SBC into a little T-Bird??

I forgot about Salty's Shaker, It was just at Englishtown for the old time drags a couple months ago. Neat bird.

 

My thinking is that's such a classic...that unless it was an old beat up heap or an ex-race car, keep it as it should be.

Not everything deserves a SBC

 

Yeah something like this would definitely bring in the WOW!

 

I think its time for a Ford motor in a early corvette if this talk continues.

 

Uhhhh.......... Nobody asked this yet, so I will. WHY?
So many good Ford engines out there, why degrade a Thunderbird with a SBC? Y block, FE with dual quads, Cleveland, even a 429/460. Or.... Consider a 4.6 DOHC with carb and distributor.
I know, I have walked away from quite a few cars I would have liked to have purchased just because of having a SBC.
"I think its time for a Ford motor in a early corvette if this talk continues." HAHAHA.. 57 Vette with a 427 side oiler.....

 

front sump on y-blocks in the fullsize cars, not the little birds. Petersen's Big Book of Ford from 1972 has a great article on hopping up the little birds, and by far the fastest way to do it was SBC. trans-dapt sold engine swap kits specifically for 'birds to put damn near anything but a detroit diesel in it.
and while i do love a nicely built "Y" i have to go along with something more user friendly if you wanna drive it much.. a roller 5.0 perhaps.

 

Barf...

Just buy a damned Chevy truck. Why all the hassle? 350 more reliable than a 390? Must not have been maintained very well. More power?... maybe horsepower... FE low end torque for the win when it comes to a working truck. My dad's old '69 F100 with a 390 out hauled my friends 350 powered EFI Chevy when we were moving. The Ford had the heavier trailer by far. Both trucks are stock and are the same configuration. He's on his second engine at 150k... Dad's... all original at 200k. The Chevy only beat his truck in fuel economy. When they were both unloaded.

 

Right you are, sir!! And I still have the book. Herbert and Meeks kit to install said BBC, and Doug Thorley headers. Sounds like this was a catalogue offering, back in the day. Oh, and 12.20 @ 125 wasn't too bad, either...
Cosmo

 

It's attitudes expressed in this thread that make swapping a Chevy in a Ford even more tempting. Heheheh
The guy must want a hot rod

 

The Y block oil pan in the T-birds has the sump in the rear.

 

Yeah man.

I think about 50% of Ford guys are actually whiney women.

 

The biggest benefit is the car will actually make it there.

 

Here in southern Illinois there is '55 T-bird that has had a 389 Pontiac engine in it since the mid '60's. From other posts, it sounds like the old birds have plenty of room for all kinds of swaps.

 

i've SEEN a Corvette with a 460 in it.... ironic.
from the good old days, the popular saying was "Chevies for plowing, Fords for GOING."

 

I own both Fords and Chevys---One thing wrong with putting a Chevy engine in an early Tbird is resale. It has a Chevy engine so a Ford guy won't want it. It's a Ford body so a Chevy guy won't want it. I have seen the Corvette with the big block Ford in it, same deal with that.

 

Why the Fuck would anyone want to do that, go the heterosexual way and put a y-block with a McCulugh Supercharger,

i've read the 1957 Made something like 350 HONEST hp, Meaning they were killer in NHRA stocker classes, cuz Factory rated HP/Weight Was nowhere close to Real HP divided by Weight

Why would you even think of anything else??

 

Holy CRAP, I just LOVE any thread that gets the PURIST'S panties in a bunch!

I think a Rochester 'Vette style injection 283 would be cool.

Absolutely. A 427, you wouldn't need to change the badging!

Absolutely..

I saw one at Mooneyes quite a few years back that had a Pontiac (maybe an Olds) in it, badass little car.

 

Great Idea.

Even better if it pisses a bunch of blue ovals off..

its a solid choice if you wanna go fast, on a budget..
from the sounds of most of the replies its not uncharted territory and it definetly worked for the ones who took the chance and made it happen.

