Rocky, I had a '55 Fairlane club sedan back in the 80s, dark blue (almost black) with a 272. Blackwalls, dog dish hubcaps, painted wheels, like yours. Seeing yours makes me miss the one I had!
Wow...the OP's simple question certainly stirred up a lot of emotions here didn't it ??? My two cents....life is too short to get excited and upset about what kind of engine someone else wants to put in their car. In the grand scheme of things, what does it matter??? Just my worthless opinion!!
Mike, the SBC should fit in there with relative ease since the SBC has similar physical dimensions as the Y Block. The Y block is a front sump, so you may need to switch over to a Nova oil pan on the SBC, and she should swing right in. You'll have to make the mounts, but with a little welding and minor fab, it won't be a big deal. Ford in a Ford, Chevy in a Ford, Chrysler in a Ford... I like cars.
Its a fact that I can easily sell all the small block & big block chevys I can get. Even the 250 sixes sell quickly. Ive got lots of 400m 460 fords 302,s 351,s 360,s and 4 Y blocks. nobody wants to even pay scrap price. cant even sell 318 and 440 plymouth mills. I offered to sell a 430 Mel for $250 no takers. I could easily sell my 401 nailhead for big bucks. personally the only way I would use a Y block is if I had a 55.56 or 57 thunderbird that I was going to sell. The common plane jane passenger car bodys are not so valuable as to warrant keeping a inferior design obselete engine. I personally dont care what engine someone puts in what body. I found when you do some off the wall engine swap that isnt a bolt in you learn a lot about fabricating and problen solving. There is a guy here on the Hamb (Lobuckrod) who put a nail head in a early 50,s sedan delivery. He did lots of work And fabricating parts. You can bet he learned a lot and sharpened his skills. He could of took the easy road and bolted in a 235 or 261 and put a crome valve cover - dual carbs and split exhaust. I followed his build with great interest. I build and drive what I like at the moment. I could care less about some car show or the opinions of other,s. OldWolf
Thats a nice example 55 pictured. I had a 55 and 3 56 ford 2 dr post. I sold them and several other vehicles so we could pay cash for the place we now live at. To me the body line is more pleasing on the ford post than the 55 chevy post cars. The rear side glass looks to large and the v dip detracts from the looks on the tri five chevys. I like the plexi glass on the speedometer bezel and the little round radio also. OldWolf
I can't stop laughing even though I am a part of that diarrhea. But I just can't help it because it's so easy to piss off Ford lovers. They are so sensitive.
Heres some more dirrhea! Yes it seems those who are dyed in the wool believers in the Y blocks boat anchors have really thin skins. OldWolf
Well, try to put a y-block in at the same cost and hp of a mild cam sbc. There's a reason everyone uses a sbc and why they killed the Ford flathead. I was a hater because I never had a sbc, always been a ford guy. Then my last purchase had a 370hp sbc with a mild cam and that sob revs like you wouldn't believe. Plus my options for speed are cheap and endless! Consider me converted... Tired of being an apologist when a sbc is a traditional as it gets in the late '50s....
Hmmm... So that roadster with the 392 in it... That was bought from a junkyard and installed in 1959... Guess its a Kustom then?
Ill try a serious post for once... It's his car, let him do what he wants. It seems to be a pain in the ass job and not one that's really done so it looks like, OP, you'll be fabbing stuff. Meanwhile I'm putting a Chevy SBC in my Vauxhall...... At least its staying all GM! I need to update my avatar, I bought a good previously reman 292 Y Block for $600 last summer. A '61 C1AE with a forged crank too. They're out there, often for under a grand.
I agree its his car he asked for advice not opinions. In my first post I gave advice & opinion on how I would do the swap he asked about. Ive got one of those Y blocks that has the 61 casting numbers with a forged crank. I has a burnt piston. It came out of a 1962 F600. Ive heard those truck engines have different pistons & rods. Another little tidbit many folks dont know is the 292 ford and 287 pontiac use the exact same piston ring set. If you look you can find real bargians. I bought at auction a 78 chev 3/4 ton with a 454 it has hedders and a edelbrock intake and carter 4 bbl. needed a $20 timing chain and it runs like a top. No smoke and pull the PCV valve fron the valvecover and not a bit of blow by. I keep thinking I need to pull the 327 out of my 55 chev wagon and swap in the big block. they have police impound auctions in the larger cities. Ive found I can buy the older vehicles for just a little more thaan scrap price. The big salvage yards and the pull a part only want the later model newer stuff.
Have long since stopped judging, last time in about oh..........2005 or so. Did not judge in shows that I was showing in. I didn't disqualify them as such, just walked on by. I appreciate every car out there, I just found SMC motors boring and still do. Yeah before I'm asked, I've had lots. Best was in the late '60's early 70's "C" modified production 210 H/T, 283/292 cu in, FI heads, Jans pistons, Dontov cam piened rods, balanced, tri-power most of the time, dual quads later on, 4 speed, 4:11's. Street strip car, ran low 14's, high 13's on street tires. It was a '57
Well I'd say by "walking on by" you pretty much disqualified them when you were judging. Basing a car's value on the engine alone is doing a lot of dedicated builders a disservice. Not even taking the time to see how well the owner engineered his car, just because you found the engine choice boring to you, is sad. I feel sorry for all those who were judged in such a way by you.
Sorry because I recognized cars that were often passed over because of the lack of a SMC? Wow. Those cars with Olds, Caddy, Flatheads, Ford and even 6 bangers deserve their due also which is what my intention was. BTW my reason for stopping with the judging was because of the many cars owned and brought to shows was because most were bought cars, owned by deep pocket guys/gals who only polished them.
