engine and transmission height

Today I wanted to look at getting the engine height right.  Before I scattered the focus I measured the distance between the top of the tire and the inside lip of the fender so that now with the car up in the air I can see where the ground is and see what my engine clearance is.  My guess was right on the engine being low.  The drain plug would just barely drag along the ground. So the engine needs to come up about 5 inches for stock ride height.  7 or 8 inches is probably better.

I saw the shifter was not hard against the tunnel, but when I jacked the transmission, there was a lot of resistance like something was hitting.  There is a bracket in the tunnel that was holding the old tunnel inhabitant, the exhaust.  I previously cut the exhaust hanger off, but the bracket is still in the way.  You can't see in the picture but there were a series of studs that held on heat shielding with tinnerman style nuts.  I zapped those off while I had the cutting disc in hand and everything out of the way.  I also made some sharpie lines from the reference hole I drilled for the shifter so that with the trans back in I can evaluate the shifter position.

This bracket was colliding with the transmission tube along the top that holds the shifter shaft.