the 1200 was a stick shift so the tunnel is smaller. so i will have to do some cutting i guess. Going to have to suck it up :(
will a top mount give me the clearance to the steering column problem? or just a different manifold?

Yes, needs a different style of exhaust manifold

Ivan, do you have an auto 1200 tunnel, or the manual 1200 tunnel? Those S14 gearboxes are very long if the shifter area.

Your pic:

I put an Auto box in so YES the tunnel had to be replaced - even then it was too small

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  Naked gearbox.jpg (189.77 KB)

oh ok, yeah i see what you did. did you cut any of the tunnel off? because i just cut a square where the shifter goes and it seemed to help a whole lot.
http://imgur.com/UvV3Z
i hope i dont have to cut the fire wall..

I am not entirely sure of the problem

I put my engine on the ground (actually on some wood) and lowered the car over the top - check my build thread

This was way easier than getting the angles.

It does seem from the pictures that you may need to remove the exhaust manifold. On my CA18 mine needed 'adjustment'

here are some pictures.
http://imgur.com/vOocS
this is the distance of the transmission to the crossmember
http://imgur.com/vkkjC
and this is how high the engine is
http://imgur.com/AdgQz

so my mission failed this weekend, ran into many problems trying to put the engine in. the way i have it centered and lifted from the cross member interferes with my steering completely. i cant move it back anymore and forward makes it worse. if i go up the angle of the motor mounts is too steep. any tips? pictures? that can have some guidance.

The easiest way is to get a pre fabbed cross member from Maddat Link to Maddat Fitting Kits they're really well made and you can just bolt your motor straight in (after modding tunnel of course).

Otherwise check a few of the built blogs as they havwe built awesome engine mounts.
Smurf's 4AGE into 1200 Ute is a good example.

The Z-car guys like to use urethane hockey-puck style isolators when swapping in an SR20 (like the Ford Escort pucks). It really doesn't matter which type you use.