History Who When was the first SBChev powered HotRod?

I love that there is so many well documented builds with early SBC, and can understand that since Ol' US of A is so big, there can't be a Single First, there are several first!

So it's cool that it went that fast! That is true hot rod engineering!

And the first hand reports from this forum is so cool

I can't claim to be a grey beard, or that I lived true the 50/60/70s, but I listen when people talk, and if I find the conversation interesting, I ask further questions. And I google well, and I know whom too ask when I hit a dead end.

So I also enjoy these threads. Despite I don't need all the drama, but a heated argument once in a wile is always good for the heart and soul.

 

About the question of why the Yblock was not used more in hot rods. There were a couple of factors that came into it. One was that the Yblock was heavier and bulkier than the Chev practically the same size and weight as a Cadillac or Olds. But the Cad and Olds had up to 100 more cubic inches.

The other thing was the Yblock was hard to hop up. You couldn't mill the head much without weakening it. The over/under intake ports made porting harder. There were other things too, but I am trying to remember hot rod magazines from more than 50 years ago.

There were other engines with similar problems like the Plymouth/Dodge/Chrysler polysphere, Studebaker V8, Lincoln, that were considered second or third choice if they were considered at all. Chrysler hemis were seldom used because they were too big and heavy although everyone knew they could produce tremendous power. The smaller Dodge and DeSoto hemi were even rarer except in certain racing classes that required smaller displacement engines.

Most of the Yblock hop ups were in cars that came with Yblocks from the factory meaning Fords from 1954 to 1957 (in 58 you could order the bigger FE motor). The 2 seater 55 - 57 Tbirds in particular. The McCulloch people must have put superchargers on hundreds of them.

 

You left out the mushroom lifters and rocker shaft oiling.

I raced a 312 in the late 60s and early '70s. Fords were cheaper than Chevys back then and it was a bolt in engine in my body. I worked on enough Chevys to know that they were easier to hop up and in many ways superior to the Y block. But they were out of my price range. I liked my Ford but if I had to choose today I would not choose one with the exception that I can go all nostalgic about them.

I will give the Y block something over the SBC and this is not to make you ford guys all gooshy, it is just a simple fact. The pan rails being below the crank center makes for one stout lower end. if I could find an SBC block that was crossed with a Y block I would be in hot rod heaven.

 

Some body of note put Y-block Ford rocker arms on a sbc..HRM probably in 55', think pic might have been on cover...

 

The word is "through" not "true" and the 70s were the dark ages. The only thing I liked about the 70s was the music. Everyone was junking their American made "Hot Rods" for rice machines, Datsuns and Toyotas.

 

I liked the dope myself and rodders and scooter trash bailing made life really nice for me. Stuff went cheap.

 

And that's the truth, the stuff was cheap and you know how the saying goes: "If you remember the 70s, you weren't there"

 

The Moon version of the SBC to early Ford adapter was the first to be advertised in HRM in the "What's New" column July '55 (given 3 mo lead time that would put it available for pictures by April '55) It may have been a Hildebrant adapter sold by Moon? Maybe an Offy? I don't think Moon actually cast and machined them.
There is a blurb in the August '55 HRM about Fred Offenhauser Jr prepping a SBC for use in Ollie Morris' White Owl dragster for Bonneville. Then Ollie Morris at Moon prepping a Norden injection system for the same engine. Again, 3 mo lead time would be a May '55 installation. About the same time the adapter became available.
First SBC in a dragster/B-ville car?
Gotta love reading the '50s HRM, Racer Brown and McGurk flogged a 265. They started with 127 hp stock and did a bunch of stuff to it trying to get to the 180 hp level! Cam and lifter compatibility seemed to be the Achilles's heel, enough valve spring to control the valve train at 5500 and they killed the cam. Hurry up Chet, we need a roller......

 

Maybe he will correct your Danish

 

I like Danish. I also like chocolate eclairs.

 

Ollie Morris is commonly credited as the first one in a drag car. I have an article on the engine build.

 

I kinda like this stuff, so I thought I'd better chime in here.

First of all, I can't believe I spent all afternoon reading 7 pages of this! 2nd of all, I used to be sort of a stickler on the term "hot rod" meaning pre-49, but in my infinite wisdom I've learned to lighten up a little bit. 3rd of all, how many times are we going to shoot this dead horse?

When I was a kid in the early 60's my uncles put a 283 out of a wrecked Corvette in their '40 Ford coupe. Man did that thing run! They didn't do it to make a "hot rod" out of it, they did it because the flathead was junk and the 283 was available. At the time, they needed a car and I didn't even know what a flathead was.

