Exmo front side tray support mods

[Sparepart]

I am soon to get to the front end of an Exmo rebuild. I have found lots of good advice regarding the front suspension mounts and tie bar conversions. I have been cleaning some of the leaked engine oil and gunk from the "trays" that carry the engine supports. Originally these trays were free floating and needed to be aligned to get the engine positioned correctly. Now of course they are bolted in postion and will stay where they are. The panels underneath these trays is fairly thin SS, and they extend out towards the sump from both sides forming a V shaped hole that is just wide enough for the sump. If you built an Exmo you will probably recognise what I am talking about. I have attached a photo below. Anyway, to get to the point!. I am wondering if anyone has modified these thin sheets ?  perhaps to cut them back and fold them up to the edge of the trays and weld them there ?  I think that this might be stronger that having them flat as they are now. If you grasp the edge they are easily flexed and cant be adding much support. What do think?.

 

[IanS]

I cut a V out of them as in my build as the sump clearance was only a couple of mm.

Otherwise I have not changed them and have had no problems for 70,000 miles.

The problems were the frount struts punching up through the butress, fixed with a 8mm thick plate under each butress.

Also cracking between the top side panels and the footwell top plate which has been plated and welded.

[brumster]

When we did the Rover K swap our Exmo we had to cut these to clear the sump. We removed what we needed to then stitch-welded a 30mm square section piece of steel down the length to put some strength back in. Never any problems for us

[Sparepart]

Thanks for the replies, reading around it seems that people have found cracks in various places around the area where bolts clamp the panels at the end of the footwell together. I insert a drawing below, I assume that the crack mentioned by IanS would have been between bolt 1 and the side of the body. I wonder was it visible from above or below or both. Bolts 1,2,3 and 5 go through 3 sheets, and bolt 4 goes through 4 sheets. I am wondering if its worth doing any pre-emptive strengthening  here, maybe more plate or converting the bolt holes into big spot welds ?.  The other approach is to leave everything as it is and check for cracks regularily, which is what I think most people do because it's hard to predict the failure point (if any) in this area.  Comments?.

[IanS]

No my cracks were visible from on top.

Just under the brake servo, peddle box and on the opposite side very obvious looking down at the rear of the engine bay.

[Sparepart]

Ah, I see... possibly thats where most flexing must have occurred, I guess a chain is as strong etc. if one place is strengthened it tends to put strain on the next weakest point and one hopes that the weakest point is strong enough. I'll adopt the "regular checking" approach, like the ritual that pilots take a walk around their aircraft before every flight. Thanks for the insight.

[fry61]

52 minutes ago, Sparepart said:

Ah, I see... I'll adopt the "regular checking" approach, like the ritual that pilots take a walk around their aircraft before every flight. Thanks for the insight.

That's only to check the beer is on board.!!