Projects 235 Inline 6

I have a '57 Chevy Pickup with a 235 inline 6. What can i do to make this motor sing? I have heard there is a ton of stuff i can do to maximize power. Where do i start? Any advice would be great! Thanks!!

 

Do an intro!!!! It will make your time on the HAMB much more enjoyable.
Onto the 235. Lots of cool stuff, split exhaust, duel or triple carbs. I don't think you'll make gobbs of power. However, putting a T-5 behind it will make great use of the power you have. Todd

 

you won't make alot of horsepower with a 235, put your efforts into making torque,

 

There must be 500 threads on what to do with a 235 on here. Enjoy your evening by reading them.

 

Like Tug said, dual carbs and a split exhaust will make it look and sound nice. If you want to get radical, do the split exhaust, triple carbs, and a 261 cam to duplicate the early 'vette blue flame 235. But don't expect tire shredding V8 performance. Do a search on 235 or stovebolt and spend the next few days reading up.

 

as usual, buy california bill's book. from 1954 and the best ever

 

Shameless self-promotion:

http://victorylibrary.com/235BK.htm

 

Call Patrick's in Arizona 520-836-1117, talk to Patrick or his son, he's built a crapload of 235's and he helped me build mine. Turned out badass. Tons of top end after a cam, 4barrel and headers. Sounds nasty too.

 

Just a few hints from ages gone by. In the early 60's my buddy and I built a 56 235 in a 1950 sedan. We built it several times. The end product was .060 over,11:1 pistons, three 97's, fenton headers, balanced. The ports were all opened up .125 per side in a mill at school and manifolds matched. No change in valve size. aluminum flywheel corvette clutch & four speed and 4.88 gears. After severl tries we ended up with a magurk cam, it out performed them all. This motor had no problem running up to 6200. Magurk said not to worry about the rods, that they could take all we coud give with out supercharging. This car went a 101 in the quartermile. We were not experts. All of this stuff was available off the shelf at the time. Judgeing from the weight of the car and the speeds achieved the motor should have been makeing a good 300 HP. IT WAS A BLAST. Build and have fun.

 

A 300 hp non supercharged 235 would be a world record,that's for sure.

 

What are you reffering to: "three 97's" ?

Thanks,[/QUOTE]

Three carbs. At least I think they were 97's. It was a loooog time ago.

 

A 300 hp non supercharged 235 would be a world record,that's for sure.

And easily 50 more than ever done before.
McGurk's own claims seldom ran above 200 - including on alcohol.

 

baknthday many chevy 265/283 V8,s were shown the short way home, by savvy inline 6 cylinder guys runnin 235,s. Street is 'TORQ' and thats what 235,s had..

 

Yes, a built to the balls 235 can beat a stock 265-283,maybe.Outside of short track dirt racing,a modified 265-283 will run away and hide from a built 235.Torque? you mean the 2000 rpm type? Well,that's good when the engine rpm's are limited to 4000 rpm.Just my opinion from seeing lots of races.................

 

"Torque"?

You mean "horsepower at low RPM"?
Let me explain, again: horsepower is torque at high RPM.
No torque? No horsepower.
No horsepower? No torque.
Yes, highly tuned race engines have very little of either one at low speed, and have both at high speed.
Tractors have both only at low speed, and nothing after that.
The only difference is where it's located in the engine speed range.

That's all it is, and no - a 235 doesn't have that, either.

 

This is OBVIOUSLY not a typical inline 6 cylinder build, and it does have power adders. But it does prove the point that you can make an inline 6 run with the big dogs. For that fact if you put enough money and time into a Model T engine, you can make it run like a scalded ape.

So to all the naysayers and know it alls out there that like to bash on inline 6's... it IS possible to build an ass-kicker. Is it cheap? No. Practical? No. Can it beat your big block billybadass Nova? Probably.

 

good info in this....
http://www.selectric.org/55chevy/soup.html

 

And easily 50 more than ever done before.
McGurk's own claims seldom ran above 200 - including on alcohol.[/QUOTE]

I did not mean to start an argument about 235 inliner HP. We did not have access (dollars) for dino tuning so my estimate based on performance could well be off , but I did not over state the ¼ mile speed. Low 14’s high 13’s.
Noting Mcgurk’s 1955 article. Our motor was built some seven years later with more breathing, better ignition, higher compression, a later Mcgurk competion cam and a valve train capable of over 6000. No matter how the numbers add up this car was very quick for its kind in the 60’s. Certainly not the baddest thing on the road but we never failed to surprise the hell out of ANY V8 we ever tangled with.

 

And it may have been nearly double the original power.

 

For sure there's some nasty inline 6's running around.A few turbo 292 Chevies running in the high 10's in what looks like legal street cars.I built several typical modified 235-261 Chevy engines and a 302 GMC.But for the average guy building an engine in his garage on a budget,the money runs out well before you reach V-8 type power.Main issue is lack of cubic inches and the extensive work needed for proper breathing.