Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: Small Mills can be Big Fun... Continue reading the Original Blog Post
x2 on that one. Had an Olds 215 in a '29 CCPU. Olds and Buicks had same block, different heads/intakes. A very few also went into Tempests in '63. The little engine that could only weighed 325lbs fully dressed. GM shudda kept that one instead of selling it off to Rover.
There was a guy in Miami in the 60's that had one of the old 215 indy car Buicks in a Bugeye Sprite with 180 degree headers. He came out to Miami-Hollywood speedway and with some really hard road racing tires it ran in the 12's spinning to about half track. Coolest sounding car though. He road raced it mostly.
1953 241" Dodge. Last rebuild 1955 due to nitro at B'ville. Vintage road raced 5 years in the 90's, no DNFs. Now, backroads cruises and car shows. Same engine, no rebuilds! 10:1 C/R, Chet Herbert roller cam, no crank dampener!, 6K redline when raced at track. Just replaced water pump due to bad seal, cost was $35, new, in stock! BTW, it ran 151 mph at lakes on methanol in 1956.
Or the 265. For some reason those little mouse motors somewhat defied the old "there's no replacement for displacement." They had a Napoleon Complex
depends on whether you are willing to run an appropriate rear gear or not. If you aren't, you are ahead to build a bigger motor.
I am totally in love with the old small V8's after getting pretty heavily involved in the Flatheads in the last few years, I want to build a 215 Buick and a 241 Hemi in the worst way.
I am also a big fan of small cube engines. Unlike most who opt for more displacement when building a Chrysler hemi I decided to go smaller. This mill is a 301 cubic incher but not a 301 poly...... the basic combo is 4" bore, 3" stroke, ne55 heads, and a full roller valve trian with a top rpm around 7500 to 8000.....and built around the A311 engine program. Sent from my SM-G900V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I have a 283 I am putting 4.11s behind it. I also have a Desoto hemi, but that one is a long ways from ever being finished.
Many years ago my neice bought her son his first car, a used 69 Nova four door, had a 153 cube 4 cylinder with 3 speed on the column, pretty uninspiring I know. I had the car for a full weekend tuning up, replacing a broken motor mount, general once over kind of stuff. I'm a card carrying V8 kinda guy but I gotta say if I'd had that car much longer I'd have put that spare Muncie 4 speed I had laying around in it, even with the 3 on the tree, that was a fun little car. I can only guess how much fun a single seat modified would be with that 4 cylinder engine.
Ford's little 221 V-8 of the early 60's, followed by the 260, then the 289, and finally, the 302. All small compared to modern day engines. Chevrolet's 265 and 283's, followed by the 262 and 267 mistakes. 260 Olds, 267 Pontiac for similar mistakes. Ford did the same thing, but I know next to nothing about that. MOPAR's 273. Anything smaller than 300 CID is a small mill when talking about V-8's. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
Roger that Butch I hung out with a bunch of Ford guys in the early 70's, one guy had this ugly little green 61 Falcon street car with a "breathed on" 221, and either a T-10 or toploader 4 speed and IIRC 4.56's in the nine inch, black wheels, and homebrewed 2x3 inch ladder bars. Prior to that I badmouthed Fords because I was (am) a staunch Chevy guy, but after getting a ride in that Falcon I changed my attitude about those little Ford motors.
Got a 264 nailhead am doing a complete rebuild on. over $1400 bucks in and I am just barely about have the bottom end done. A very expensive engine for sure, so this one is a long term project. So far the crank is 10/10 and the block is .040 over. first time the thing has ever been apart since new. Plans call for a 1956 322 cam, found a flywheel and offenhauser trans adapter and oil filter plate, the block has been smoothed out. Might save my pesos and see if I can score a 4-71 set up from Ross.
My Olds hasn't been too bad, but I started with a really CHOICE core (thanks Paul), still bearings and stuff are more than double what they are for my 283 chevy.
Back in our Jeep days, my friend put a 225 V-6 Buick in his 3-B and it would run 13.20's all day long, FWD and all!
The tooling for those was eventually sold to British manufacturer Rover who refined them a little and then used them for quite a few more years. You can find them in some of the Land Rovers that made it over to this side of the pond, though more recent variants have more cubes than GM's 215s did.
Another sucker for small ci V8s. 2 57 283 one full race engine 1 264 nailhead 1 322 nailhead w/ p&p heads 1 291 Desoto & 276 My 322 in my A is plenty fun. Sent from my VS990 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I am about to drop a heavily tweaked 200 into my '60 Falcon. Six-speed, two overdrives, 5.13:1 gears. It already has autocross tuned suspension. It should go pretty good.
The best small cube Hotrod mill... ...Barney Navarro's Blown Destroked 176ci Flathead campaigned in 1948
Here's the largest, physicaly, small cubic inch motor I have ever dumped money into the 241 Dodge Hemi..................................
Talking small cubes, I had a model t roadster with a 4 cyl Volvo,amd 4 speed what a hoot. I now have a t roadster, my avatar with a 2.8 chevy v/6 .It is a ton of fun to drive.
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