Hot Rods How to hop up a 1931 Chevrolet Inline 6?

Dear H.a.m.b. users, I'm searching for quality Infos on how to soup up an old 1931 inline 6 Chevrolet engine. Specs are 194cui. 50hp. Last year I brought my 31 Chevy Cabrio back to life after 55years of sleep. I've rebuilt it for a traditional beach race in Denmark called " The Rømø Motor Festival". Car works good now but I would like to soup it up "a little" in a traditional way for this years race.

As long as all speed parts are for the "newer inline sixes" as I noticed,
My questions are:
- Can I fit a 216/235 dual intake (Offenhauser or Fenton or others) to this engine?
- do I have to fabricate my own intake ?
- Can I fit two Carter W-1 (which I have) to this engine? Maybe with the smallest noozels?
- are there any existing projects or finished cars to learn from ?
- what else can I do to soup it up? Ignition ?

Would be great to hear if someone knows more about such a rare topic.

 

Sorry, I have no answer for you. but I find your project interesting, any pictures? another question is there a rule book you must follow for your event/race, like F.I.A.?

 

I am not sure about the intake, an intake for that motor would not be hard to fabricate.

You can split the exhaust or just add a flange to the exhaust to make it into a dual exhaust.

You can get the cam reground for it but remember it is not going to liker to rev too much.

Probably your best bang for the buck is ignition, if you go to 12V hot coils are easy to find, sometimes you can find hot 6V coils if you look hard enough. Sometimes they added a coil to the system, but its tricky wiring. There should be some old diagrams floating around the internet. You can add a spring to the points from another set of points to keep them from floating on you. it wears the rubbing block pretty quick but if your racing you should be OK.

 

ROMO motor festival? where do they get such crazy ideas?

 

don't have a lot of hot rod experience with that motor. but the old stuff i have worked on benefited greatly by increasing the compression by cutting the head.

 

Hey, Beaner, the 31 is all Babbit bearing? could he bolt in a later 6?

 

The 235 is a bolt in for the babbit 216 ( did it last year) I don't know for sure on the really old motor. Probably need to adapt some things for the older transmission.

 

Hi. take a look at this Ebay listing. It is for a offy manifold with a 4 bbl carb base. I also see Speedway has a 4 bble space adapter to go from a single 4 bbl to two bble carbs but I do not know if the bolt patterns match.
I used to see some 1 bbl adapters in a Y configuration to convert to two 1 bbl carbs on ebay. I know Thickstun was one of the brands but there were several.
tom Langdon made a fantastic HEI distributor to fit the Chevy sixes but I heard he is going out of business and retiring. It may not be too late to contact him.
Good luck, Jim

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Offenhauser...ash=item5b3b01b5b7:g:99cAAOSwRXRZW6W9&vxp=mtr

 

Never thought of that it would be pretty easy to build a sling shot to go on the original manifold if you could find one already made.

 

Hi again. Just as a thought you could make 2 carb base flanges with a riser to to match your carb base & height and bore 2 more holes in the top of your intake & make a 3 carb set up. Or you could make a Y adapter and run either 2 or 3. If 3 are too much for your engine you could flange off your original base & use the two outer holes and it should be balanced. Just have to get 1 more carb that way. But eliminating the center carb would lose your heat riser for the choke but if you have manual choke that is no big deal.
The intake & carbs in my avatar here is a 235 engine in my 46 Chevy Coupe. It is a Clifford set up that has dual 4 bbl bases and adapter spacers to use 2 two bbl Webber carbs. Clifford sells this set up for a lot of different inline six engines. You can check their website & see if they offer anything for you. His stuff is very expensive compared to some inline stuff. If you use their intake you must use their shorty tube headers because others will not clear their very thick intake manifold which has a water chamber along the base for heat risers. They also make hot cams for these engines and I have their 268 grind in my engine. It has a Langdon HEI and is bored 0.060. It is not a race car but with my rear end ring & pinion change from a 411 to a 355 and 700/16 tires on the rear it will get down the road with todays traffic.
Jimmie

 

Hi there! There are some rules to the danish race. Car has to be period correct, so no billet wheels and so on. Open cars, coupes and bikes up to 1937. Parts up to 1947. Race is a show race with two cars or bikes head to head on 1/8 mile. I think they will take lap times in the next year. It is good fun and an awesome atmosphere. Best regards



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Thank you all for your responses. I will think about milling the head off a little. The spilt exhaust is also something which is possible. I will also dig a little into the intake Tipps you gave me.

