Ideal engine angle?

Everything I've read online says you want 2-3 degrees of downward angle (front to rear). But I've also read that this is done for transmission tunnel clearance in street cars. Carb manifolds have forward tilt to them to account for this angle.

So with a car like the Panoz where does it need to be? I never checked the angles on the 302 I was removing. Do I set up the new motor with some downward angle, or do I level it and then level the carb with a wedge spacer?

Thanks,

Brian

The tilt of the engine is to promote air bubles in the coolant to the front of the engine where they exit to the radiator expansion tank to prevent hot spots in the rear of the cylinder heads and detonation. Carburators are made to operate level so manifolds for them have tilted carburator mounts.

You can set up the engine angle at almost any degree just as long as the transmission is perfectly inline with the pinion yoke. However, when the engine and pinion yoke is in direct line, it does not allow for the rotation of the u-joints. This straight alignment is mostly used on drag race cars.
Yeah I've done a fair bit of reading on all of this. Can anyone measure their engine for me? I neglected to take any before I took it all apart and I can't tell from my old pictures if the engine was angled back or leveled.

This is angled back between 2-3 degrees relative to ground. I have the chassis level for now.

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/282331_4371440455417_1517167637_n.jpg
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/620900_4371443895503_911742334_o.jpg

Thanks,

Brian

Not to muddy the waters any more, but I believe the 2-3 degrees also promotes taking any slack out of the u-joints. You mirror that on the pinion angle so the longitudinal axes are parallel. Under acceleration or decel, the pinion angle will change (accel pinion nose up, decel, nose down), at cruise it will be pretty much parallel (so the frictional loads on the u-joint needle bearing are low and roughly the same.

Don't know the angle on mine.

Mike