Got to thinking tonite about my build and what I want to do motor wise. I do not want some hopped up street racer, but I want to get out of own way if you know what I mean. I got the stock inline 6 under the hood now, maybe add some performance bits and stuff. But what kind of performance can one expect out of the stock inline 235? What kind of performance can I expect with bolt on speed parts? Any ideas? Thanks. J
Page 4 already?? Man I posted this less than 8 hours ago and its already on page 4! I know a lot of y'all run the straight six in your chevys, so give me some numbers please. I need to know if I should salvage this motor or dump it for some newer muscle. J
Without going inside the engine, meaning you're limited to intake/exhaust/ignition modifications, you may end up with an honest 150 hp. Don't judge this according to the factory hp ratings, as they were usually bogus. By comparison, an all out 261 may put out 200 hp.
Get a different intake, and a pair of carbs, either a split factory exhaust manifold, or a set of the Fentons and dual pipes. A hotter ignition helps, Pertronix if you want it to look stock, or one of the 6 cyl HEI distributors modified to fit (not pretty but functional) and adjust the ignition curve to work best. If you are looking for more hop up info than that you probably want to check out the Inliners site, there is an amazing amount of info there on these. There are sveral vendors that sell stuff for these as well, most are mentioned on there.
Just put a set of headers & pipes on it and maybe a 2 X 1 intake. That way it'll SOUND bad and you'll THINK it's running fast then if you begin to have doubts, open the hood and look at those two carbs and you'll KNOW it's fast. e=customcafe;2916599]Got to thinking tonite about my build and what I want to do motor wise. I do not want some hopped up street racer, but I want to get out of own way if you know what I mean. I got the stock inline 6 under the hood now, maybe add some performance bits and stuff. But what kind of performance can one expect out of the stock inline 235? What kind of performance can I expect with bolt on speed parts? Any ideas? Thanks. J[/quote]
The famous McGurk article from the 1955 Hot Rod issue gives a step-by-step performance upgrade guide with dyno numbers..... http://www.selectric.org/55chevy/soup.html He uses a 261 for the article, but you get an idea what upgrades will do to a 235. In short: Dual intake and exhaust is the easiest (bolt-on) upgrade and gives about 15% increase in torque/HP.
There's a lot of threads here about the 235's, but I guess the search won't find 3 letters, so unless it has inline in the ***le, they will be hard to find. The above guys are right. all the external stuff will wake the old lump up. And look good. And get better mileage, too. It will look good and sound great. My 235 actually made more noise with the stock cam than with the Howard's that's in there now If you got a PG engine w/ hyd lifters, you can put solids in real easy and have an engine that will go over 3500 rpm. And also change the pushrods. People have had problems with the stock ones bending. I gotta plug PATRICK'S in AZ, he ****s, don'tn\buy from him. SCAM Artist Deluxe. Frank
Look in the grocery store or Walmart for the latest issue of HOT ROD DELUX Magazine. They have an article about stovebolts in there with practical info and dyno numbers. Their buildup yielded 135 hp @ ~4500 rpm. That was with a mild Isky cam, Fenton split exhaust, and 2X1 intake. They didn't port, polish or Mill the head as far as I can tell, like the 1955 article did. I had a 235 in a '55 chevy Handyman wagon years ago. It was bone stock and freshly rebuilt, with a 4 speed and 3.50:1 rear gear. We ran it at the drag strip in Wall, TX and it went 19.95 @ 68 mph. It was fun, sounded great, and we had a ball. I had 700X15 Casler white wall slicks on chrome reversed wheels, and an open dump tube. What great memories. Be careful though, that thing had enough torque that we bent the leaf springs on the wagon. So if you're going to build it up, be sure to have some kind of traction control, if for no reason than to protect the car from itself.
I went the search route at first, but nothing with what I was looking for. I really appreciate the thoughts about this subject. I am gonna pull the motor out soon and thought maybe I would take the lump to a motor guy and have it built up. I want it to look real cl***y, old skool but still run great. J
If you want something that looks cool, that is different from a small block and sounds like nothing else then build the 235 but be realistic, if your after speed and performance, you'll be disappointed in the 235.
