Well, got the skid installed, but it took a little work.
The skid is designed for Savvy’s belly skid, but my research told me it runs a little long, so if I trim it to fit, it ought to be perfect!
I put up the mounting brackets first. And shout out to
@MountaineerTom for pointing out how those brackets go, cuz Savvy sends no information on installing their product.
I brought the bolts through from the inside of the engine mounts. I fished them in place with a piece of safety wire wound around the threads of the mounting bolts.
As MT, and others have pointed out, the driver side angle leg won’t position correctly because it hits the mounting bracket bolts, so it needs to be clearanced. I trimmed one side back 1”, and cut a 45 degree angle back to shape it like a tab.
Once I had the front mounting arms in position, I could hang the skid and figure out where to trim for best fit.
After checking the rear fit overlay, I found the side flanges needed to be trimmed back roughly an inch, and the flat tail needed to be cut back 3 1/4”.
I also added a little extra room around the head pipe in case I ever pushed the skid up hitting an obstacle.
Holes were drilled at the cutout turns to avoid sharp corners, that prevents cracking from vibration or other loading.
Then I trimmed off the 3 1/4”,
And made the headpipe clearance bigger,
All cut out, and ready for me to debur with my sander, and layout, drill and countersink the holes.
I figured the length out to overlap the 1”+ wide area in front of the transmission mount bolts, and behind the flanges on the belly skid.
So, after verifying position, match marking and drilling holes in the belly skid, this is how the overlap came out.
A perfect meet up. And here’s a shot of the finished product.
And, BTW, the cutout for the oil drain plug came out in the perfect position. That’s due to Savvy doing a good job figuring out the layout, and me starting with an established mounting point before making any modifications.
I’ll eventually get a valve for the drain plug I think. It’s got the room, and it sounds like it would take all the issues out of draining the oil.
And now I think I’m pretty trail safe as far as rocks to the engine/transmission go.
I hope this info helps others if they’re installing the Savvy skid. But it’ll only apply to the models closest to my 2002, automatic, 4.0, no MML.
IIRC, 2003-06 are different at the belly skid, and I’m not sure about earlier models, so do your homework!
