Finally after years of just not having the fire to build out my project after a my daily driver was stolen ... i'm diving back in head long. Ive got a lot of work ahead but i'm excited to get back in the shop and really dive into the project again. looking for a bit of guidance as usual from the HAMB fam.. and looking forward to gathering that collective knowledge.. Thus far, 49 chevy coupe...collecting parts at the moment and researching possibilities. A few years ago my grandfather passed, he had been collecting chevy pickups 64-69.. we parted out a few and decided to hold on to one, in that whole mess i ended up with a decent 327 to build, a Muncie (SM465)(**EDIT looks like we'll be looking for another gear box) and some odds and ends. Ive got my hands on a s10 rear, and that will sort the drive line out minus DS... Would love some direction on the transmission mounting, mounts cross member, floor pan alterations etc. i'm building this car as a cruiser semi daily driver. so i'm looking for dependability and some highway speeds. thanks all W
W, the 465 is a heavy duty truck trans with a low geared first gear, might not be well suited for a car. My son had one in his OT Chevy pickup and he hardly ever had to use first, heavy SOB also. Mitch
I really like the 49-52 Chevrolet Coupe's, especially the Business Coupes. Should have kept my 51 Business Coupe! You need a rear end that's roughly 60 inches wide, drum to drum. If you're using an S-10 rear end, you want the 4 X 4 version, not the 2 WD one. Also, those rears have a smaller 7.5 or 7 5/8 inch ring gear, and not the strongest with V-8 power and spirited driving. I'd personally look for an 8.5 inch, 1973-79 Nova; plenty strong and the right width. The Tri-Five Chevrolet's also work well, but are getting harder to find. If you go with a V-8, William's has specifically come up with some exhaust manifolds, fasteners, and header pipes for the 49-54 cars (they'll work with others also). Most guys just cut out the centermost part of the stock crossmember and fabricate a bolt-in, drop-out piece to take it's place. The rear springs are narrow and unless aftermarket springs are used, or coil wrapped overload shocks used (like we did), you tend to have some body roll. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
As the others have stated, that trans won't do ya much good for anything other than pulling stumps. A factory 3 speed would do the trick if you wanted to maintain the column shift (I'm partial to column shifts, they're fun).
right on.. thanks for the info on the trans fellas.. thought it was a monster.. but also thought it might work.. what would it take to mount and use a factory 3 speed ( @Old-Soul ) on the 327? thanks all
Oof, asking me to wade into my foggy memory. Having not done a similar swap, but having read many articles on here as well as "built" it in my mind more than a few times... If it were me I would get a car three speed from a late 50's sedan that had a 283, as well as the bell/linkage/clutch fork from the same car. That way you're matching parts meant to run together. You will more than likely be able to utilize the factory trans x-member. There was a good thread on here years back about doing a near identical swap into a 53 if I recall correctly, I will seeif I can find it for you.
Yeah, to use THAT transmission, you'd have to do the swap in Cuba; those guys will do and use almost anything to keep a car/truck going. Even an old Muncie 318 transmission would be better, but I'd look into a Saginaw 3 or 4 speed. They're still fairly easy to find and fairly cheap, as opposed to a Muncie or Borg Warner 4 speed; Maybe a 5 speed that gets you an overdrive. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
I'd find one of the HD T5 transmissions from a V8 Camaro if you plan to go manual trans. Having the overdrive 5th gear will only make a cruiser much more enjoyable to cruise with. I wouldn't go this route if Iw as building a high HP engine for playing around town, but for a cruiser with a V8 that's not really high HP it's the only way to go. Or an automatic OD if you went automatic trans. I couldn't be more pleased with my decision to put a 700R4 behind the SBC in my '39 Chev coupe. It's a joy to cruise down the freeway at 65-70 mph at 2000-2100 rpm's., and get 19 mpg with around 350-375 hp.
Well outta the price range I want to spend on a tranny.. deff want a manual transmission in this car, OD would be nice, but not a deal.killer for me.
You guys always start off this way, next month you will be turning into a nose high gasser or chopping the top, only kidding. I would keep it simple, small V8, auto trans and a late model rear end, and duel exhaust nothing fancy. You will have a car that you can drive for years.
There are adapters from years gone by that occasionally come up on the classifieds here, and on E-Bay. I have personally had two complete conversions that I ultimately sold; I was going to use a later model 250 six (same bell-housing pattern as the V-8's), but when I gave the car to my nephew, he wanted a V-8, automatic, and a 56 rear end I had. We basically used all MY stuff and $$$ to build him a car. Then he lost interest, gave the car back, and I sold it as I already had too many projects. There's an old Speed Gems adapter here in the classifieds, but it's been sold. It may give you an idea however. There's also a guy over on ChevyTalk.Org, "Deans50", who has kept the stock 3 speed and torque-tube rear-end; he has a mild 350, with tri-power, in the car. He also made the adapter from a stock Chevrolet, aluminum, bell-housing. It's all in his build thread. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
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