I am basically doing all I can to avoid working on the front bumper. The front driveshaft barely cleared the trans pan with this trans/ tcase combo, and I wanted something fairly stout to handle the motor. I compromised on the diameter of the shaft, but I had Precision Drivelines beef the material up to 1.5 x .250 wall chromoly tube. The new shaft cleared the pan, but only by a hair. I was worried that a hard lateral load on the front suspension during compression travel (commonly known as blowing the corner and smacking the drainage ditch sliding sideways at 50) would push the front axle over far enough the driveshaft would crash into the pan....no good.
I originally got a Derale deep steel pan to replace the Hughes cast aluminum pan, thinking it would be thinner overall and easier to modify. After I took a look at it, and how nice the inside of the hughes pan was, I changed my mind. The steel pan wouldn't fit on with the deeper filter the Hughes pan could, and the aluminum pan had cool little "fingers" to hold the filter in place. Besides all of that, it looked decidedly cooler, and truly more functional.
I pulled the pan off to see what was in the way, I remembered there wasn't much room left over inside the 4l60e.
I trimmed the pan to hug the internals, then bolted it down to my table to prevent warpage. I welded a section of aluminum plate back in.
Plenty of clearance now. The driveshaft as pictured is sitting at full compression. It now has room to move an 1 1/2 laterally towards the drivers side before contacting the pan, which hopefully never happens, because that would put the front diff thru the engine oil pan. There is actually room now that I would feel comfortable running a 2" diameter shaft in there...