When you do it please post pictures..cant wait to read that thread

 

In 1958 My aunt's brother put a 364 Buick in his one year old T bird. Then a 401 in 60, and a 425 in 65, he still has the car.

 

OK, here's the deal...the car is an original 55 bird...owned by the same family for 42 years..it's been put on the back burner in my house because my business, real estate, is in the toilet, and our '56 wagon takes top priority for the little bit of extra money we can spend on the cars...the wagon needs a rebuild to the 383 after an MSD distributor gear got chewed up by the hydraulic roller cam...

So I have this '63 327 which I've now put in the '56 while I plan the 383 rebuild for use with the bottle. When that motor is done, as I said earlier, the plan is to put the 327 in the bird.







I also have lots of chevy stuff and know I can freshen up any one of several small blocks, including the 327 for less than $1K...

Not so with the 292. It's already been done, with the exception of the upper valve train (rockers and shafts) and I have more than $3,000 in it. Plus we have a lot other resto-related stuff to go in and on the car.

If I go 292, by all rights, I want to do it right, which means that crazy top hat Holley, all the vacuum lines from the fuel pump, etc., etc....and that means the car could be at least 2 years from back on the road because of money and time.

We bought this bird relatively smart, knowing that if we spent at least $50K to have it done by one of several nationally-known T-Bird guys (Amos Otis, etc) it would carry a value of $80K...

But we buy and build cars not to trailer them to shows or drive them occasionally but to drive them more than regularly. And we don't have the money now to pour into this car.

My wife will be the primary driver of this car, and I KNOW that a small block Chevy I've put together will be totally dependable. I'm not so sure of the Y-block...after all my years of Chevy's it is a strange little motor.

I was at one time a purist when I was doing the solid axle and mid-year Vette thing...so I well understand how some people feel about Chevy into Ford...

But other things are more important, we want to enjoy the car with the top down and rollin' down the road...

Thanks everybody for your comments. I'll take pictures of the process once we start.

Paul

 

go for it dude just give the the "junk" motor you pull out of it first

 

oh no! the chevy into a ford question,my asshole still hurts from when i asked:]

 

Put a 235 in it. I just read anouther thread and everyone is ga ga on them

 

I have done the swap before. Its a natural fit and used factory chevy exhaust. The only trimming was the center x crossmember, just a little but not much. The owner had the valve covers converted by some one else to fit the chevy and with the air cleaner on its fooled some of the best. The owner said it was the best thing he had done , now can drive the car anywhere with no worries.
The positives outway the negetives on this swap if you ever maintained a y block before.

 

It's not a "Chevy into a Ford" thing.

It's just that there are a few cars that should be left alone/preserved/whatever...yours is one of them.

 

Yeah, another SBC because it's cheap and reliable project! Can't get enough of those. Exciting!!

 

hey you should do a poll on this thread..

sbc IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII__90 %

sbf IIIIII__________________________________________________10%

or.. maybe not.

 

Sounds like you bought the car counting on it to retain value as an investment. If that's the case, the 327 will only hurt you in the long run since the car will not be worth as much not matter what you do to it.

 

It also sounds like he is smart enough not to have hacked up the car putting in the 383 stroker that he is replacing with the 327.

My bet is that the car is set up so that at some time in the future the 327 can be lifted out and the Y block dropped back in and look like it has been there all the time.

It's easy to tell a guy he needs to spend 5+ K on and engine that may or may not stand up to daily or near daily driving by his wife if it isn't your money you are expecting him to spend. That blown 312 that was shown in a previous post probably would cost 20K to duplicate correctly and would end up being nothing but a trailer queen or garage queen and not practical in the least for someone's wife to drive on a regular basis.

 

That's an odd thing to say, there are a ton of Y blocks in F-1's, etc that ares still driven regularly and even used for towing without issue. It's not an unreliable engine.