I am playing with something similar on my black buggy. It will be running a Mercury Bobcat V-6 tied to a 6 rib VW bus tranny.
There will be a lot of weight in the rear of the stock length VW pan but one of the things bothering me is my seeing so many of the older rails and Manx style buggies with the upper shock mount broken off.
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This is one of the options I am currently looking at and arguing with myself over.
Part of the argument I am having with myself is what can happen with the loading on the trans mount (the spot-welded seams are already welded re-welded.
If you sit in a chair with a dinner table dish in your hands (like a steering wheel) you get certain effects with one of them bothering me (one of the reasons for the crossbeam). If you turn the dish like the engine would torque loading to the mounts, that isn't too bad (compared to the last problem coming up). The raising and lowering the dish like bouncing around which is normal even on the street but it too loads on the trans mount's arms.
It is what happens when, say, you go around a corner hard and the engine (mass) wants to travel to the side which makes that mount arm make a long push on the left and the arm on the right acts shorter and pulls (I hope I explained this correctly) on the trans mount. The question is: is this really happening and what affect (if any) is/can happen.
When I see "toys" stopped (on the dunes or in camp) when broken I look at the effects and once-in-a-while I see ????! What caused it other than what I was told happened but not what all caused that affect.
This is the kind of thing that often slows down builds.
Lee
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Can't have that happen again. 
