Just picked up a 265 and the cast iron power glide, complete ex manifolds generator everything is there. My question is what might it be worth? Been stored inside motor turns 360°dont know anything else. Thanks if anyone can help. Tony
You want to sell it? Go to the tri-five forums and advertise. Ever hear of E-Bay? http://www.ebay.com/itm/1955-1957-C...524-/171765523563?hash=item27fe05e46b&vxp=mtr
Are you going to buy or sell? It's worth something, to the right man. But it's gonna be a hard sell. If you are buying, it has to be cheap, but depends on what you wants to do with it I would say 2/3 of a 350 in the same condition. It can be driven and ejoyed, and after you rebuild it, it will cost you more then a 350 crate engine. But hey this is a traditional page and it's way cooler then a 350. And unlike a 350 there a very few that came out of a corvette, and that will keep the price down. There is twice as many corvette engines for sale, as actual corvettes build. ️ LOL
Not worth much except to someone restoring an original '55. It would cost just as much to build a strong 350 with side mounts that could be installed in almost anything. Chevy engines are known for interchange ability but even the camshaft and distributor are different on the 265.
Or building a period correct hot rod. value? I have no idea I bought my last 265 and powerslip for $1.25 and had to get it out of the guys driveway before the sun set. So it cost me a days wages plus the dollar and a quarter ( I was working second shift). it was a running driving engine tranny combo out of a '56 belaire hardtop. My deal was rare the city was after the guy and I just couldn't pass it up. I would want to give more then core value for one that is not running but not stuck but that is just me. I would use one in a "heartbeat" if I was building a motor around period correct hot rod though. You could always unh it .125 ( maxed out) and make a 283 out of it if 265 wasn't enough for you.
To give you an idea, I bought a complete running 80 k mile '55 265 4bbl version w/rebuilt powerglide last year for $500. Canadian dollars. Take 20% of that off. Ditched the pg, dropped it in my '32 pickup untouched and am running it now. If I were close.....I'd take it off your hands.
I disagree. This engine was only used for 1 year, and the lack of the block oil filter and side motor mounts set it apart from the "ca-zillion" 350's out there. To me it's more traditional and a little less street-rodish.
beware tri 5 people are nuts. I had a 56 265 that I parted out, I ended up with a standard bore 265 block, which I thought would be of interest to these people, all the replies asked for a date code. no one bought it because it was the wrong date for their car. I ended up giving the block away to a guy here on the HAMB. ...every little nut bolt and bracket on these motors has some value to restorers. I got way more $$$ in parts than what I could have sold it for all together. this one was frozen and the crank destroyed anyway.
Restorers in general have their panties in a bunch. Hell some of the period correct guys are wound too tight for me and I like a well built period car. I was helping a guy a couple of years ago that insisted that all the screws that held the door panels on needed to be clocked exactly the same. I handed him a screw driver and went and poured myself a cup of coffee. The deal is a running 265 in an old ford would be the cats ass. It may not out run a hot 327 (or a 350 most fellas can't tell the difference by looking) but face it neither will a full house flathead or a built to the hilt 235 either (at least not one that you could drive around town).
Far from an expert on this, but as said, someone looking specifically for it would pay a good price IMO... Also if reasonable, there aren't a lot of good blocks left anymore...and they were a fine little engine !
Just curios, but for a semi stuck build, only the pistons, rings and con rod would be special, and everything else is adaptable. Even bearings and misc parts would interchange. A nice intake will fit regardless of year, but those with a road draft tube would be the best, and any intake with more then a 1bbl or multiple will work. Any distributor wan be made to fit, there are some small items that needs to be changed/upgrade for that oil pressure relief thing on early SBC. But other then that it should be as good as any other small displacement engine! I fail to see then as sub-standard mills, and will be more era perfect then any four bolt main 388 or what ever. Should work just as fine as 307.
On the intake with the 265 unless you upgrade the heads you want to stay with an intake with smallish runners. Some of the later intakes were built with larger runners to go with larger ports and they can be a problem when bolted to a head with small ports. You will want to stay with an early style distributer but even the stock dizzy can be upgraded and any small block cam with work but some machine work needs to be done to the last journal for oiling. No hill for a stepper. I went to high school with a guy that had a 265 in a '56 Chevy post car. He had punched it .010 so it was still pretty close to stock displacement, but he did one of everything else to it and it was a stinkin' screamer. It was never a big block car performance wise but I loved to ride with him, I think that little motor would rev until it came apart if he let it.
I was under the impression that even a 265 can run stock 283 heads and intake as long as you ran the full set. A fairly stock set up with a 2 or 4 bbl would be fine. Regarding the cam, I thought that the 265 cam was made to bleed down oil pressure, so the stock distributor could hold up to the pressure, until they could get another type made up. So when you install an aftermarket cam, and stock distributor, it will leak so bad that a Detroit diesel would be ashamed. But modern distributor, modern cam a small plug in the right oil channel. And you are golden. So a 265 with slight bump in power, from the intake and an torque/RV cam, would be an awesome era perfect mill to stuff in what-ever with a wide-stance Hurst motor mount and 39 ford gearbox adapter. And you have a perfect match. Wish I was closer.
The old distributers needed to be clocked to oil the top end, a late distributer in an early block will starve your top end. It is a simple task to mill a relief in the last journal of the cam shaft so any camshaft can be used. The early 283 and the 265 used the same heads basically, when they started building intakes for the later 327 up motors they started using larger intake runners to accommodate the larger ports. a 283 2x4 intake and a set of power pack heads or even 283 fuel heads will work fine on the 265 or even the higher output 265 heads will work with the same intake. If you keep your compression up they will even handle the early duntov cam, the hotter duntov cam would want a little port work. Again no biggy that is what a dremmel was made for. I would probably use a chevy tranny myself if I was running one, a 3 speed sag would make me happy as a duck. I can shift the old trannies just fine I just like the syncros.
I am driving a 57 with a 283 two barrell. I have tried to sell ,running with powerglide, ramhorn manifolds, fan to u joint, oil bath air cleaner to pan,I'll even throw in the generator,regulator, and radiator and you can drive the car.I was asking $400, no-one interested.
I'm gonna oil it up and wrap it in cosmolene paper someone may want it one day! Thanks Guys Good info from all.
265 heads. My pair of '56, -306's with the sparkplug trough cc at 118 to 120 cc's intake ports and chambers are right at 60 cc's. The old power pack heads with the triangle run like 137 cc's or so and the -461 double-humps up to 160 cc's.. And I am here to say that an old 265, 4-barrel, dual exhaust, stick-OD car with an old -097 Little Duntov in it will put a smile on your face!! Put the big Duntov, (aka, 30-30), cam in her and rpm her to the moon... pdq67
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