I think the 4barrel intake is for a newer 194cui from the 60s. Could that be ?

Fact is after this years race the old inline six has to give its place to a 1937 Cadillac Flathead. But I have another 235 or bigger straight six in the planning for the future. So you will hear from me again.


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this is another view of the manifold assembly. Notice it uses an updraft carb.



If you are good at fabricating, you can make your own multi carb, downdraft intake manifold and headers, that will probably help some. Having the camshaft reground with more lift and duration will help some. Increasing compression will help some. These are the basic hot rodding tricks from way back in time. They still work.

 

Is this the early 3 main bearing engine? If so I would tread lightly on hoping it up..

 

It should be the early 3 main engine.

Finding an early 216 is another approach, that might be difficult in Sweden.

 

trade it for a 283

 

...that was made before 1947. Not too likely!

 

RØMØ MOTOR FESTIVAL Looks like it be a blast to be there (September 8-9 2017). Wish I was closer. Here are some random photos and rules of entry:

• Only roadsters, convertibles, coupes, specials (vintage race cars, hand built one off's) and motorcycles can participate.
• No pickups, roadster pickups or sedans.
• Year of manufacture has to be prior to 1941 (that means 1940)
• Year of manufacture for parts and speed equipment used, has to be prior to 1948 (that means 1947 as the latest)
• Specials can be newly built as long as they are period correct, respecting our rules of entry.
• Motorcycles can be newer than 1940, so long as you can provide solid evidence that is was in unchanged production prior to 1941. Please remember that this evidence is your own responsibility, not for us to search the internet after.
• Any and all racers, crew members, as well as all photographers and press must be dressed period correct.

 

Rodding & Restyling mag in a '59 or '60 issue has a pair of 3 main hopped up '31 - '32 Chevs owned by a gent named Milton Lamb & his son. Very well worth looking them up, as Milton's green 2 door has fabulous workmanship.
Pretty sure someone can load the article on here ..

 

You could transplant a 40's GMC 270

 

McQuack, I seriously doubt theres anything you can do that will make an appreciable difference. Save your money and do an engine swap.

 

May I suggest building a 2x1bbl intake or using an old Gotha kit to convert your stock intake, This is my N.O.S. kit.



I would also building a split exhaust, this is one I built a few years ago.

 

The Filling station https://www.fillingstation.com/catalog/flippingbook/index.html has a good listing of engine parts and it also tells what years of engine said parts fit. Intake/exhaust manifold wise the break for the sixes are 29/33, 34/36 and 37 and up for the 216. Meaning that a 216 manifold isn't going to directly bolt up.

 

which you might be able to tell, just looking at the pic of the 31 manifold I posted above

 

Put in a 1954 or later 235. I put a 1956 235 in a 1939 coupe when I was 15 years old. Everything including tranny etc bolted right in. I had 2x97 intake and a split exhaust. Plenty fast.


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Not to hi-jack the topic, but what's in the box ?

 

Not hop-up parts, but valuable source of vital parts that will help in the process, like rocker parts and water pumps. http://www.billypossum.com/c&p_catalog/c&p_catalog_rev_031225.htm

 

Only the coupe is in this issue. Article states engine was built mainly for show.

 

Speed and Power!

 

Hi. If you notice that the ports come off the FRONT of the exhaust manifold, not the bottom. Exhaust enters the back of the box and out the bottom. Speed & power is also correct.
Jimmie