Has anybody done it? If one were to do the Shelby drop, which consists of lowering the upper control arm mount by (I think) an inch, (right?) wouldn't that enable one to notch the towers an inch lower than usual? Perhaps even enough to put the header tubes on a 351w into the notched area instead of just below it?
I have tried the search function. It does not have all the answers I could ever want. It's actually short on a lot of the answers I currently need, but if all goes well in a week I believe I will have added quite a bit of information that the search function is currently lacking. I can see why you told me that though, and why you might think that information's out there - both the Shelby drop and the tower shave are very common topics, but there's surprisingly little about them together. I've found no confirmation that a Shelby drop has ever enabled someone to shave the towers an inch further down. I've found a bit of discussion on it, but nothing conclusive.
Rick Book did it. Only one I know of. That car is now in Yellow75's possession. He could measure for you and let you know if Rick went lower on the cut.
When I was gathering parts for a 408w in my car. My plan was to do the shelby drop,cut the towers and run Crites headers. I decided that I could go as fast as I could ever want to go with an 8.2 deck motor,and as a bonus leave the towers alone. Now prepairing to install a 347. I researched it quite a bit, and everything I found seemed to support the Idea of doing the shelby drop along with the tower cut AND gaining the extra tower cut space due to the drop.
My frustration with the "search" is spending hours searching through countless theads looking for that "nugget" that may answer your question. When I create a thread now I try to be concious of the topic and include it in the title so it will be easier for another member to research the information... I'm sure everything has been discussed twice, but finding it can be difficult.
I dont think your going to see an appreciable amount of header clearance with the extra inch the UCA drop will afford you. My concerne with the UCA drop in and of itself pertains to the fact that the UCA drop will put the upper balljoints into bind at full compression or full drop of the suspension.(not that this happens often) But, a good pot hole or a good line through a corner with a good tire at high speed will bind the shank/shaft of the joint against its housing. Multiple instances of this cant be good for the ball joint. I have heard rumors that the 4 rivet/bolt upper ball joints have more sweep to them negating this problem but...Rumor...No solid evidence. I would also be concerned about creating excessive flex at the UCA mount point on the tower once you have removed a substantial amount of that steele. Just the kind of stuff I think about when the subject comes up. Good luck!!!
Here's what you've gotta do when you search this forum. Best way is to not use the search function, but use Google instead. Begin every search with: site:mmb.maverick.to and then keywords. Be specific, but not so specific that you make your search too narrow. For instance... Some people call it a notch, some call it a shave, but they both say "tower." So include that word. But then you're gonna get threads about tower braces, etc. cluttering it up, so also think of another word that's guaranteed to show up in a thread about notching the towers, like "cut" or "weld." site:mmb.maverick.to tower cut weld Now, do they call it a Shelby drop? Or Shelby mod? Or just upper control arm drop? All three. But guarantee they'll all include the words "arm" and "drill." site:mmb.maverick.to tower cut weld arm drill 17 results, mostly relevant... But you see why I started this thread, 'cause none of that really told me what I wanted to know. It beats the built-in search function though.
I'll let you know how it turns out when I finish. I cut my shock towers down to the top of the existing UCA holes. I didnt have the nerve to go any lower than that. I do know that prior to doing the drop, the UCA bolts came into contact with my Dougs Shorty headers. I had to swap out to shorter bolts to get the headers to fit. So doing the Shelby drop and shock tower mod to just below the existing UCA bolt holes could possibly make room for other headers.
another thing about the ...search... i will be looking for a thread i know i've read to get more info. and can't find it...later i will run across it looking for something else and find...the subject was...misspelled... and...if you mention the misspelling in the thread, they want to be pissed off at you and still not correct the spelling... what i try to do now is...in my reply i will spell the word correctly so if someone is looking later the word will come up in their search. ...Happy Hunting...
I for one did both. Search the thread that I had on it and you might find some added info. The only problem is that I only have about a mile of driving on the car, so I cannot tell you any long term issues.
Actually it was called the Arnig drop for the Ford engineer that came up with it. Shelby just borrowed the idea. Ford didn't feel it was a safe design for for mere mortals driving stock cars.
