The 53 Chevy Truck I'm looking into buying has had a 261 & powerglide from another mid to late fifties Chevy put in it. I know nothing about these engines, and was wondering about dependability & parts availability. The truck runs really well besides a little smoke on start up, th eowner told me one cylinder had a "piston slap", but it'd been there ever since he owned it and has never missed a beat. I don't know what the hell a piston slap is supposed to be though! I'm gonna go over to his house agian soon and help him fix the brake leak so I can take it for a spin. How difficult would it be to put a v8 into place and still use the powerglide? Any info you guys can give will be appreciated. Heres a few pics..... Dig the homemade exhaust manifold!
Basically the same as a 235, but a little bigger. It was originally a truck motor, but some Canadian Pontiacs had them too. Probably find lots more info at inliners.org or Stovebolt.com. I'm not a fan of cast iron powerglides but if you can keep it working it will do the job.
261's where used in 2 1/2 ton trucks and bigger. The 261 looks identical to the 235, but you can bore a 261 to .125". Chevy V-8's ran an iron PG until '62. So, if you can find an automatic Chevy V-8 Built prior to '62, it should have a cast-iron 'Glide behind it, with the correct mounting. My suggestion, bore it .080", put a stick behind it, and let 'er eat!
I thought all the 261's had the valve covers that bolt around the edges.... Looks like a 216 to me....
You can put the 216 cover on a 235/261, notice the head has no side cover over it, so it's at least a 235. There doesn't seem to be an oil filter on it, so it probably isn't a 261? what's the casting number on the block, should be kind of hidden by the starter? or the engine number stamped on the pad behind the distributor? The 6 cyl powerglide won't fit the V8 engines....does it have a closed or open driveline? that would determine how hard the swap would be. Also the V8 engine interferes with the steering box, so you'd have to deal with that somehow.
http://www.oldchevytrucks.com - which is the url to 'jim carter's chevy/gmc truck parts'. They have a tech section with articles on the old trucks... and specifically they have an article about the 261. Let the url above load up, look to the right and click on 'technical articles' click on 1947-1955 then click on mechanical then click on 261 engine I went through the step by step because a year or so ago they changed their site up a bit, and now copying and pasting the direct url for a given article doesn't always work... anyhoo, there is a nice write up witht he techincal details ont he differences. enjoy. someone mentioend inliners and stovebolt already... great resources for the inline engines... and stovebolt.com is where the hardcore chevy.gmc truck pre 1973 guys are at... and they love the inlines, hotrodding them and what not. -W
Ok, so I now know it's not a 261, since it doesn't have the "captains bars" cast above the starter. I guess it's just a 235. The transmission is definatley a powerglide though. I was going by what the current owner thought it was. He was told it came out of a 55 Chevy, I don't know if he meant car or truck, but the engine transmission and rear end all supposedly came out of the same vehicle. It's got an open driveshaft. Guess I'll try to do a compression test and see how much life it has left in it, I'd be pissed if I bought the truck and got a bunch of goodies for the engine just to have it die soon after! Can anyone tell me what range the compression should be in for me to consider it good?
The compression should be around 120 psi, but the important thing is that all the cylinders are within 10% of each other. If the engine puts out some blue smoke when you start it up, then it's probably getting worn out, and will need to be rebuilt within a year if you drive it a lot.
...if it's got a pass.car rear-end it'd have 5 lug rims , trucks had 6 lugs. Those trucks didn't come with Powerglide trannys, only 54-5's came with automatics but were Hydromatics not P-glides. Those are cool headers, what's it sound like? Looks like it has a HEI distributor also, a good upgrade.
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