I would think twice about this one. The flathead six was a good engine and the 54s had the best version of it. If the engine is tired, they are dead easy to rebuild and the parts are cheap and available. Vintage Power Wagons has NOS pistons brand new for $65 a set of six, how good do you want it? While doing a rebuild it is possible to hop it up a bit with reground cam, milled head, etc for not too much more. This is by far the cheapest and easiest option. If you do an engine swap you have to change out the whole power train including rear axle, also change the electrical system and other things. Not that it can't be done but it is a lot of extra work for very little benefit. Unless you absolutely have to burn rubber away from every stop light.
When I was a kid, the lack of an emergency brake would be the last thing we worried about when contemplating a change like this. Back in those days, most emergency brakes were worn out from driving with them unreleased and didn't work anyway. Matter of fact, I have the same problem with my '99 F150 beater truck as we speak. (I am going to fix it one of these days.)
2tall2...., sorry you made your 1st post on this old thread. we here can be like 73RR described. That said, hope this '54 works out and your able to enjoy this car. As mentioned above lots of good MOPAR choices available to you. Good Luck! -Dave
Technically, in this day and age, HEMIs are more belly button than SBC's. They are all over the place, new ones, old ones, big ones, small ones. I say go for SBC, you can actually drive it, it will be reliable, and you can get parts at Autozone. HEMI is nothing more than creative marketing and doesnt mean shit, hell a 4cyl in a Camry is a HEMI, nobody rants and raves about that. I say reliability, affordability and parts availability are king, not "trying to be different just like everybody else." If you are building a car to please other people, then go with a HEMI, but you arent building a car for the right reason then. If you are building a car to use, enjoy, and have fun with, go with an SBC or whatever the hell else you want
Its your car so do with it as you please,I am gathering parts to put a 302 Ford in my 37 Chevy p/u. I picked up a 302 with a mild cam and other modifications in a trade and the 235 in the 37 needs a crank so its going to go in over the winter if I get all my other projects I want done this summer.
Hemis are more common than 10-15 years ago, but until they are in 90% of rods your comment is way off.
S0- Can you not drive any make/model engine in any car? Hemi is a word, but has meaning...... So, with that, sure= all can grab a h20 pump from the local chain store, or an alternator..... But, when, and I mean when, is that shit going to fail? Just like any part bolted to any engine...... At anytime it wants! Sacred to the followers..... SBC is cheaper in the long run, and might bail you out at the parts store somewhat, but your missing the boat on this....... Hemi/Nail head/Flat head/Olds/Buick,...etc..... This shit is not on the shelf anyways, so how screwed would one be in the "finding parts" category? Or getting repaired the same day? =slim to none...... For getting it running/driving= sure- slam in the cheapest, most economical way possible to meet your wallet's standards, and enjoy........ But- and there is always Murphy's Law...... The rest of the drivetrain to match the easy way out..... Anyone can do whatever they want....... But- when opinions come into play- like on any forum, has it been tried by those who have given the opinion? And- how did it work out? I'm going with a HEMI, and I will sacrifice all it takes to drive, and not worrying about what chain store is going to save my ass...... Called prep/homework.......... Results/opinions may vary, and I'm cool with those..... I guess I have a thing for making a 60 yr old engine breath fire, and not for anyone else, but myself......
Heres a little story: I've tried it all. I grew up doing restoration and rod building. My first car was a '50 Chevy pickup, had it going with an SBC and all the typical sub frames of the time and stuff. My other car, that I go when I was about 13 was a '50 DeSoto. Restored it all stock. I had both on the road by the time I was about 17 and I could go anywhere with my SBC powered Chevy with no worries. Just buy parts and fix it when I would break something. The DeSoto took a little more planning and it was always my secondary vehicle because of the original parts searching thing. I'm a fabricator at a speed shop now and have owned, driven, and worked on just about any combination of old cars, I've had personal daily drivers with Nailheads, Flatheads, SBC's, SBF's, BBF's, straight 6's, and anything else you can imagine. I work on stuff on a daily basis with any combination you can imagine. My verdict on the virtues of the SBC in a car that you wish to enjoy rather than build for an ego boost is well founded. Even compared with the newer stuff like Chevy LS, MoPar HEMI, Ford Coyote, etc., the old tried and true SBC is always the engine that delivers the most driving and ownership pleasure in terms of reliability, parts availability and headache free interchange. From my personal experience spending the first 33 years of my life in this game the SBC STILL WEARS THE CROWN because cars are meant to be driven, not worked on. YOLO basically.
SBC's are for people who lack imagination Anyone who worries about driving a Hemi any, and everywhere simply does not know how to build engines.
