Well I finally have my 442 nearly complete. The only thing holding me back is the z bar. I am doing a manual conversion and didn't know about the Fa block not having the z bar provision. I've heard from people of people making brackets to mount the z bar to, but I cannot find any pictures or actual people who have done it.

Has anyone here made a bracket for their z bar?

 

I'm getting ready to do the same thing on my 455 block. Probably about a month away yet.

There was a guy on ROP who made one and had good pics, i think i have them saved somewhere since ROP nuked. I'll look and try and post them for you- but in short- it attached to the starter support boss that is a couple inches forward of the ballstud hole-, then bent over at a 90degree angle and caught the lowermost bolt on the bellhousing.

He had the ball stud shortened and re-threadded by a machine shop to take into consideration how much room the bracket took up.

Should not be a real big deal to fab up.

There is also a bracket available for about $80 from GMPP (Scoogin Dickey) made for the GMPP502 (because they also did not have a stud boss)- it bolted to two bell housing bolts- although its for the chevy bell, which is different from teh BOP bell- so would have to be modified. I was going to get one of those and modify it, but i'm a cheapo- so just going to fab up my own.

I'll try and find the pics for you.

 

found a top view...

 

Looks like Jegs is now making their own version of the GMPP one...
Keep in mind this is for the chevy bell housing, but it shows how easy it would be to make one that would fit BOP- the top leg would just need to be longer to reach the BOP upper bellhousing bolt.


http://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS-Performan...ductId=2157076

 

What year is your block? There are plenty of Fa blocks with the ball stud.

Also is your crank drilled for the 4 speed input shaft and pilot bushing?

 

I dont know the year is of my block, but it is an Fa block without the ball stud or even a place to drill out for the ball stud.

I bought the engine a year back from an engine builder in Washington. I asked for a manual set up. So the crank is drilled, but they gave me the wrong block.

As I said, this is the only thing holding me back right now. The engine is in, and I have all of the parts for the conversion.

 

just a thought, but you could go with a hydraulic throwout bearing...