'Was at a wrecking yard yesterday afternoon pulling the front fenders off a 68 Impala and saw these V8 motor mounts still bolted to the '68's front X member. In a previous post I had asked if any Hambers knew how difficult it would be to install a SBC in a '59 that had come originally from the factory with an in-line 6, and got a couple of Hamber responses that all you need is the SBC Chevy V8 mounts. Well, before I pull these '68 impala V8 mounts out, can anybody tell me if they bolt up to any existing bolt holes in the '59 front X member, or rather if it all has to be mocked up trial and error in steel plate and the V8 mounts jerry-rigged into the correct position? By the way, when I was asking the old gent that owns the yard if he knew about such things (he didn't recall), for $300 he offered me the good-running engine and TH350 trans out of a 78 Impala that had just come into the yard. He said he got it started and running very easily the day before (even drove it up and down the road) simply by pulling the distributor cap and hooking up an induction pickup wire that had worked its way loose in there. Anyway, what are the odds of that '78 Impala engine is a 350 VS a 305? What's the easiest way to tell if it's only a 305?
Pretty good odds I'd say...by '78, the 350 was already ten years old...I doubt that Impalas would have a small 305 in them...best way is pull the serial numbers off the blok and run them... The engine mounts should work...most were identical for a lot of years. R-
I work on a lot of the older impala's and caprice's at work.. More actually seem to have 305's over the 350's.. we've had a 77, 79 and we still have an 84, all with 305's in 'em. Rat...
305 is cast on the side of the block, i believe on the drivers side by the freeze plugs. I have a 59 el camino and the sbc motor mounts worked great for me.
I have a 59 el camino that i used the sbc motor mounts and all worked out great. If it is a 305 motor, it should have a casting of 305 on the side by the freeze plugs near the motor mount, i think driver side. I will sale you a complete 305 for $125. located in texas
If you still have the donor car, read the tag on the radiator shroud. It will tell you if the car has a 305 or a 350. (However, those parts and engines CAN be switched over time, so be cautious there!) 305 engines also have a small tube on the timing cover just above the balancer for a timing probe. Either way, a 305 is every bit as good as or better than a 350. See my 305 post in the Tech-O-Matic for more specifics, but the 305 is just a 350 with a smaller bore. It shares the same stroke and has ample grunt with the added benefit of better fuel economy over the 350.
What Hack said! I have 3 -305s all have tube on timing cover & tab is up higher than my 3 - 350s. My 305s all have 1 piece rear main seal, less prone to leak. Got a 305 in my wifes 98 Silverado 1500, pulls good, haul cars etc, Hack had a very good post on 305s recently.
You need the frame mounts from a 58-64 V8 full-size Chev (or a 64 6 cylinder full size with the late style 230 cube six). You could probably cut/weld the frame mounts from the '78 and make them work, but it would save you time in the long run to get the right ones. Once you have done that, you can use the (rubber) engine mounts from the '78 to bolt the engine to the frame mounts.
The 58-64 mounts, huh? Bolt right in? Ok, Thanks a bunch! BTW, I have a 305 in my El Camino, and it's not a bad motor, but I can really tell the difference in power when I drive it VS when I drive my pickup with its 350. With the weight of that '59 Station Wagon, I figured it made sense to go with the 350. I was talking to a prior owner of the '59 wagon over the phone a few days ago to thank him for sending me the title (finally), and he laughed about how gutless the original six was when he was driving it in high school many years ago... But maybe part of the reason was that he broke a ring and gouged the cylinder wall in the six, so rubbed the scraped cylinder with emory cloth and stuck another ring on. ' Says he drove it that way for a long time. I want this thing to have some beans!
Simon Sez has it right. Once you get the V8 frame mounts, everything else is cake. I had pair recently but I think they went to Sweden.... But at least you know what to look for. Travis
This will most likely be a really dumb question, but I'll ask anyway because I want to know. Didn't these SBCs use the mounts on the front of the block on either side of the timing cover? Aren't the SBCs still tooled with mounting holes there? Could someone please explain why you can't just use these mounting locations.
