Hot Rods YOUR FIRST ENGINE SWAP?

Summer 1965, I got a 1957 Tudor post Bel Air with a sick 283 and Powerglide. I put in a 327 and three speed stick. Nothing at all hard.

Putting a 401 nailhead with a top loader into a Model A was a higher level job a couple years later as I boxed the frame, changed to an open driveline, and made my own headers.

Each one is a new experience.

 

I, too, started with a mini-truck. A Chevy LUV that I put a 283 and Saginaw 3 speed with overdrive into. At least the drivetrain was traditional.

Gary

 

Very first one.....I was 16........swapping a 53 Merc into my 41 Ford. My dad helped out when I'd get stuck. Was successful!

 

Way ot but 1965 289 in a Pinto.

 

409 Chevy engine in a '56 GMC pickup in about 1965. No problems.

 

I posted my first engine swap a few post back, but got to thinking that actually wasn’t my first! My FIRST was in 1962 at 11 years of age, when I took the good Cushman engine from my 1949 Allstate box scooter and put it on the 1953 Cushman Eagle I bought off a friend that had a bad engine!
Still have that box scooter!






Bones

 

The kart must have been a Lot faster with the Mac on it in place of the Brigs!

Chas358

 

My first engine swap at 19yrs of age was putting the 318 Poly & Torqueflite in my 1940 Dodge in 1973, still have the car and the polys still in there......the bottom pic was taken as I was about to take the car for its first drive down the street with the 318 in it, probably September 1973............the top pic was the Oz made 1940 Dodge Coupe that the 4dr was originally bought for to supply parts, but it, the 4dr, was a much better car so the coupe got sold, & I've still got the sedan 48 years later.......andyd

 

My '66 Nova SS came with no engine, so the SBC into that is technically my 1st. My 1st true swap was ditching the 6-banger for a 283 in 1975 in a '65 C30 truck.

 

Senior year, high school auto shop, 1963. Turtle Creek high school, PA. Our shop teacher, Mr. Miller, got the bug after watching my buddy and I always screwing with something. We ended up putting a Cadillac in his 1952 Ford pickup. He loved it. All of it done in auto shop.

 

When I was 14 I helped a buddy pull a flathead out of a 39 Ford coupe (I think he paid $75 for the car) . He had a 49 Ford stock car that he wrecked and left at the race track (which also had a junk yard out back). We went to the track and took all the fasteners out of the engine and got 5 or 6 guys to help turn the 49 on it's side so the engine would roll out onto some old truck tires. My buddy then borrowed the track owner's wrecker and we took the engine home. We pulled the 39 engine out (cracked block) and changed the speed equipment over to the 49 engine. I remember we had to tap and plug a water passage on each side of the block to use the earlier finned Edmunds heads. The cam and other parts worked okay as I remember. We went from the 49 distributor to the earlier front mounted distributor. The old Ford ran pretty good but did have a tendency to run hot. My buddy finally sold the flathead and put a 322 Buick in the car. I remember going to a guy's house and he would put later model gears in the 39 trans. We only thought the old Ford ran good with the flathead. It screamed with the nailhead. This was in about 1961, I wonder what ever happened to the old Ford.

 

Mine was a 390 into a 1955 T-Bird when I was 18 in Napa CA. I paid $800 for the car with its stock 292 and AT, which had both just been rebuilt. I had the car for about a month before I decided it needed more juice, so I went to see old Ed Green who had a burned '64 T-Bird with low mileage. $300 got me anything I wanted from the '64 to do the swap. I got $100 for the pretty 292 T-bird finned valve covers and the chrome air filter. There was an article in an old HRM about this swap using a 427, but the 390 was all I could afford. The trans mount worked as is, but I had to get motor mounts made, with help from the guys in the body shop at the Buick dealer where I worked. I had to replace the oil pan and oil pump pickup tube with a truck type because the front sump interfered with the crossmember. Converted it to 12v. Took me about two months to rebuild the 390 stock and stuff it in, with about 1/4" clearance under the hood. I kept the stock mufflers because I wanted a sleeper, and sleeper it was. Despite it only being a 390, I took great glee in blowing off a few local Corvettes and GTOs, probably out of surprise more than power. Had to sell it to pay off racing tickets, to my dad's boss for $1400, whose own 55 Bird had burned. He loved the car with the power of the 390. Really do miss that car.