I've just more or less finished up an intake and exhaust swap on the 235 in my 51 Chevy. Someone else already pointed out the recent Hot Rod Deluxe dyno test on a 235 as a point of reference. My $.02, you don't build one of these motors for 'performance' exactly. They look and sound really cool, but don't set your hopes too high as far as performance goes. I will say that adding the intake and exhaust setup on mine seems to have made it run noticably better. Below: McGurk 2x1, Carter W-1s, Porcelain coated Fentons. I have a valve cover and side cover to install, just haven't gotten there yet. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3YEFYTtS_QU&hl=en&rel=0"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3YEFYTtS_QU&hl=en&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> Sound pretty bad***, don't they?
That's true enough. However, if it's put together right, it'll run even with similarly built flatheads in vehicles of similar weight.....and you can still buy a core 235 for WAY less than most rebuildable flatheads.
That does sound bad*** indeed. I like it. Like I said in my first post, I am not looking to drag race this thing, it will sit too low to even think about it. And I am not about to get anymore speeding tickets in my lifetime. I just want something decent enough to get out of its own way and not feel frumpy. Does that make any sense? Thanks for all the posts gentlemen. Your input is much appreciated. J
I too am in the process of going through my 235 to ****e it up a little... more for looks than the power... I just picked up California Bills chevy 6 manual from ebay, and it has alot of good info in there... which brings me to my next question... Seeing as my book is a 1954 edition, They list the steps to convert my bearing pounder into a full pressure system. While I dont think I want to go that far, I would like to know if I can pick up a 53pg or 54 and up full oil pressure engine but Still keep my original 235 bearing pounder cylinder head and swap it onto the later block. Ive had some work done to it, and its pretty fresh so if at all possible it would be nice to hold onto that piece. Plus that 2 bolt valve cover does look a little more appealing to me. anybody ever do this? Without having a later model head here, im not able to compare the two side by side.. Thanks - Jon
Hey simple - PM Flop here on the HAMB - he has a babbit 235 that was converted to insets and full pressure. Tom
The 53 powerglide has a 2 bolt rocker cover, Im not sure if it will interchange with earlier heads though, you may want to check here... http://www.chevytalk.org/fusionbb/showforum.php?fid/30/keyword/1949-1954_Chevys/ If you want performance out of the 235, Id drop an S10 T5 behind it, you'd see a bigger difference, but a t5 doesn't make it sound cool.
gotta agree with everyone else here.....ya ain't gunna win any races with that stovebolt, but you'll look cool doing it..... I should have mine back up and running soon if you want to take a ride and see what it's like....54 chevy 235, 2x1's fenton exhaust.... in New Berlin...so not that far from you
back in the Day!! LOL Early 60s had a 54 Chev 2 door with a .060 over 261 ,Corvette 3 carbs , Vette cam milled head and split exh. Ran low 17s high 70s with stock 3 speed and 4.11 rear with 28 tall 7 inch cheaters. Scare the **** out of 55-57 Chevy's with 265-283s over the 1/8 stoplight drags.Never went racing without a spare set of axles and limped home more than once with a very sick trans.
yea man, I had a friend who corrected me about them 235,s. like J. evans said, they would give the early chev V8,s fits. they have 'TORQ'! When they leave the line, and its 'catch up tiime' for the other guy. I have a '261' in my 39 chevy, it is the truck version of the 235. cant wait to get it goin. for the street you might try a little bigger 2 barrel carb, a mild cam, and since you want to go street use a taller gear, it will move you ok.
You should go to a better distributor for sure, I just swapped a hei set up in mine in about 1.5 hrs,,,, super easy just make sure you swap out the hot wire back to the firewall connection. If you unplug the connector on the firewall you can push the wire out and get a new termenal from Napa for .50 cents the white wire acts as a restricter after it starts warming up so you dont burn the points, you dont want that happening with the HEI setup. About 3 feet of 12 gauge wire will replace all that old coil wire
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