Yeah, small Chevy's retained those old style front motor mount bolt holes up until the 80s anyway. You can bolt a later model 305 right into your 55 Chevy when the 265 poops out!!
Fat Hack, Why is this not a possiblilty for our hero Southfork? Did they pull a Ford move and start changing shit around in 58?
Deyo, Dey-y-y-y-o Close, but no banana The front mounts were only used on 55-57's. They changed to the side mounts in 58.
After the first few years they started using the side mounts, but all the engine castings kept the bolt holes for the 1955-57 front mounts. It was thought that mounting the engine by the front of the block and the trans mount, it would stress the bellhousing area too much, so the side mounts were developed for the 'newer' applications. People still took advantage of those front mounting bolts for years though...many Vega swaps used mounts that bolted to those "old" front mount holes to improve exhaust clearance.
Deyomatic- I think the placement of engine would leave the front of a smallblock [out in frt] of the crossmember instead of [over the crossmember] as in a tri 5 chevy-I am assuming a 59chevy would be like my 58 ElCamino- It came with a 235-6 cyl.I put a 350 in and used the stock stands and stock 58 -6cyl mount cushions. they used a plate that bolted the six to a v8 style mount cushion. I also left the mount stand where it was [for the six.] this caused a couple of little things- a short strap had to be added to move clutch ball forward to align with Zbar on frame. alsoI added a newer trans from an 80's pickup[synchro] which required a short flat spacer that bolted to stock two crossmember holes and two trans mount holes on trans mount cushion.I used a long water pump with stock fan blade. as to 305's some have a casting on drivers side of rear block ledge where trans bolts to block that says 5.0 for a 305 and 5.7 for a 350 also a cast number of 020[last three]is a 305.1959 accelerator linkage must be modified to reverse the direction it moves from six to eaght cyl swap.
Alright, I suppose that makes sense. I was just wondering to have an idea of what might need to be done when it comes time to use my 350/ 700R4, depending on what vehicle I finally don't PUSS out on buying.
well one thing about it- for all the flack we get for using or wanting to use a SBC engine they are really adaptable....almost any one of them can be installed in or parts thereof intermingled anywhere over a 53 year long span of time to accomplish almost any combination of engine-s trans and body/frame you can imagine.......you can say they are boring and redundant but you cant say they dont make perfect sense!I cant think of any Marque that can make the claim of topping the small block Chevy for interchangeability and or low cost.
Well said, choprods. I love flatheads, nailheads, and early Caddy engines, but SBCs definately have a place in my garage too. Put the vintage stuff in the traditional rods and the SBCs in early Chevys! So maybe the stock '59 motor mounts will work then? They look like V8 mounts, and are bolted on the front X-member. Maybe I can do like choprods did and just put the engine in the '59 without changing the 6 cylinder mounts. Think I'll lower a bare sbc block into the engine compartment with the rubber mounts on the block and see how it lines up to the '59 stock mounts. As far as the $300 engine/tranny combo I'm thinking about buying goes, I can't see any 305 cast into the driver's side of the block, but maybe the casting is behind the exhaust manifold or side motor mount. Can't see any tube by the timing cover either, but I don't really know what I'm looking for (is it a tiny tube or a big tube?) and maybe the waterpump and harmonic balancer are blocking my view. I do see that there is a Quadrajet 4-barrel carb on the intake manifold though. Wouldn't a 305 typically come with a 2-barrell? Maybe either way, but I would think a 2-barrell would be more common on a 305. I checked the donor car to see if there was a radiator shroud still with it that might have something written about which engine, but it and the radiator were already gone. I'll have to check for casting numbers at the rear of the block tomorrow.
The tube is pretty small...looks like about a 1.5 inch length of 3/8" fuel line down above the balancer on the timing cover. You'll find it on most carbureted 305s.
I think that the 305s only had 2bbls in the first years, from 1976-1980. The one from my 83 Caprice had a big ol' Q-Junk sitting on top.
305 4v engines from the factory were around by the 1979 model year at least. 1980 Corvettes with auto trannys for California had 305 4v engines, too...while the rest were 350 4v equipped! Luckily, small block Chevy engines have nearly unlimited induction options open to them...even 305s....lefty loosey, righty tighty, folks!!
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