Post your engine swaps, whether it's a racer or just your old daily driver! I had shared this years ago on the "Dogfight" board, and still LOVE it! This would fit the "Things just wrong board" to some folks, but the ingenuity of it is just classic to me! Guy from Oregon took a salvage title "new" '67 SS 396 and since his specialty was flatheads, VIOLA!!!
Back in the early 70s I worked at a gas station. One day a really nice out of state 68 or 69 Chevelle with a really nice rumble and a tilt front end came into the station to get gas. When he tilted the front sheet metal to check his oil, the Chevelle had a tri-power Pontiac motor, dressed to the hilt in it. That was not what I was expecting to see! The guy was laughing, he told me he sees those surprised looks on everyone's faces when he tilts the front end. He told me he purposely installed the Pontiac motor to pizz off the Chevy guys! A guy after my own heart! LOL! Around the same time frame, my future wife's brother had a friend that bought a pretty rough early 60s Chevy II. The strange thing was the guy was pretty hard core Mopar. He proceeded to install a 383 motor into that small Gm body, but not the Chevy 383 version, a big block Mopar version. It was kind of cobbled into the car (didn't fit very well and not a lot of effort was involved), but man did it go! The guy beat on it for a while then the car disappeared. It was fun to hear about the escapades the car went through for the short time it was running around. It was a local flash in the pan super car for a few months.
Back around 1969 my uncle Jim worked in a Santa Maria Buick/Olds/GMC dealership. He had a '65 GMC pickup with a 6. The dealership warrantied a 455 Olds for a customer, my uncle ended up with it. Rebuilt it, and put it in his pickup. My first experience with an engine swap @ 12yo, I vividly remember helping him drill some holes to move the trans crossmember. Wish I had pics... Grant
Seriously? He was a drag racer looking for an advantage. If you take away all of the drag racers looking for an advantage, all you have is a cruise night. And Chevrolet wouldn't have had a reason to put a 396 in a Camaro in the first place.
Many years ago, a buddy of mine bought a really cheap Chevy pickup. When I asked why it was so cheap, he popped the hood to show me the Buick 350 in it. He beat on that thing for several years until he sold it.
My wife's distant cousin had a 63 or 64 Chevy pickup. The poor old truck was pretty rough, and the kid beat the crap out of it. After he blew up the 4th or 5th sbc, I was giving him a rash of crap about all he really needed was a good motor instead of another Chevy (I hassled anyone that wasn't driving Mopar powered vehicles anytime they broke them ). I believe the Chevy truck had some crazy 5 something rear gear. I had just pulled a 318 out of an old Dodge pickup, the old motor was a bit loose but 318s are very tough motors to break. It was coupled to a truck granny gear 4 speed. The back and forth friendly banter continued as he was searching for another sbc to put into his truck, but his will was weakening. We had a dirt track in out town, sbc motors were getting really hard to find. He finally resented, so together we installed that 318 4 speed into the Chevy pickup. The more he drove it, the more he resented the swap. That well used 318 actually worked very well in the truck, so of course I was rubbing it in every chance I got. The 318 was only in the truck about 7 or 8 months, but had already out lasted at least the last 3 sbc. Needless to say, he was really stepping up on beating the truck now, he was on a mission to kill the 318. What he killed was the truck! Some of the stories he told about trying to kill that 318 were truly amazing, almost at the BS edge. He told me he was having fun with the truck in granny low, dumping the clutch, to get the front end of the truck to rise up, then he would shove the clutch in so it dropped and then dumped it again. He said if he did it just right the front wheels would come off the ground, he had one of his buddies get a picture of it (I never saw the pic, took his word on it, sort of...) At first he broke one of the trailing arms on the rear end. He fixed that, then a short time later he broke the frame. He still hated to admit the 318 outlasted the sbc motors he had put into that Chevy truck. He did pull the still running 318 out of the truck when he scrapped the truck, but it had water in it instead of antifreeze so the block cracked the next winter. The next truck he got was a Toyota, he killed it too.
1955 Ford 2 dr post,original paint,original redone interior,factory tinted glass. Frame removed at ford firewall,95 Lincoln mark 8 frt clip with DOHC ALL ALUMINUM v8 welded in for rackpinion power steering,hydraulic assisted power disc brakes,struts,anti sway bar. Engine trans sits in the stock 95 mark 8 cradle—almost 300 hp moves this stock appearing 55 ford quite well.Drives,stops,handles like a 95 mark 8 but has the appearance of a 55 Ford. Gr8 driver used for daily reliable transportation!! Car is in Lewes,Del. Waiting our return from Texas for cooler summer living 4 miles from beach.Wheels are 17 x 8 Mustang all around.
This thread got closed down in 2010 because it was always going to go OT: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...bination-youve-ever-done-seen-been-in.150394/
Absolutely love the more oddball swaps! I'm enjoying responses.....Anyone remember a Pinto powered by a Ford airplane banger that Gray Baskerville rod tested?! I don't expect too many late model swaps from CA, due to smog laws, but hoping to see some shared.
Here's a link to a page about a Calif legal swap and the certification process, formerly rotary powered Mazda RX-7 swapped to 5.0 Ford V8 power... https://members.tripod.com/~grannys/1stgenfordefiinstall.html Grant
Here's some pics of my sbc swapped RX-7, had it since the early '90's... 1st version, back in the '90's 2nd version after setting the engine back 10" in 2010... Narrowed 8.8 with a torque arm under the rear... Here's how it currently sits... Grant
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