chevy II 153 four cylinder

That would be Classic Racing Parts in Brazil. You can find them on Facebook and as classicracingpartsoficial on Instagram. I posted a Weber intake earlier. Brazil even made a 3" stroke 4 with 6" rods to lessen vibration.

 

Well hot damn! Looks like I’ve got some
Exploring to do! Thanks

edit: I realize these are 6’s

 

There is a tubo 4 cylinder manifold available thats not ridicules in price . I have seen then on Ebay also .
I was tempted to get one before they disappear . s simle blow through like on that 6 is pretty clean and would look good on a track T and also make about 200 HP . No inter cooler
not really a H.A.M.B style but then again they certainly had turbos on Corvairs the same time the Chevy 153 came out so its not a big stretch.
A 2.5 with that big runner 3.0 head with some boost would make some good HP if it was intercooled and had injection . It would be decent even with a draw through carb and no inter cooler

Chevy II 153 CID Vortec 3.0L T3 Turbo Exhaust Manifold – SPA TURBO USA

GM Opala 4 cy in south America has some hot rod parts .
I found a site awhile back that had some stuff listed Ill see if I can find it again . Might be the same one mentioned above

 

I saw this distributor for the GM Opelo
GM Opala 4 cyl
NEW Ignition Distributor fit GM OPALA 4 CYL CARAVAN Y7050 M0512 12N.0 – Nordic Grizzly

It may fit ???
They are in New York so might be able to get one . its got vacuum advance I see
.

 

CHEVROLET Sierra Marine 18-5315-1 Sierra Marine YL Series Distributors | Summit Racing

YL Malory style distributor. single point mechanical advance .
not cheap one avaliable . I have seen these in boats before and its possable some were factory installed . Its going to be curved for a boat im sure .

 

Yeah the you tube videos were all opala’s . I have seen a dual carb intake and a few valve covers on them over the years.

I mocked mine up with a cardboard McCulloch super charger. They made a bracket/tensioner that should fit, I’m sure it’s on page 9 zillion of my model A build thread lol.

Actually built my air cleaner with the thought in my mind that it takes up roughly the same space as the blower so it would take
Minimal rework to add it.

Figure if your up against a grand worth of machine work to make 30 more hp or a grand give or take to stick a blower on it than…. Well, ya know

 

Oh! I think 12 bolt Tom sells a turbo manifold if your looking around

 

One of the 6 cylinder suppliers has a Brazilian connection. I just looked at 12 bolt and didn't see it. Could have been CNC-Dude or twisted 6? It wasn't on Mr Hot Rod 6's website.
A McCulloch would be fun but look big on one of these. I should set one up for pictures if I can ever get back in my shop. I have a Pontiac draw through turbo I was setting up on a 292. Pretty simple and may still use it. Not HAMB friendly though.

 

That’s why I made one from cardboard. Surprised that it even cleared the hood but it’s pretty dang tight!

 

A cardboard one is much lighter but won't make much boost.

 

Back in post #317 Mr. Gun showed pictures of three heads. Is the large port head from a 140hp motor?
Also, I got my block back today...turned out pretty darn good. .060 bore now, .030 off the top, new cam bearings, cleaned-up and some new paint. Gene.

 

I think all of the 181 boat motors were rated at 140.
That looks very nice.

 

Back in the 70's I had a 153" for a 4 cylinder class altered here down under.
I bought a new single "292" Turbo SBC head and a 4 cylinder (1/2 SBC) Hilborn injector manifold and started to address the head adaption ...... and then they squashed the class. Injected on alcohol I was hoping for around 300HP.
Fortunately I wasn't too deep into it financially and was able to move most parts on.

 

Id like to know more specifically what the process is for successfully welding the block and what needs to get a SBC head on one of these .

I have a couple cracked blocks and was thinking of playing around with them and try welding the holes and such just to see If I could do it with a junk block first .

Is the entire block preheated first ? need to lay a SBC gasket on on and see what is needed .

You read of it being done by a guy some one knew but you never see any specifics.

lots of single aluminum heads around cheap for a SBC that had a issue with the other head.

 

I know that the price is ridiculous (unless you can find used ones with the racing guys), but I wonder how the SB2 heads would work?

 

I wonder if something like a SBFord, a SBMopar or maybe even a Pontiac head...something that also has four head bolts per cylinder like this motor, would be a better fit?? Gene.

 

As far as I know the bore spacing it pretty dead on with the chevy. Out side of drilling and welding head bolts you have to figure out how you want to handle the push rods hanging out and the distributor also being in the way. Probably convert to a front driven dist

 

Shit, that was 45+ years ago, I don't remember exactly how I'd planned on doing it and my abilities and machining opportunities have expanded substantially since then.
Being a toolmaker I would have tried to do it with machining methods etc. Also it would have been a dry block application so no water concerns were relevant. Probably would have looked at using tapered pipe plugs (or similar) in the deck at the SBC hole positions and tapping the 7/16" x 14 threads into them ...... I'm not a fan of welding CI, successfully.
The plugs would have distributed the stud loadings over a bigger area, especially if the deck thickness was an issue.
And would have needed to control the oil draining issues, pushrod alignments and a special O-ringed copper head gasket too.
The SBC head conversion was a dirt track trick in the day but I'd never seen one in person.
I don't believe it's an appropriate road car conversion but apparently they did it in the old days.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/153-chevy-with-a-small-block-chevy-head.394890/
https://pre65.co.nz/article-chevy-153-engine/
Good luck.