As a 7 year old kid, it didn't take long until I thought everything was a "hot rod" that had a Chevy in it! So, when I built my HOT ROD (avatar) 40 some odd years later, I put a Chevy in it. But, it doesn't fit the HAMB definition. (I still like HAMB, btw.)

My "hot rod" has very few pre-65 parts, namely '40 Ford spindles and steering column, a modified '57 Ford 9" rear end housing, and '37 Ford pedal assy. Everything else is newer than '65. Only the block, bell housing and the transmission case are factory Chevrolet, and everything inside is after market. NOTHING else is factory, not even the body.

However, I still refer to my car as the "hot rod", and if the truth were known, probably most of the guys on the HAMB feel the same way.

 

Chevrolet had a west coast rep that made sure all of the speed equipment manufacturers had access to the SBC even before it was introduced. Vince Piggens was the man in the sixties. Not sure if he was the go to guy in the fifties. A lot of R&D engine work was done for GM, Ford and Chrysler by the hot rod companies for the simple reason that they were quick, cheap and not afraid to think outside the box. Before he opened Bill Thomas Race Cars, Bill built all of the cutaway display engines for GM. So you know he had access to the SBC early on.

 

Funny how the best things of one stock engine ends up being a speed equipment on another. Not counting the oiling Yblocks had the shaft rockers along with many others and our Racing SBC uses T&D shaft rockers, one of the best things we did.

 

Is it even correct to call them a "Small Block Chevy" when discussing traditional Hot Rods as the term wasn't even invented until the late 60's??

Thanks
Randy

 

I believe that Wally Parks did an editorial in Hot Rod in the early years that gave his view of what a hot rod was. That would be a "traditional" answer to everybodys question. Remember at this time a '50 ford was a new car. If some one could find this it might end this.

 

It has been said that a hot rod is pre 48.
Ryan's pic examples for the rules on traditional hot rod forum does show a 55 Gasser.
Most guys have their own idea.
I feel like my signature.

 

HUH ???? The 70s was muscle car mania!

 

I like Danish for breakfast

 

It's funny, and I don't mind.

And it's no secret that I suck in grammar in three languages! Danish, English and German, matter of fact I'm in Germany right now.
But I speak them fluently, or good enough to order anything fluent or eat-able and strike up a conversation with people I meet.
Mostly about cars, work and WW2. Because that is what I mostly talk about.

I even understand Swedish, Norwegian and some Dutch.
And before this starts to be chest pounding on my parts, I've enjoyed this thread so far, and more old photographic documentation would be cool!
And feel free to correct my grammar, I don't mind at all. I migth even learn something


And regarding the doing away with American cars and hot rodding, the same deal went down over here in spades, all the lads that got kids, ditched there muscle cars, Scandinavian Hot Rods and custom cars for Japanese or other boring stuff. SO sad!!

 

You're one cool Dane

 

This a pre production SBC going into a 54 Chevy truck...

 

That it was, but for my generation I was like 'beaner's love for cheap fast shit. Nobody wanted a gas guzzling big block anything, well, except me, and the used car market was spilling over with em. My used car list from the early 70s to the mid 80s would make an investor cry, and except for 1 36 Ford 3W and a 69 Boss I don't miss most of em. Oh yeah, the 3W had a 283 in it...

 

I don't remember the 70's being very good...By 73 everything was becoming smog motored and by the mid 70's girls were starting to wear bras again..

 

Not the hippy chicks. But most of them had hairy arm pits.

I have said it before and I'll say it again, I never really liked hippys but I liked hippy chicks.

@Montana1 you better like us or we'll stick our toungues at you.

Your avatar is Ok by the way, most of the people reading this thread wouldn't know the difference anyway.

 

Ollie Morris deal mentioned earlier. Posts 188 and 191.

 

Volvobrynk, this is PRICELESS! Made my morning coffee spray outta my nose!

 

Anybody that doesnt think the seventies were musclecar mania must have been high or dead through them! Every freaking used car lot was LITTERED with CHEAP muscle! 440 stick track pak '69 Coronet R/T with a 4.10 Dana for $900 off Fraipoint Hondas lot. Seriously! '69, 350hp 396 Chevelle $750 around the same time, '70 plum crazy 4-speed, factory 3.91 340 Dart Swinger, under a grand (buddy still has this car), another '69 Swinger optioned the same way, $750!!!, we test drove a 390 4 speed '68 Mustang GT (it was even GREEN) they were asking $1200, they were EVERYWHERE!
CRIPES, even the girls were driving baby muscle! I was dating a girl that had a '68 Mustang GTA notchback, another girl I was with for a while had a 340/727 '68 Swinger.

 

Yep........in 1972 I traded a 63 Impala, 283 auto, and $500 for a 66 SS Impala with a 427 and a four speed. It's the one I wish I had kept!

 

Thanks Beaner . I can sleep again!