 

Swapped a 430 Buick and BW st-10 into my 55' Studebaker. Now it houses a stage 2 455 Buick and a turbo 400. Ran 10.50/126 at Alamo Motorplex recently.

 

My first engine swaps were in go carts. “The need for speed.” Always looking for more. First car was my 55 Chev at 16. The middle of an Iowa winter in a cold garage along time ago. Dad was down in bed with the flu but available to answer my questions when I ran into trouble. He said he knew I got it done when he heard it roar to life with no mufflers.
Thanks Dad.

 

Little off topic but you asked about my first engine swap. I stuck a 403 olds motor in a 68 nova. 15 years old, thought i was the king of all mechanics, after a few days of calling the true mechanics (due to a lack of the internet back then) i learned that BOP turned counter clockwise lol. It actually tried to run but it wouldn't rev. Being more of a project than my toolbox could handle, i sold it and went back to go karts

 

My very, very first engine swap was putting a 3 1/2 hp Tecumseh from a rototiller onto a homemade go kart. My actual automobile engine pull and replace was taking the 6 banger out of a 1 1/2 ton Chevy grain truck, rebuilding it and putting it back in under the guidance of my Dad. Definitely a learning experience. Thanks Dad!

 

My first swap was a 50 Olds 303 into a 46 Ford coupe that I bought for 5 bucks ( the Olds was donated by the junk yard owner and the coupe was shall we say a bit rough around the edges) but at 16 after riding bikes for years who really cared! No starter cross over so we pushed it to start it ( I lived in the country on a hill thank goodness). Side glass was really fogged over and it wouldn't pass inspection so we removed the glass to get the inspection....those were the days as they say.

 

My firdt engine swap happened when I was older - maybe 35 or so. I had a 62 Impala with straight 6 and a cast iron power glide - I had collected mist all the parts needed to convert the car to s 409/409, 4 speed, numbers matching carbs, all the right stuff after I had stumbled upon someone up in the Detroit area that had worked out n the design and development of the 409. Once done, she was a mean machine and proved it many a time. I had the 6 cyl rear in it and could never launch good but after the car length they had in me, I stayed right with them. It was a fun n car as my wife used to ask me whether she should bring her neck brace or not!

 

1954 Chevy Bel Air that I put a '65 Chrysler 383 and four speed in.

 

Well, not as I did all the work, basically ran for tools and closed my eyes when Dad was welding, but at about 11/12 years old helped him put a LS5/TH400 from a '70 Vette into his '57 Chevy PU.

Kinda what hooked me on "go-fast" stuff, as he still had the 3.90 rear in it...man...so exhilarating at that age when he hit the throttle, a year or so later (after he couldn't keep tread on the right rear tire) I helped him put a 3.08 10 bolt from a similar year GMC in it. 3-4 years later after I started to drive the '57, and after wasting the 10 bolt, we found a 12 bolt 3.08 for it.

Ok, well my buddy had a '65-ish Ford PU with a tired 352, his dad gave him a 70 or so LTD with a 390...he and I swapped it and the transmission into his PU. Couldn't get that effer to start for nothing...hence how I really learned about filing points, setting gap and dwell-his Uncle educated us, cussed the whole time at me, until he realized I wanted to learn about it, not just get it running.

 

I bought reasonably decent 50 Chevy hardtop from a friend of mine for 25.00 and drove it for a few days and got a big knock in it. My cousin towed me home with her 54 Chevy and when I tore into it the head was broken off the #5 piston. I didn't even think about buying a new piston and replacing it which would probably have run me under 30 bucks for piston, gaskets and rings for that one piston then. I pulled the 216 and stuck in a 248 GMC engine that I never did get done with. I popped off that I might want to sell it and a day later some kid and his dad showed up with cash and a tow chain to buy it.

 

I've always heard that Jimmy 6s were bad A_- motors - that could be built and supercharged and make enough power to put the hurt on a lot of V8's!

Chas358

 

OT for me also but my first was 390 to 428 SCJ in a 67 Fairlane . Easy bolt in and go man go !

 

First one helped put nailhead in a 41 Ford coupe. That made the 327 replacing the 265 in my 57 seem like childs play!