Technical A 265 Chevy build with a cool story

Here goes!

You can put a 327 crank in a "round bottom" later 283 because I figure the way early 327's were actually bored 283 blocks??

If you can find them, a set of Badger or Simplex/Triplex steel strutted cast pistons will do nicely here.

I have a pair of '56, -306, trough sparkplug heads just for the fun of it. They cc at 118 to 120 cc's intake port size along with 60 cc chambers.

Real power pack heads cc 137 to 140 cc's intake port size and the -461 heads at 160 cc intake port size and also around 60 cc chambers with 1.94"/1.50" valves.

All the other heads have 1.72"/1.50" valves.

You can put big valve heads on these little engines by keeping the lift down around .425" to .440"s or so. Even though they are shrouded pretty bad by the small bores.

The early power pack engines used the old WCFB 4-barrel carbs if not mistaken..

Cams, I figure the great old Performer hy-cam at 204/214, .420"/.442" lift will be a dandy and for a solid lifter cam, either the great old little Duntov, the 097 cam or a modern version of it.

Headers, if you can find them, either 1.375" or 1.5" 4-tube, long tube jobbers.

pdq67

 

Thanks guys ! This will be a slow, on going build as a few other things are a bigger priority right now. One is, my son is looking into buying a 56 4 dr. BelAir, 265 PG. GlassThamesDoug, it is funny you mention Weber. I grew up in North Ridgeville and I only live 2 miles from Weber's shop. It literally is straight up the road from where I live !

 

Wonder what those Hepolite slugs weigh? Pretty thick-skinned...be interesting how they balance that rotating mass...

 

Yeah Atwater Mike I wondered the same thing. I bought .040 GM pistons but the Hepolite ones seem to be well known in Canada and other places in the world. I guess a bunch of boat racers use them in Canada in the small cubic inch classes.

 

Good for you on this rebuild. That little engine is an Icon, and pretty much started it all !

 

Do you have a distributor yet? The reason I ask is because I have a pretty nice single points 265 distributor. New cap, new rotor, new AC Delco tag so you can stamp in your #'s, brand new Pertronix Ignition, and a spare distributor, too. I was going to put this in a later block, but I've been informed this won't work. I'd make you a killer deal if you were interested...

 

I will be running the Mallory Unilite I am using right now. I am going to try to utilize as many GM performance and engine parts from 1955 to the present day. It will .040 over, GM factory pistons. Going to be running ported and milled 416 casting 305 heads with 1.84/1.5 valves, block is modified to run a spider and dog bone roller set up with an LT4 Hot cam and GM 2.2 4 cyl./3.1 v6 roller lifters and 1.52 Comp cams roller rockers. Still trying to decide what to run for an induction system. Either a 650 Holley/Torker, a modified TPI setup from a 305 or setup my 4 x 2 Man-a-fre manifold. There may be a small supercharger added in the mix in the future too. My 55 is right around 3,000 with me in it right now and I am looking at any and every way I can reduce weight as I go along.

 

Sounds pretty good. One note, which you probably already know, but the LT4 hot cam came with 1.6 RR's from the factory, so running 1.52's won't be the same amount of lift. If I were you (and I'm not LOL), I would either run an Air Gap or Vic Jr. Intake with the Holley 650 (Air Gap if it's gonna be on the street a lot). I would stay away from the TPI as they're fairly restrictive compared to the mentioned above intakes. The Man-a-Fre would be cool, too. I bet that would sound awesome! One more thought: I would decide on the supercharger before going any further as you wanna maximize compression if going N/A. Good luck. Look forward to updates.

 

Yeah Tim that cam has .492 lift with 1.5's so with the 1.52's, it will be just shy of .499. The roller totally changes the characteristics of this little rodent ! Part of the idea for the TPI is to eventually only use the bottom part of the manifold so I can utilize the fuel injection and make a top manifold to utilize a modern Eaton style supercharger. I am building the engine with this in mind from the git go. The Man-a-fre would be cool. If you check out Man-a-fre's site, they make a carb(weber) and injection setups for off road vehicles but I believe they will adapt to this manifold. It will be a slow build. Getting my car ready for the Meltdown Drags and trying to help my son score a 56 Chevy 4 dr. BelAir that needs a little work.

