2001 Sportster Engine Cover

[ballison]

So I bit the bullet and bought a new Michigan Motorz 5.7 fuel injection engine to replace me old and tired 5.7 Vortex engine. Only issue seems to be the engine height now, it is higher then the old engine so now the engine cover doesn't fit. Anyone have any suggestions on modifications?

[justgary]

Your best bet may be to make a trim ring to attach to the floor so that the engine hood rests on top.  How much height do you need, and what is the offending part?

[ballison]

8 hours ago, justgary said:

Your best bet may be to make a trim ring to attach to the floor so that the engine hood rests on top.  How much height do you need, and what is the offending part?

Thanks that's what I was thinking, I found some 1x3 PVC that I think will work. Not sure exactly what is hitting at this point I will have it back on the weekend to take a closer look.

[Woodski]

Mid '90's Nautique 196 had a split engine cover, a lower ring and a bathtub over the top.  You could lift the upper or both via latches.  It was somewhat annoying although in inexpensive fix for your application.  When the lower trim ring was left down, it made getting at stuff in the engine bay difficult so I would ensure the ring will lift up for service (you can thank me prior to getting at the oil filter:).  Enjoy the new mill under the hood, please report back on how it runs, what HP level did you order?

[justgary]

4 hours ago, ballison said:

Thanks that's what I was thinking, I found some 1x3 PVC that I think will work. Not sure exactly what is hitting at this point I will have it back on the weekend to take a closer look.

And here I was picturing a nice teak trim ring....

When I installed my heat exchanger I had to figure out where the hood was hitting as I tried different bracket positions for the exchanger.  I used my cell phone camera with timer mode and flash to see where the problem area was. 

Just set the phone, rest it somewhere on the engine, and close the hood.  Now you have a photo of that area with the hood closed, and you can see what is hitting it.

[hawaiianstyln]

if it were me, I would buy some 1" thick HPDE and cut small long strips, then carpet them to match and screw them down to the floor.  Then mount your dog house to the HPDE trim pieces.  What is hitting, the intake plenum?  I wonder if the new engine came with a different intake manifold that makes the plenum sit higher

[solorex]

Like others said, find out what's hitting first because I think there is a fair bit of room under there as-is.  I small modification to the engine might be faster than re-trimming the doghouse.

[Woodski]

@ballison - what FI system is on the engine?  Many are no higher than a carb so as noted, find the interference first then decide on a solution.  May be as simple as a different spark arrestor.

[ballison]

So it turns out it was not as bad as I was led to believe. The new engine has a remote oil filter mounted to the manifold which the old engine didn't have. It also has a fairly high filter which I think is a1515. I suspect if I switch to a smaller filter height it will be fine.

Edited May 15, 2023 by ballison

[justgary]

2 hours ago, ballison said:

So it turns out it was not as bad as I was led to believe. The new engine has a remote oil filter mounted to the manifold which the old engine didn't have. It also has a fairly high filter which I think is a1515. I suspect if I switch to a smaller filter height it will be fine.

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but the filter sticks up from the mount, as in the threads are at the bottom of the filter can?  That's going to be a complete mess every time you change the oil. 

Any way to move the mount so you have room to close the hood; have easy access for changes; and can easily put a ziplock under the filter to catch any oil flow?

Pictures would be really great here....

[Woodski]

Unless you really like the remote filter approach, you could easily revert back to the standard oil filter location on the block.  The Ilmor remote block does use an inverted filter and it includes a catch basin so once you unscrew the filter all the oil is captured and simply flows back down the lines.