chevy II 153 four cylinder

I've always sorta trusted the 10 lbs per 1,000 rpm as a general guide line. These should have the same oil pressure as the sixes of the same family, same oil pumps and bearing setups. I think 10 & 20 might be a little low but not crazy. I'd be totally comfortable at 20 & 30. What oil do you run? In So Cal you could run something thicker than in colder places. The older GMC ran 50w brand new.
There is no need for a high volume pump. If the stock pump supplies enough for a 292 six it will work on our fours. The high volume pumps increase load on the cam gear and distributer shaft.

 

Right now I have a break-in oil as I installed a new cam. But I’m getting ready to change that oil soon.

 

Any chance you might be interested in selling that engine?

 

I have a 153 4 cyl Chevy that came out of my 66 Chevy ll that can be had for 100.00 if you pick it up

 

Sigh. Now why you gotta tempt me like that? Must Look Awayyyyyyyyyy.

 

I had a lady customer in for an alignment around 1977. She had a mint 1969-ish Nova 2 door in blue. The 4-banger was the first one I saw or heard of. She said it had plenty of power, I forget if it was a stick or automatic.

 

I think I posted this once before.
Those little critters will surprise you, even bone stock!
Many years ago my neice bought her son his first car, a 69 Nova four door, 4 cyl/3 speed.
It ran a little wonky so she had me tune it up, I took it out for a test drive and discovered it had a broken motor mount, couldnt find one anywhere, ended up adapting one from another application.
The second test drive really shocked me but I'm sure the cars with automatics weren't nearly as responsive.
He decided it wasn't the car for him and it was sold, if I didn't already have three projects in the works I would have put a Muncie four speed in it, could have been a fun car.

 

Bob, I learned something today about those automatics, they were not the standard powerglide, they were actually called a torque drive, for the most part they were a p/glide without a valve body, they were shifted manually, which I'm sure was needed for the 4 cylinders' power band.

Good article
Here:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/aut...-chevrolets-torque-drive-a-dumber-powerglide/

 

Interesting. I had never heard of those. Thanks.

 

This is a new one on me. I maybe drove it a bit after the alignment, no recollection. However I do recall the VW squarebacks with the funky semi-automatic, a great anti theft device.

I need to get out more 4 sure. I never knew a 6-cylinder FH Ford engine existed until I saw one here.

 

and the TDs were air cooled

 

I had also seen listing for parts for those used in taxis. .

 

I saw a bunch of PGs (aluminum case only) with no cooling lines, they had big holes in the bellhousing... maybe these were the TD units?

 

If I remember right the torque converters also had some kind of a metal shield mounted to them to help circulate air around them to help cool them.

 

Very true.......But 62/63 PG's also had plugs for cooler lines! At least Nova's did. I never unplugged them to run a cooler outright though, but they were there.

 

Yes, the air cooled ones had "fins" on them to move air around, I had a couple

 

It gets more interesting with every post. How could I know so little?

 

"The smartest man in the world is one who realizes he knows nothing."

 

Also another new one on me. And I was scouring the 'yards for "new" transmissions all the time too.

 

Question... for you guys that have running engines, what are you using as a timming number? Are you setting base or total? Thanks, Gene.

 

Chevy 2 parts posted in the for sale want ads

 

I have a few 181. Some with raised ports and some not, all are 8 port heads. I want to build one of them and am going to be making a intake for it.
Would the raised port head be better than the big port head?

 

Supposedly the small port modern head makes more power in the boat application or at least the same but I dont know it thats true at higher RPM or with a bigger cam and performance mods or additional porting . They must have done it for a reason I suspect it s more low end torque.

I have a mint big port head and I was sort of looking for the new raised smaller port head because i have a dual industrial Intake i wan to adapt that fits the newer head . perhaps the new head is kind of like the Vortec SBC chevy head that makes more with less due to how it flows and atomizes the fuel and what not .
still looking for a uncracked 181 block .

 

To bad your are not here 1biggun, I have 5 of them. I only wanted one but for 100 bucks I got 6 but over loaded my S10 so only took 5. None are cracked.
I suspect you are right the raised port head probably has better low end power. I like the look of your dual industrial intake and exhaust. If I could find that set up here I would go with it, but all we have here is a bunch of boats!
I have not pulled a small port head off to take apart, but I don't think it's like a vortex head.

 

One if the hardest things for a hot rodder is to be honest with himself about what his engine will really spend most of its time doing. If it is a balls out racer or a show & shine toy that is one thing but if most of it's use is street time and some screwing around that is another. Good torque at moderate rpm can be a good thing. Highway speeds are not much different from what boats do a lot of and those rpms are economical both on fuel & engines and still have plenty of poop for getting off the line. I'm not sure if the raised port head is kin o the vortec. Here is a 181 vortec add.
https://www.navalmotor.com/mediaserver/web/vortec/downloads/Vortec_Marine_3.0L.pdf

 

Six Ball, thank you for that link. Just thinking about it, everything I know tells me I should use the raised port or Vertec head, where port velocity would be better then port volume for what I want to do. I think I will pop one off and take a good look at it.
I would really like too find a crossflow head, been looking around but have not found any for sale.

 

The 151 Iron Duke had cross flow heads. There was a lot of discussion of using a 151 roller cam in the 153-181 but I think the problem might have been valve order. I never checked. If that was the issue then swapping 151 cam & head should solve that if there was not a spacing change as well. Maybe that causes a distributer/ oil pump drive issue. I think, not sure, the head would swap. It has been too long since I really looked at ALL of this.

 

I'm gonna bet that would be easy enough having seen Flatrods' postings.

 

If I could find one I would give it good look! I retired in 2019 from automotive machine shop and in all my years (40) I have never seen a 151 iron Duke come through the doors! Lots of boats here though!

 

I agree if it was going in a midget race car or some race application it might matter.
One of these in a light roadster on the street is going make little differnce waht head they have . The fork lift head on the latter engines looks the same as the Mercrusier head to me . In a lift it only makes like 70 hP if that . in a boat its susposed to make 140 with the marine cam .
IMO as long as ran good and had enough torque to drive well and reved well when you wnated to stretch shift out its not going to make much difference if your not racing . I have like 400 HP in a modle A PU and I use maybe 150 of it mos ttimes I drive it . If I every really got on it id likely be in a ditch going side ways .
i twuld be fine with 200 HP for the street and honestly im thinking of some thing more street able in it .

I got side tracked on the roadster with a 4 when I bought the Modle A from dad and had to get it to my house . Im considering just getting the 153 going I think is good but with the 3.0 OMC boat head . The ports are much bigger than the 153 .