Some people have families, places to be, schedules, pets, mortgages, irons in the fire, a bunch of cars, a bunch more bills, and no time for added drama. SBC's are a useful tool for those kind of people who also dont want to drive a Honda. Trust me, I used to be one of those F@$K SBC's, drive a HEMI kind of guys, but that was when I was single, didnt have a family, and took cars WAYYY too seriously. Now that I have real shit to do, I realize that cars are just tools that serve two purposes: Transportation and enjoyment, and I expect both to be delivered as flawlessly as possible from any given vehicle with the smallest investetment of my time, devotion and money as possible. Thats the pragmatic aproach vs. the flamboyant approach. Theres no winning either side of the argument.
Kustoms are about having their imagination on the outside of the car and having functionality under the hood. You will be hard pressed to find many Kustom guys that have any interest in racing Hondas. It always cracks me up that horsepower guys have zero concept of the fact that there are other types of car guys that arent going for horsepower. Not everybody gets off on that as their main source of inspiration for being a car guy. Im into 50's and older stuff, for the experience of love of the cars, I couldnt personally give a shit less about how fast they go. If I cared about that, I'd get a loan and buy some new thing with 600hp and a factory warranty and run the shit out of it.
You are right. I have a 392 in one of my cars. Honda is a word that should never appear on this forum.
I have been a car guy since I helped my father start and warm up cars on the car lot that he was a mechanic at in the early 60’s. I have had fords, chevys, and mopars.I drag raced mopars mainly because on any given day there were 3 mopars in a sea of cars. I have always swam upstream,and wanted to be different. I am building my 31 ford pickup with a blown 354 hemi for that reason. I could have got a new big block crate Chevy for what I have In my motor ,but in my opinion anyone can but someone else’s work and throw it in the car. There is no challenge in that , I built mine , I know everything in it , and can build it again need be. My uncle built and showed street rods all over the southeast and had blown hemi’s that’s what I remember as a kid ,that’s the era of builds I enjoy the most, therefore that’s where I focused my energy. It is just the difference between a rat rod and a very nicely done rod. It’s yours do what you want , there will always be haters, Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Here's a lil tweak in your shorts...... My MERC has a BLOWN SBC, and you'de never know unless you got froggy at a stop light, or on the freeway........ My roadster has a BLOWN 354 HEMI, and it's very traditional, or whatever you want to call it.... and my shitbox commuter is a HXXXA........... that happens to scoot just a tad..... Well? Cake and eat it too?
Hi All, Currently cutting and fitting to install a 350/350 in my Wife's 1954 Chrysler New Yorker Newport 2-door Hardtop. I have never done any of this kind of work before, but have seen it done on other cars so I have an idea of what to do. Her car is factory power steering, right now everything seems pretty tight in that area because of the gear box, its huge. Still need more trimming, etc. but if anyone else has done this and could share photos for refference I would really appreciate that. Also, trying to plan ahead and consider all other mechanicals, linkages for transmission, gas peddle, brakes, exhaust, etc. Thanks!!!
...you just listed most of the reasons that your swap is not real popular and why there aren't a dozen examples to look at...
Old thread dug out of the archives again but Ican full and well understand even though I assuridly don't agree. Case in point, I have a 56 330 Desoto in the shed where it has been for 30 + years. Engine and 3 speed overdrive. It came to me with the heads off when I swapped a 350/350 out of a mullet Camaro into the 56 Dodge pickup it was in. It's a Two barrel engine and a stock 56 4 barrel and intake commands around 500 eBay item number:363537586380 The maybe more complete engine kit that I have watcing on Ebay has jumped to 1999.99 about a thousand dollar jump since I started watching it. Local machine shops costs are probably going to run around 1000 even if I do the assembly. That all is getting way over my budget unless I have a seriously nice winning lotto ticket. Still If I had a 50's Mopar that had a dead Hemi in it or was missing the hemi I'd be looking at a 360 or 440 as the replacement. A 440 Torqueflight with the right cam will eat more guys lunches than you can write home about plus it looks just like earlier hamb friendly wedges.
Just bought a 50 Desoto coupe with a 350 Chevy installed in it 20 years ago...whats the difference..its all about the Hot Rod ..its your car , its your fun...This is my 49 Dodge 3 window with a Chevy 350......
It was originally built with a 331 Hemi and a Powerflite. I can't imagine why it needed any trimming at all to get an SBC/auto in there. I feel confident there is an original or aftermarket pair of iron exhaust manifolds that will clear that steering box. But there aren't a lot of people building early '50s Chryslers, much less swapping SBCs into them. Some of this you'll have to figure out as you go.