 

I have really enjoyed reading this post. It amazes me at the amount of information that our fellow hambers know. I just finished a 265 that is + .060 for my 1934 Ford and decided that I wanted an Air Gap ...........

I am not very sharp .......... hopefully these pictures will tell the story of the problem and my solution ........tp

 

I just ran across this thread. Wow, what a great story. Telling stories like this and the fact that they are 100% true gives great joy to the story teller and the recipient.
I built a'68 327 back in the late 70s. It has served in a boat and a few cars over the years. It has always been in my family. Dad used it for a few years and now it lives in my brother's '32 Roadster topped off with three Rochester 2Gs with spark from a Vertex Magneto. It doesn't burn a drop of oil and will still push you deep into the seat when you hit the "go" pedal.
Good luck!

 

Hey LBH, I wouldn't say your not that sharp, the can there for crank case ventilation is a little different animal on the older blocks. Looks like you did a clean fix. What size cam are you running and how do you like the way it performs ?

 

Subscribed.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

To answer your question you have to understand the application for the motor. I have a very original '34 5 window and I have been determined to preserve the car and still have my fun .......... build a hot rod. I took the entire mechanical brake front end and hung it on the wall and built a Pete & Jake's 4 inch dropped disc brake front axle, put Wilson Welding backing plates on the rear, used the V 8 Garage brake kit and thereby did not drill one hole in the car ........... got it to sit right and stop right.

Drove it for several years with the original 85 horse 221 cubic inch flat head which is a babbitt bearing motor........ I was afraid to take it on a long trip at today's speeds. I did not want to change the stock rear end and did not want to cut up the trans mount. So I had a '39 transmission built and decided to build an old time period correct engine small cubic inch Chevy with a lot of camshaft, no low speed torque, that would sound bad ass and be as easy as possible on the drive train.

A good friend owned this 1955 265 power pack motor for 45 years .......... it sat on the floor, I bought it. Today it has +.060 Egge flat cast pistons, .005" deck height, and Eagle rods. In your e-mail you asked about the heads ..........which are 1957 Corvette #3731539 cylinder heads, date code D-3-57, 58 cc combustion chambers. These heads sat finished in Butch Kernudle's machine shop for years. They were done by Brandywine in the old days. It has a Comp Cams roller hydraulic cam that is similar to the middle Thumper except it has more overlap due to tighter center lines and single bee hive valve springs and their best roller rocker arms, Manely 1.840" intakes and 1.500 exhaust valves.

Of course I am biased ...... but the thing sounds unreal. I just got it running so after I get some miles on it I will be able to answer the question of how good it runs .......... tp

 

NICE ! I looked up the Thumprs but was unsure exactly what lift it has int. and exh. Did you keep the down draft tube as well ? That style is unique to the 55 block they way it is.

 

Yes I kept the downdraft tube which is why I had to modify the canister in the lifter valley to clear the air gap intake. The whole thing was a "science project" but I knew that I had to retain the road draft tube. The original 1955 staggered valve covers have no holes in them, the intake had the breather / oil fill ..... and I did not want to change that.

After grinding this to dust, I drilled the floor of the intake and built a tube with 4 baffles in it to separate the oil mist, then welded a 283 pcv valve to the end and rubber hosed it into the carb base ...... seems to work great. You remove the tube and use a transmission funnel to put the oil in.

Now I am not saying that ANY of this is right ........ it is just what I came up with ..... I mean I had the air gap, I have them on other motors and really like them ......... so I had to come up with a way to make it work...... By the way.... the road draft tube joins a piece of 5/8 heater hose and runs to the back of the car and has a small K&N air filter on it. Remember, at idle with the pcv valve open air is being sucked through the road draft tube through the valley along with what little blow by that is being generated at idle and into the intake ........tp

 

I am still curious what the lift and duration of the cam you chose is.

 

Look at the Comp Cams Thumper # cs 283T HR-107
Intake lift .513 duration 227 @ .50"
Exhaust lift .498 Duration 241 @ .50"

As you know, with the small bore diameter (mine is 3.810") it is hard to make compression ...... you need a small combustion chamber ....... after surfacing my heads ........ mine are 56.5 cc's. The problem then becomes piston to valve clearance ........... I chose this cam because of it's lift ...........believe me ..........mine is tight !! ........I could not figure a way to handle more lift and keep the mechanical compression as high as possible..... which you need because these cams don't produce any significant cylinder pressure until the higher rpm ranges ................tp

 

That sounds like one potent little engine ! Can't wait to here how it runs.

