Can I disguise a 350 to look like a 265?

I have complete 1956 Chevy 265 engine. I was going to clean it up and try and use it in my 57 Chev wagon but i'm leaning toward using a good early 80's truck 350 that I have instead. What I want to do is use the front accessories off the 265 on the 350, pullies. 12v generator, maybe even the 2 barrell carb and manifold. (because I want to use the script 265 valve covers with no breather holes) I see that the 265 exhaust manifolds will be somewhat restrictive but I have them and thats how the generator mounts. One thing im unsure about is finding a lower pulley for my 350. (the one on the 265 is pressed on the balancer) and the 265 appears to have a short water pump, my truck motor currrently has a long water pump on it, so buying a short pump for the 350 should keep my pulleys lined up right?

Basically I want to disguise a 350 to look like a 265. Anyone else ever try this?

 

yes the only thing that might give it away is the head castings and the fact they have bolt holes,the side motor mount bosses,and the dipstich tube will be on the wrong side.but use the valve covers ,manifolds, intake, and short water pump and accessories and it will still look cool,and you wont have to wait for a rear breeze to get up to 65mph

 

Just rebuild the 265 and use it or get a real 283. There's too much to change depending on how authentice you want it to look.

 

How do you disguise a oil filter? HRP

 

got figure out how to make it breathe too, if ya use the solid valve covers, it won`t breathe, and 350s don`t have the road draft tube.......

 

Arent gonna fool anybody worth fooling unless you change the heads and ESPECIALLY the balancer.

 

yea that too,at least hes not disguising it as a oldsmobile.

 

Staggered pattern on the 265 valve covers???

 

Beat the hell out of me.
Lets see.....350 -265 = 85
nope.

 

Yes, you could, but why ???????

Build the 265, it's a worthwhile project. See the build thread below:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=416175

Johnnie.

 

seems like alot of work to put into an engine you don't want to use.
put your time and money into the engine you actually want.

 

Breathing shouldnt be a problem if I use the 265 intake with the oil fill.
side note- I won't be trying to pass it off as the original motor, I just want it to look as period as I can without having to actually use the 265.


I think it'll make decent power for highway use, i'll be using the powerglide that came off the 265 mainly because it'll bolt right in (side mount) And I have the drive shaft for the pg trans.

Anouther visual aspect of it is the distributor, Will the 265 distributor (I like it becuase of the little oil tube on the side) work in a 350? If not I have anouther points distributor I can use.

 

Go for it, I am leaning towards getting my car on the road with my RUNNING 350 while I collect a few more speed parts for my 265.

Do a search on the various 265/283 threads. This has been covered a feew times.

 

yes, crap, I belive 283's from the 60's straight across ones. maybe I can find some

 

these are basic Chevy questions, the dist will fit

 

If you get it in the rite way and or put a groove around the dizzy boss..............

 

The giveaway is probably the side motor mount bosses. We put one in a '59 Vette that I ground the bosses off and then put the sand casting texture back into the block with a scaler from HF. We were faking a 283 so the oil filter wasn't a problem. Just be sure you don't grind through the water jacket if you do it. We used the early tach drive distributor and it worked fine. I epoxyed bolts into the front of the heads, cut 'em off and did the same thing to look like a set of early "humps". Nobody ever asked about the valve cover bosses. With a pair of four barrels on as origional manifold it will fool the casual observer and is real eye opener with the 383 in there. No Bloomington awards here though.

 

dont bother..its not going to look like one

at least not to those that know...and if you try to pass it off as one to someone that knows you will be that guythat looks clueless to all those out there that know

there are guys out there like squirrel, that could probably walk by it and smell that its a 350

 

Question ...how did you overcome the draft tube venting the lifter galley...d32

 

why bother when you already have a 265? And some 57s came from the factory with 265s. And to give you something to think about, in Novembers issue of Hot Rod Deluxe there is a photo of a dragster taken in 1962 that was running a 265 destroked to a 233 and ran 9.44 at 150mph and 11 thou rpms.

 

the only people that are gonna be fooled by a pair of script valve covers and an oil fill tube arent worth fooling anyway. The side mount bosses arent readily visible in a tri-5 engine compartment, but anyone who has even half a clue is gonna spot the balancer RIGHT AWAY. hell, my brother isnt even what I would call a car guy, and he would spot the balancer at a glance. Guess it might fool my mom, but then, she doesnt know a 350 from a 265 in the fist place. Then you still have to deal with the heads.

 

Why ask for an opinion from a zillion guys, you will get a zillion opinions. Build what you want, I really wouldn't care.

 

You guys sound like a bunch of restorers! :O

 

It all comes down to how close you are worried about other guys looking at it and if some of the nit pikers commenting above take a look.

If you want to pass the quick glance test yep the early heads, intake, short water pump and pulleys will probably get it past that point.

As a couple have said you will have to do a bit of work to get it to ventilate the crank case and that is probably best addressed with a pcv valve tapped into a spot on the manifold where you have a clear shot to the lifter valley. I guess you could drill and tap the block too if you were so inclined.

I wouldn't put a frigging road draft tube on anything I owned no matter how authentic I thought it needed to be. I put up with enough oil fumes boiling out from under the car when I was a kid to not want that now.

Are you trying to please yourself and use what you have and have a good runner for a reasonable price or spend a shit load of cash fixing the 265 to please a few guys while the 350 is collecting dust over in the corner?

 

I believe the breather situation is more complicated than just adding the fill tube. The 265 evacuates air through the draft tube and draws fresh air from the fill tube. The 350 evacuates air with engine vacuum and draws air through a filtered breather. You'll need to have some way for air to flow through the engine, not just a breather at the front.

 

Absolutely, I agree with 26 roadster 100%. I would duct tape ford FE valve covers to it, make some faux flex header pipes running up from the intake runners and out through some hole-sawed holes in the front fenders kinda like on an old Auburn, flowing down into some gracefully curved sidepipes made from old chromed kitchen chairs, and epoxy die-cast farm animals to the air cleaner lid. Then I would get some wide whites, paint the whitewall part pink with yellow stars, and mount them on chromed acura wheels, and epoxy dead dogs heads to the center caps. Then I would get the towel rack from your bathroom wall, and mount it to the roof like a wing. After all, as we have various guys pointing out on an hourly basis on this board, and just in case we didnt get it the last 10,000 times, its yours, and you can do whatever you want with it, and no-one can stop you.

But I still dont think anyone will be fooled into thinking its a 265.

 

Mr48chev was faster than me!

 

Yup.

 

I did a make over on my 350 to look similar to a 331 caddy mill. 80% of the people think it's an old caddy motor. I do like it when somebody recognizes what it really is. Those are the people that know what their looking at and worth some conversation. Anyway I painted it blue, fabbed up an inner for the oil bath filter to accept a modern paper air cleaner. Then I cut up the caddy valve covers in 6 pieces and married them to the flange of a chevy valve cover. I drilled a hole in the intake for the caddy oil fill and drilled another right behind the carb for a PCV valve.
there is a slide show on youtube but it only shows the finnished engine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OHAoE_YuF0&NR=1
You can do this it just takes time.

 

I'm more or less looking ot see what will interchange, not trying to fool somebody into beliving its something its not, thanks for informative replies, and even the not so...