Why would looking at cars with a SBC cause you to overlook the Olds, Caddy, Ford, etc. cars? Giving all the cars you were judging the same amount of time would be the proper method of judging. I can understand taking a quick glance at ANY engine and moving on to other parts of the car IF the engine was not well done, or dirty, etc. But there's also no reason you should have to pass over other cars with different brands of engines. Equal time should be given to each car when you accept the responsibility of judging at car shows. I agree with your reason for deciding to stop judging. I'd rather see a car that is a modest build done by the owner, than to see a $200,000 car that was simply purchased and shown. I love all hotrods, but there really should be a distinction between cars that are owner built, and cars that are just purchased and shown.
I yanked the original 265 SBC out of the '55 in my avatar to put in a 1962 Pontiac 389 and Hydro. Weighing my options, the 389 would cost about the same to build and puts out tons more torque. My first plan was to use a '57 Cadillac 365 but the deal fell through. I have a friend about to tackle a similar truck (58 Apache stepside) and we're dropping In a Ford 390. Awesome truck, awesome engine. Do what you like and enjoy the hell outta that '55, I have with everything I've ever owned.
I pulled the original straight 6 out of my '57 Suburban and dropped engine and trans from a '68 GTO in it years ago. Loved the 389 and TH400 combo, especially in that heavy Burb! It really had some torque to pull that truck around!
mikhett - let us know how your engine/trans set up worked out, include pics. if you did go ahead with the SBC it will help some with the same interests to go forward. you will not please everyone no matter what you do. my '54 Ford sedan with a SBC is up For Sale here. Runs great.
I really like pontiac engines . GMC did the pontiac swap in their pickups from the factory. Ive got a 55 GMC with a factory installed 287 pontiac V8 and standard shift trans. most of the pontiac equipped GMC,s had the hydro trans. I sold a 72 chev Pk that was orginally a big block truck, the engine was froze and had a busted block. I installed a 301 pontiac and trubo 350 in it. Ive got a 400 pontiac and stick setup for it, I was intending to put it my 69 firebird. I sold the firebird. so I was thinking about putting a camaro subframe under a tri five chevy and swapping in the pontiac 400. The main reason for the subframe is the starter on the pontiac is on the driver side, And you also get power steering & disk brakes. and if i use pontiac firebird springs all around the spring rate.s & geometery will be combatable. Ive also got a firebird 12 bolt posi i could use. Now this thread has got me very seriously thinking about a camaro subframe under my 55 ford wagon and that 400 pontiac engine. Its just to hot to be cutting & welding so I guess it will haxe to wait until cooler fall weather.
A good friend has a Chevy 350 and 5-speed in a '54 Mainline. It's a huge improvement over the stock 223. It took more cut 'n' paste work than I would have done on that car (not to mention it looks spooky from underneath), and another friend's '54 Victoria has a 351W/AOD that was almost a no-brainer to install. Now if I could scare up some original Jimmy/Pontiac mounts for mine.
When the Y-block in my daily-driver '56 Club Sedan broke the crank, I swapped in a '71 351W/FMX out of a Galaxie in two weekends. I got almost everything I needed off the donor car or the dead Y-block, built 'adaptors' to use the late rubber mounts and had to slightly mod the trans mount. The driveshaft needed the FMX front yoke grafted on, I had a new speedo cable built, and took it in for new header pipes. Whole swap cost me $800 (fluids, everything), and that included the $400 '71......
The original 55 thru 59 GMC,s with a pontiac mounted on the very front and two on the bellhousing. I believe the front cover and engine mount would work on a later engine. however the bellhousing wouldnt fit. Along about 1959 or 1960 the block pattern changed and a different bellhousing is used, then Again in about 1964 pontiac went to a different bell housing and block mounted starter. I was just looking at my hoard. Ive got several ford transmissions, top loader 4 speeds and three speeds. the trans mount is a dual pattern on my pontiac 400 stick shift bellhousing. Even the original 3 speed overdrive in my 55 ford wagon would bolt to the pontiac mill. That fact just makes the swap sweeter. I could retain the original collum shift three speed. OldWolf
If the OP doesent have the skills or equiptment to do the chevy swap probably a 351W would be the easiest and get the most bang for the buck. Those 351 W engines make good power. We had a 75 torino with one and it was very fast and got good fuel economy. we drove it over 100,000 mile,s on just oil changes and one set of spark plugs. Only one problem It would vapor lock on a hot day if you ran the air cond. I changed the fuel pump and installed a F600 330 fuel pump that had a cannister filter on it. Never vapor locked again.
I like the Y-Block (Duh!) and all I can say to the guys that keep saying they never could get a Y-Block to run good or stop smoking or stop using oil is, do you really want everyone here to know your engine building/tuning abilities?
To be honest, I don't know why more people don't use the 351W. It weighs about the same as a SBC, is the same width (actually slightly narrower at the exhaust ports), and is only slightly longer. Even the length isn't that big a deal; with the distributor in the front, you can push the motor closer to the firewall without cutting it. With commonly available rear-sump pans, it'll fit nearly any place a SBC will. And now that everyone is pretty much over their Cleveland obsession (never liked that motor....), there's plenty of speed equipment available. Ford built those for 26 years (far longer than the Y-block or FE, only 5 years less than the flathead), there's still a bunch of them out there....
Think and do whatever you want. You the one that has to live with them. There was once a wierdo innovator named Barney Navarro. Made a fortune for his design of a heart pump that theyused in open heart surgery and heart transplants. He thenspent a fortune trying to build a Rambler engine,s for Indy cars. Why waste time & money on a oblelete inferior design engine.
I'm pretty sure Mike has tuned out of this thread due to 99% of the posts being non-responsive to the original question.
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