I always find these threads interesting. You always get the guys that have swapped in their favorite motor into 10 different cars telling you how that motor "fits easily into anything" but can't give you any specific answers as to which parts are needed to get it done. Its because their vast experience doesn't include that particular vehicle. then they counter with "Well, all the ones I did was easy." We soon discover the term "easy" is a relative term, it could mean easy, or it could mean easier then the other one would be. it could mean that after doing the same kind of motor in the same kind of vehicle for the 3rd time, it was easier then it was the 1st time, but after the 6th or 7th similar swap that last one really was easy. By then I knew everything that had to be done to make it fit. So I was a fabricator. I can put nearly any motor into any vehicle. As long as the amount of the original car that remained unaltered was not important, many of those swaps were much easier. Then if you were not too concerned about that motor looking like it belonged in that vehicle, it was even easier. I put a big V8 into a little truck that came with a 4 cylinder motor. After I extended the frame 6" and extended the fenders and hood 6", then cut 1/2 the original floor out of the passenger compartment, and filled the bed with a fuel tank and radiator, it was pretty easy. For someone without my experience, and equipment, it probably wouldn't have been too easy. Putting a different motor into a car that never had that motor is not easy, its hard, but after you do a few more it will probably get easier. Frame swaps are not easy, they are hard, but after you do a few more, it will probably get easier. Kustomike, I'm sorry you got suckered into the idea putting that sbc into the 54 Chrysler was going to be easy. You are probably on your own stumbling through what parts your going to need to get the job done. The only words of wisdom I might add is if you can offset that motor and trans about 1 1/2" to 2" off center, towards the passenger side, like Chrysler did it, you will probably have more space for a lot of stuff around that steering box. I do wish you luck making the GM power steering work with that old Mopar power steering box. I will tell you my son found an online source to reduce the pressure from the GM pump from 1500 psi down to around 800 psi, it works pretty well with his 57 Dodge power steering. We had to build power steering pump brackets to align the belts.
Me and a buddy put a 302 ford and trans in a way OT bmw. His car his choice, took us around a year of in and out, back and forth on modifying/mocking/etc. In the end, got it done. Perfectly fine car with a unique touch. While my experience is not fit for this forum, the concept comes down to the same. What is hot rodding and customization? Do what you want to with your car, explore your ideas/wishes. Asking for help or experience is never a bad thing. Many people might disagree with what you do, or criticize. Enjoy your build, persevere through the struggles. While I have no experience in this certain build, hope it works out well for you!
That would have to be the stupidest backward step I've heard in a long while. Swapping out a cool as' Chrysler hemi for a really mundane, belly button sbc. You need to get of the drugs.
If your that concerned about your ageing water pump, swap it out before you go. They last for many 10s of thousands of miles. It 40 years of driving old cars I've never had a water pump leave me stranded. I have had one start to leak. But got home with a few radiator top ups on the way. It's a crazy reason to downgrade your car. Save for a bit longer and stick with the hemi. I'm sure your trunk is bug enough to carry a spare water pump if your concerned.
Locally I have seen a few 318/360 swaps into those 1950's Mopars. The next time I see one I'll take a closer look and ask a few questions. One had a Volare stub grafted onto it, quite sanitary. We got the Chevy 350 into my Ford with little grief. The only fly in the ointment will be having to drop the starter, as the engine needs to be lifted off the mounts. I didn't want to chop up the crossmember in case I want to go Ford again. This one we knew that the SBC mounts were 16.5" apart (IIRC) and we made up a jig to replicate what we needed. While the engine was in the shop, we mocked up everything using an empty block, oil pan, bellhousing and 3-speed transmission. We made the mounts out of what I had laying around, 1/2" x 4" hot-rolled steel bar and black pipe for the mounting bolts.
I’d run any engine in an old car if I had it on hand. A Hemi has a cool look though, and had I been able to afford one and the rebuild just to stock, I would have. I opted for a LA 318. Ya know, from a distance it looks like a SBC
The 331/354s are rear sump so a 318/360 from a truck or van fits down in there quite nicely. Being a hemi is a lot bigger than a straight 6 it would be easier than dropping one into the 46-8 Dodge/Plymouths & doing that isn't all that hard.
Nothing more traditional than swapping a SBC into old cars of different brands. It is popular to condemn such swaps, and usually done by guys who are fans of Fords and Mopars, and get all worked up over a SBC in them. I've put SBC and BBC in a lot of non Chevy cars, and with all the universal motor mount kits, plus the ease of fabricating motor and trans mounts, I think anyone with some fabrication skills and a garage or driveway to work in could easily do the swap you want to do. And it's not going to cost much if you do it yourself.
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