I have the original with only 50k miles & planning on putting 2 2' or 3 2's with aluminum heads and headers & it still keeps is the stock look which I am going for. that with red rims, beauty rings with center caps and 3" wide whitewalls looks pretty cool. Unless you are planning on racing it or getting tickets on the street you might just want to save the money & h***le & keep & fix the flathead. Just my thoughts as everyone is different in the way they want there set up.
Have you got pictures and how much of a h***le was it? Got a 283 ready to go in my 46 but there's a 454 with 27,000 miles on it just down the road.
General rule of 2 2 inches wider 2 inches longer 2 inches taller The 2 inches in length is from motor mount forward
I did this about 37 years ago. I still own the car. I originally installed a 396 with a turbo 400 transmission. The hang up was with the 400 I would need to heavily modify the X member to have the engine sit back like it does now (I’ll get to that) With some light t******* and notching of the X member, I got the engine and trans in the ch***is. I had to move the radiator forward to make room for everything as well. I did this by simply redrilling the radiator mount ***embly as far forward as I could. Maybe 4” if I recall. With this set up, I could only run a small mechanical fan and a not very efficient electric fan in front of the radiator. It was ok but would heat up In traffic. After a year or two I wanted to drive it with out worrying about overheating. This is when I swapped out the 396 for a 427 and I chose a “bulletproof” turbo 350 trans to allow for everything to sit farther back in the ch***is. This worked great, the distributor sits about a finger width away from the stock firewall and the smaller 350 sits farther back in the already lightly modified X member. I have an 18” mechanical fan and drive it without any fear of overheating. I have blown up the 350 trans several times over the years. I don’t drive it as hard as I used to so it’s working for me now but the 400 would have been a better choice. If you have anymore questions please ask. I’ll be happy to share anything I can with you.
Sure, I have some 37 year old pictures on film in that BIG box of photos that is up in my attic. I have nothing on the computer that I could share. I could try to take a picture of something specific if it would help. The car is running and driving currently so I have nothing like build pictures This is the car at TROG a couple of weeks ago.
That’s awesome, and an under hood shot would be great. I’m curious how your shifted forward radiator set up looks and how exhaust clears the steering box.
That’s awesome, and an under hood shot would be great. I’m curious how your shifted forward radiator set up looks and how exhaust clears the steering box. I’ll respond to this tonight.
Long work day, late night…. I can’t really get any good pictures of the area that would show anything. I did find this drawing and think this will help. Simply put I took this whole ***embly and moved it forward on the inner fender panels as far forward as the inside edges of the fenders would allow the radiator to go. The width of the radiator and fenders behind the hood latch plate dictated the distance forward. The crossmember was moved forward on the frame. I can’t remember if I moved it forward on the holes or if I drilled new holes. The yoke ***embly was not changed. The splash pan behind the grill needed to be notched to allow clearance for everything. The air deflector behind the hood latch plate needed to be shortened as well. This allowed me to run a full sized mechanical fan off of the engine with the proper orientation and distance eliminating any overheating issues I had. Later I added A/C and I added a very efficient electric fan in front of the condenser and still have no heating issues. When I put the 396 in I used the exhaust manifolds from the Impala I took the engine from. The driver side was a rear dump and everything was very tight. The pipe was very close to the steering box and twisted around the pitman arm in a way that I wasn’t happy with. On long drives the steering box wound get cooked and I didn’t like that. When I moved the engine back with the 427 I wanted to change the exhaust. I really wanted headers but in the late ‘80’s there was few options for BBC headers. Blockhuggers for BBC we’re non existent and the ones offered were long tube and just wouldn’t fit and I didn’t want fenderwell headers I ended up fabricating my own headers that look like lakes style headers for a roadster but are tight to the block. The headers now were above the steering box and dumped out of the rear clearing everything and allowing a 2 1/2“ exhaust pipe. I hope this makes sense and explains everything. Please ask more questions if you need, I’m happy to help and want to share.
Make life easy, Alan, put that 283 in there. Saves setting up the rest of the drivetrain for the BBC torque. I’ve got a few projects to get done before I’m in the dirt, one includes removing the 454 from my ‘57 Chevy PU and going with a SBC. C’mon now, someone has to give you a reason why not to
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