 

Well a small update. I scored an almost brand new set of 1.52 roller tip rockers and a set of 305 801 casting heads that too were just recently put together with 1.84 valves. 50 for the rollers and 100 for the heads. I will be far ahead with these heads instead of rebuilding the 416 castings I have now. I'll just put the others on the shelf.

 

I need you to manage what little money I have left ................... tp

 

I am a cheap bastard ! This is another reason I am taking my time with this build. I could spend more money but it's more fun to run across some good deals.

 

Congrats on your ingenuity with the pcv system. I'm thinking don't dump the clutch and let it roll a little in 1st; then stand on it. Should be fun.

 

What can anyone tell me about the 801 casting heads ? I am betting they will work and as clean and cheap as they are, I can't pass them up. Are they the smaller (53-55c) combustion chambers.

 

Do you mean the 601 heads, 305 heads originally? 53CC Chambers, and can be found with 1.72 or 1.84 intake valves. Ports are larger than the early 265 by a bunch, and will better fit more intake manifolds in that regard as far as ports lining up. Usually what I recommend instead of the 416, 305 heads, and have hardened exhaust seats. There's a cylinder head rebuilder on that auction site we all know and love that uses these castings as a base for it's reworked "performance" heads; they go with larger valves, screw in studs, "Z-28" springs for a good price. For a small CID engine, that's hard enough to build any real CR into, they are a couple CC's smaller than stock 265 heads. Mill them a bit more, and find some 305 steel shim head gaskets to keep the CR up as much as possible. Course they're going to have accessory mount holes and straight across, valve cover, bolt patterns. Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

I do know about the 601 heads from searching around and your previous knowledge of building these small engines. But there is actually a listing for 801 heads in the same 80-86 year range. One reference said they were 305 heads that were in trucks. I have read a story were a guy thought he bought a pair of 601's but got 1 601 and 1 801 and he thought they looked identical. I am picking them up tomorrow and can make sure if it is 601 or 801. These definitely have 1.84 valves but I am not sure if hey have 58cc chamber or the smaller 53cc ones. Can't pass them up for the money , they look brand new.

 

I've never heard of an 801 head (???). I'm certain they'll actually be 601's with 53 CC, and you'll be OK with those. My 82 Chevrolet truck has a 305 with 601 heads on it, stock. Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

I did some digging, and it appears there IS an 801 head that came on 305's, 1.84 intakes, 1.5 exhaust, and 58 CC chambers. Some say they're "Canadian", but my 82 truck is "Canadian", and has 601's on it. Now, the "good" 265 heads had 56.6 CC chambers, so you'd be losing CR unless you have them surfaced to bring the CC's down. If it were me, I'd hold out for some 601 heads, mill those for a slight bump in CR, and take it from there. With your .040 overbore and milling the 801's, you may end up with 9 : 1 or so. Milled 601's, maybe 9.5 : 1. If you have the block decked the maximum, you might even hit 10 : 1. There you go, Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

Thanks Butch ! If I can get between 9.25-9.5 with the 801's I will be happy. Future possible plans run some type of Eaton supercharger which should be safe at no more than 9.5 running no more than 6psi of boost. And I also have the option of buying a fully setup 4-71 GMC style blower. And I might still run the MAN-A-FRE but may run more modern carbs of some kind other the the Rochesters. That's all up in the air. It will run first with my Torker manifold and 650 Holley that is on my car right now.

 

After looking over my new heads, I noticed there is good area of machining to unshroud both the intake and exhaust valves. Would this have been a standard thing on this head or is it likely that it was done at a machine shop ? In the process of making myself a crude cc'ing setup and my lovely wife (who is a nurse) is going to bring me home a 60cc syringe. It appears these heads have a more elliptical chamber than the 416's which are more "D" shaped. It is also easy to see that the valves are significantly closer to the edge of the deck of the head. I am wondering if these heads may have already been milled. If I can take a good enough pic, I will post it.