A guy wants me to fit a 235 Chevy engine in an old dirt track car with a flathead ford trans. I'm sure this has been done befor but how? I searched around the web and found nothing from Offy or Wilcap. Any thoughts?
The old modified racers had an adapter plate, as that combo with a small block and ford pickup trans was common. It should be relatively easy to make ! Gary
I only know about traditional hotrods and not much about chevys but if the 235 is the same bolt pattern as the SBC, everyone sells the adapter and flywheel bushing. http://www.ebay.com/itm/WILCAP-Chev...Parts_Accessories&hash=item2a33c5a77c&vxp=mtr
If it is the same, that is a very common adaptor so finding it used and cheaper than new shouldn't be an issue.
BRE301 is correct. They are no where near the same. Panheadguy, I think that years ago there were some adapter rings that used the "Powerglide ring" off a Cast iron powerglide similar to this ebay item 130997241158 to adapt the 235/261 engines to the Ford trans. This is falling back on something that I read 50 years ago and didn't pay a lot of attention to at the time but it is the way I would approach it. I think you could find that pieces for a lot less money than the asking price as they are fairly common but that would be how I would approach it. unless you can do the machine work to make the adapter to go between the two or have a friend who is a machinist who works real cheap when given a challenge it might be pretty spendy though. HOWEVER: looking at the Ford Flathead six bellhousings I have I see that they are bolted to a 3/8 steel plate that bolts to the back of the flathead six. This is the Ford compound four speed with hogshead adapter that fits the back of that six cylinder and has the same setup as the Ford three speed. input shaft may be different but you match your clutch disk with your input shaft anyhow. Anyhow it seems that the simple thing for you might be to use the Ford flathead six bellhousing along with machining a plate or modifying the existing Ford plate to adapt the Ford bellhousing to the 235 block.
I have been thinking about a method to accomplish this since first reading about it yesterday. It would require some measurements to see if the parts I am thinking of are close enough to fit and or modify. But what I came up with as a "possibility" is this: Use a '49/'50/early '51 Merc Bell housing and fabricate an adapter plate that would attach to the block and bolt the bell housing to the adapter plate. The major unknown that I can think of is the flywheel position, fore and aft. And that may be able to be addressed by the thickness of the adapter plate ( a slab of 3/4"/1" aluminum would seem about right). The flywheel diameter and starter ring gear would be another issue to resolve, though the starter itself should be no problem as the Ford starter bolts to the lower right side of the bell housing. Maybe a flathead flywheel could be fitted to the Chevy crank.
I've got to do it some time or other so if I get time and the weather allows tomorrow I'll see if I can pull the bellhousing off the flathead six in the top photo and compare the steel plate with the 51 chevy truck bellhousing I have. That's the spare parts engine for the 254 going in a little roadster in the next few months.
Mr48chev, Where it not for the time stamp for "last edited"...... I'd feel like a plagiarist Seeing the Ford setup though, with the thinner 'adapter plate', I like your suggestion better. I think the possibility of using the Ford plate would be easier than fabricating from scratch.........good call!
It's got my curiosity up now and shouldn't take long to figure out if the weather improves. There is a 19 mph wind and it's 45 degrees with a chill factor out there now.
Cyclone made a belhousing adapter. I have seen two in the last 20 years. I guess it could be done with a SBC to ford offy adapter and another adapter from buffalo or Langdon (stovebolt to chevy)
I figured that someone did make one at one time. I got the bellhousing off The Flathead six but didn't get the rest of the clutch and flywheel off to get to the plate that the bellhousing bolts to. Too many "had to get done' projects today and the damned wind is still blowing to beat hell.
If you use langdon's or buffalo's SBC flywheel and 230/250 Six starter will work. Of course the flywheel will have to be redrilled. I believe the cyclone unit has no provisions for a starter. The track cars and midgets we're push started? Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
I pulled the bellhousing, clutch, flywheel and mounting plate off the flathead six this afternoon. Flywheel on the 226 flathead Distance from steel plate to front surface of flywheel Plate on back of block after flywheel is removed. Damn that is a big hole around the crank flange Side shot of plate with crank flange showing. Face of Chevy 6 bellhousing (51 1-1/2 ton 216 or 235) in comparison to face of Ford 6 plate. Ford six plate laying on top of Chevy 6 bellhousing. It appears that a guy would have to machine a new plate to make it work. From measuring the flywheels I think a guy just might be able to put a Ford ring gear on the Chevy flywheel with not a lot of extra effort. The other option might be to make the plate to use the Chevy starter and modify the stamped steel Ford bellhousing to work with it. The big issue would be figuring out the crank centers between the two engines.
Starting in 1955 the transmission bolt pattern on the chev 6 was the same as the V8. Before that the 6 cylinder big trucks that had a 4 speed transmission were the same as the V8. Except the two lower bolt holes for the transmission did not have threads.
'55-up transmissions have the same bolt pattern, true, but the bell to motor pattern is still different. Sixes got the V8 pattern when the 194-230-250-292 came along .
The disagreement here is due to misreading prior posts. Posts before George Millers referred to bell housing to block bolt pattern. Mr Miller seems to have misinterpreted that discussion as being about transmission to bell housing pattern.......two distinctly different issues.
The quick but not inexpensive way would be to use http://stoveboltengineco.com/catalog/store/#!/~/product/category=412400&id=1396439 I'd think he would just sell the adapter and then add http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Chevy-Engine-to-Early-Ford-Transmission-Adapter-Kit,1157.html You would have a stack of cash in it but it would be all bolt on.
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