gbox went in and out of that engine bay many times to get the correct position, angle and clearance.
I didn't want to cut into the body so I lowered the engine so the top of the gearbox was 10mm under the body. I moved the right engine mount and welded it to the right crossmember near the suspension housing.
Then strengthened and modified the left control arm to clear the gearbox through full travel. I remember having the rear springs stiffened to reduce the amount of travel. The other main part was having the main bottom engine mount completely designed and made to order in 6mm heavy guage steel. The 4 bolts that held the original engine were replaced with high tensile 14mm head bolts. This cross mount also held the linkage arm that transferred the gear selector from the x below to the lancia gbox above.
A local dealer called Fiaparts were selling a mod Kit at the time but I didnt like the price or the position of how the engine sat in the bay, so designing the cross mount helped in getting the engine to sit so low.
I did use their linkage system though, all the other engine mount were made to order. The left gearbox mount is bolted onto the left cross member and is a mount from a Holden HK.
So once the engine was in place, adjusting and modifying the linkage arms took countless hours of trial and error to get a factory feeling gear change that I was happy with. Getting tired remembering, chapter 2 will go into Inlet, exhaust and ignition mods