 

Get ahold of Leo Santucci's Six Cylinder Power Manual. There is a section on making a six cylinder head from 2 small block heads. The drilling & filling of holes would be very similar. The issues with the distributer, push rods, lifters, side covers, .......are exactly the same as putting a single sb head on one of these. For a street motor I really don't think the gain is worth the trouble.

 

On this weekends reading list. I’ll report back!

 

The current MerCruiser info off there site is there 135 HP now .
So is that due to the smaller port head , the fuel injection or maybe a lower compression ration or cam difference who knows?
The intake and exhaust manifolds are different on the new boats also.

One would think that with FI , a supposedly better head along with 25 years of R&D on cams fuel systems they would make more than the original 140 HP advertised HP not less .

Maybe they moved the torque curve down lower or changed the RPM on the top.
I know the Vortec head on the SBC made a huge increase over the previous TBI head on the 95 and earlier PU's and the Vortec head makes more power than the old fuely heads turbo heads of the 60,s and 70,s and they do it with a smaller valve and ports but a better combustion chamber but I I just don't see them getting more power out of the new boat head with that small port unless the old one was just way to big and the valve and cam duration lift were the limiting factor.

I know im not going to make some super big number with the intake I have .
it takes a fair amount to make 1 HP per CI even in a small block . Your not going to do it with out a fairly aggressive cam and some compression of at least 10-1 or so . the old Corvette 282 took a good sized cam and fuel injection and a pretty high compression ratio to get on HP per cubic inch .

The 3.0 ealry head has some big port but I dont knwo how it flows . I know a guy with a flow bench and im thinking of reaching out to him to compare the 3.0 8 port to the 2.5 in stock form and maybe ill mill the divider for and do some clay lumps with a bigger valve on the 2.5 head I have the stuff to grind the seats bigger and port it . I imagine the 6 cylinder heads with mods are about the same as the 2.5 4 cylinder.

 

Isn't the small port head just a rised port head? I have two big port head and 3 small port heads. All 8 port. When I get time I plan to go through one of each. Not sure what I will do with these little 3.0's as I have been playing with the bigger 3.7 Mercruisers.

 

I looked some of those. Differences in bore centers and order of valves.

 

Define appropriate when it comes to hot rods? LOL

A crank trigger ignition set up would eliminate the distributer all together.

I have a mill and lath mig and tig if I could get the head on id find a way to deal with the push rod cover .

Im going to did out a SBC gasket tonight and see how bad it is . Im sure its not easy or every one would be doing it and there would be info on it .

I read of one conversion were they added extra tall sleeves trough a deck plate bolted down with I assume counter sunk taper head Allen bolts or similar and then bolted the head to the deck plate . would take some extra long rods.
lot of money for something not a race engine .

 

Yeah, I thought about an adapter plate method too but that involves longer sleeves etc and the cylinder material being substantially removed allowing more flex at the deck ..... let alone the double gaskets being required.
When I was doing this it was for a drag racing class car that needed to be competitive ..... today there are plenty of 4 cylinder engines that make way more power without all of the hassles. I know, but that's NOT hot rodding is it.
Only you will know what you're prepared to do to achieve a result ...... grab a regular SBC head, sit it in place and look at all of the obstacles.
Ignition can be mounted off the front timing cover area, my blown BBC engine has the crank trigger, distributor, fuel pump, oil pump all mounted and driven out front with pulleys and timing belt arrangements.
Good luck, keep us posted.

 

laid a SBC gasket on a block . no bolts line up . several look like they partialy hit a exsting bolt hole so you cant jsut drill and tap and at the back of the block one hits a big open water port with no materal around it so that needs to be welded or have some sort of plug or some thing. the rest you might be able to fill with over size bolts or drill and tap to install something to drill and tap several bolts hit right into or near a small 1/8" or so water hole . Nothing simple unless you can just weld over everything and mill it off

 

I have my dads block out of the car setting in the floor. I'll take some pictures of his sbc head conversion. It's a ton of work. But it's a lot cheaper to do than buying a fontana or gearte block.
Nick Landon
Feather Ruffler Engineering
Landon Racing.

 

Would be interested in how they filled the big water passage at c rear. I'm wondering if it's machined so some block with straight edges is fitted or what.

 

Mine is all welded up. There is lots of welding involved. I'm guessing he used nickel rod. It's shiny and I bet it was harder than hell to drill and tap. Here's a couple of older pictures.
Nick Lanon
Feather Ruffler Engineering
Landon Racing

 

So I wonder if the harder area were its welded will allow the deck to be surfaced evenly or at all ??

How is the oil return from the heads handled?

Thanks for the pictures