Has anyone here put a chev 350 in a poncho with straight 8? Im going to but need some tip about If theres enough room or if you need to modify the subframe and so on? Theres a TH400 on it to.. Grateful for your answers.. / Matthew
www.speedwaymotors.com sells a couple of different universal sbc mounts and tranny mounts.I think the most important thing is making sure your steering doesn't interfere, and the centerlinks don't hit the oil pan.
I put an LS1 in my '51 wagon. Doesn't help you much to tell you it also has a Caprice front frame clip, but it fits easily in any case. Brian
Dunno if you are still looking but I recently swapped a 455 in my 1952 chieftain 4 door. Had to fab up engine mounts and a trans crossmember. Fits fine with plenty of room. I did remove the heater box and had to relocate the horns and do a radiator upgrade among other things. Trans is a turbo 350 and 3.42 posi out of a 1980 firebird. Chevy does mount up different but it should be possible. Mine is original frame also, no subframe swap. Headers installed fine also with slight dimpling on the driver side.
my girlfriends 50 poncho was a straight 8 but it now has a 350 chevy in it she bought it that way the guy kinda subframed it with a nova as far as engine fitting in the engine bay no problems a sbc is almost too small for the bay (im tryin to convince her a poncho motor would look alot better)
Stock frame, depending on how you position the motor you may have some trouble clearing the steering, watch what manifold you use on it. The rest should be cake. But I tend to agree that a Pontiac V8, assuming you can find one, fits just a little bit better.
I had a 1951 Pontiac a couple years ago that someone put a 327 in back in the 60's... Fit good from what I could tell, original radiator was used, nothing was moved... original steering box, original frame. There's a lot of room under the hood of that car. I just got a 1950 Pontiac that's knocking and bought a 61 389/4 speed hydramatic for it yesterday that I'll be putting in it in the fall. If it weren't knocking I'd had kept the straight eight since they're good engines. nice car cruzn52
I have a 1951 Pontiac with a 350 and originally a turbo 400, I just put in a 700R4. It all fits well in the original frame, no mods to frame or steering. I made my own motor and trans mounts, they are relatively simple mounts and gussetted well. I have tons of room in the engine compartment and no clearance problems of any kind. It will fit and quite easily too! Good luck
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