A bit more story and piccies this time!
So, having bought a whole car to get a flywheel, I robbed the speedo drive from the Carlton box (the Omega speedo is driven electrically off the ABS but the holes are still in the case) then sold the gearbox on ebay for £100 giving me a profit of £50 plus a spare engine, starter, alternator, fan, manifolds, injection system, hoses and fittings, loom and ecu! Neat huh?
Now that I had successfully sorted out the clutch operating mechanism, I set to mounting the unit with renewed vigour. The first and most obvious mod I needed to do was to the rear section of the front subframe, where I welded a lump of 2.5" x 1.5" box underneath the subframe then cut off everything behind it to clear the almost flat bottom of the gearbox. With hindsight, a Sprint subframe would probably have permitted this unmodified but I didn't have one at the time so I didn't know!
Next came a mod to the front end of the subframe, I had already relieved a section to clear the oil filter (and a bit extra to allow for changing it!) but dropping the unit in and out whole several times whilst sorting the clutch rapidly convinced me that more clearance was required at the front of the sump so I devised this extension piece, built it up in more 2.5x1.5" box then carefully removed the front 2 sides of the roughly triangular box, welded in the extension, then cut away the back piece. Though a bit of a long way round, this method enabled me to maintain the shape and structural integrity of the subframe throughout the process.
I was very pleased with this result, the engine and box now dropped sweetly and easily into position but, as always, it created another problem! A Toledo doesn't have a front antiroll bar (though all the mount points are there) and I wanted one on my car but I had just built a box section right across the space the A/R bar normally occupies!
A bit of lateral thinking saw me mount the bar UNDER the tie bars to lower the body fitting point to underneath the extension which was drilled and tubed to allow the bar brackets to bolt up underneath it. Yes it was guesswork at the time but it works very nicely in service. You could say i've been lucky, I prefer to modestly describe it as engineering genius! 
The only thing now stopping me from actually making the engine bearers was solved with the purchase of a new Carlton downpipe (I had identified this early on as a "tight squeeze" to get in and wanted to use a standard bit if possible) Once more I lowered the unit into the car and this time let it off the crane, supporting it in the desired position with a variety of jacks and bits of wood. At this point I temporarily refitted the bonnet to make sure it would shut with the engine and tall inlet in place. Having established that all was "go" here, I removed the bonnet again and turned my attention to the exhaust. I first bolted the downpipe to the manifold then offered the whole assembly to the engine and was amazed to find that, if I got it just so, it missed almost everything, needing just a tickle of relief at 1 point on the subframe and a small dent in the downpipe to clear (I later found it necessary to mod the tunnel housing a bit as well)
With the final position of the engine now established I went back to engineering in its most basic form, cutting a pair of engine bearer templates out of a cornflake packet then making them up in 2mm steel plate and welding them in position.
Thats all for now, in the next thrilling episode, gearbox crossmember, shortened gearshift, prop and more....
Steve
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