BT Tech Stiffening plate update

Well, the oil drain is way on the other end of the crankcase; I
was thinking of a somewhat smaller plate, mostly for the transaxle.
Cooling should be a non-issue since that whole thing has its own
radiator whose coolant loop runs all the time, and a set of holes
through the plate could probably provide sufficient airflow and
access to the various fill/drain plugs and electrical connectors.
.
Research is definitely warranted. I thought of this because I was
poking around under my parents' Corolla and their auto trans has
a very tidy and fairly close-fitting skid plate mounted under it.
And I'm pretty sure their tranny doesn't have a separate cooler..
.
_H*

 

Okay, I took another look under the Corolla. It looks like the
"skid plate" is smaller than I thought, and is just an additional
bit of metal that's actually spot-welded over the front half of
the ATF pan and not actually bolted to anything. So it's nothing
like I had in mind for a Prius housing.
.
Then I crawled back under the prius and looked for solid attachment
points, mostly in vain. Mounting points would have to either be all
on the transaxle [so it moves with the engine/trans], or all on the
frame so the engine moves behind it. And toward the front, the
potential points are piteously scarce. But if y'all at BT did come
up with a good solution, I'd definitely buy one and evangelize them
locally! Having had my share of dirt-bike crankcases saved by such
things in the past, I see a real need here.
.
_H*