Hot Rods Dressing a SBC to look more Traditional

This is the rebuilt 350 in my '47 Merc woodie. The tired original flathead was replaced (by Tom Sparks!) in the early '60s with a used '57 Corvette block, which I traded to a Corvette restorer for the 350...looks traditional enough for me. Please disregard the hideous Optima battery...

 

What I did with my 76 350. Edelbrock performer intake i added a breather tube to and painted to match engine, finned aluminum valve covers and oil pan, reproduction of a vintage aftermarket breather, 57 Chevy fan, new chrome stock style pulleys for short water pump, and 55 Chevy exhaust manifolds. While it won't pass during a close look it has fooled quite a few people. I could have done a better job hiding what it is but I didn't bother with it being a dd

 

You're right, they just took it out and put the Chevy in lol

 

Here's what the Chevy in mine actually looks like if I decide to open the hood.

GM 350/290hp crate engine and 700R4. Two 500 cfm Edelbrocks, an Edelbrock C26 reissue intake, short water pump. Stock look Pertronix distributor, and I hid the PCV behind the rear carb. My theme was "no finned aluminum", so everything is either chromed, polished, or painted. Stock "Chevrolet" script valve covers in chrome. The engine itself is painted in the same House of Kolor "coconut cream" pearl that is on the body.

Of course there are aspects of the under hood running gear that aren't 100% traditional. The alternator, the Sanden compressor, the large balancer, the throttle cable and TV linkage, and the polished block huggers. Oh well. I think it looks alright.

 

Here’s the 283 in my 34 coupe

 

What carb is that?

 

I've been dragging engines home for decades now. I'll never have to fake having an early small block Chevrolet V8.

 

Putting Olds covers on a SBC is like discovering an Incan pyramid in the jungle and finding a Taco Bell inside. But it will KEAL.

 

It looks like an Autolite 4100.

 

Thanks, looks like it. I'm not a Ford guy and under 40 so I don't recall ever seeing one.

 

I tore out my SBC and am installing a 354 Hemi. Problem solved.

 

I totally agree, but making a large journal SBC to impersonate a small journal SB much the same to me, still stands out like dogs cods. JW

 

Autolite 4100

 

Some of the commenters on this site are snobs.
At the end of the day it's all about having fun and doing something you like with awesome cars Don't shun a guy that's car isn't 100% spot on. Having a car with an engine that is 15ish years to new who cares dressing it up to look a little older so it fits the time period seems totally acceptable from where I stand.
All of us obviously love the pre-65 era hot rods and customs but we are 60 years removed at the minimum from that period with the first Small Block Chevy debuting in 1954 for the 1955 model year meaning it's a little over 70 years old...
Even a 1970s smogged down small block is 50ish years old now It's not exactly a new engine and just to put it into perspective even the classic small block replacement the "new" LS chevy engine is 28 years old now. So that should make all of us feel old and put things into a time frame.

My point is finding a 265 or a 283 in a lot of areas of the country I would imagine it's getting a little hard without having to spend a ton of money for machining work and rebuilding work but if you could dress up a say a 1979 smog era engine to fit the engine bay of a late 1950s style car I'm not going to knock you for it. When I started getting into cars 35 years ago a 283 was literally a running $20 engine or in today's money probably $50 bucks but for the most part those days are long gone and Small block Chevys are actually starting to pull decent money for a running engine maybe not 392 Hemi money but decent money nonetheless and a lot of the parts have been discontinued I never thought I would see that day but every day that goes by there are less and less small block Chevy parts available.

I'm not going to knock somebody for having a slightly newer engine of the same engine family or a overdrive transmission and I'm not going to knock somebody for having a pertronix because they make our cars more drivable and the reality is if the technology would have been out back then people would have been using it. The key is is keeping it tasteful and if it is going to be hamb friendly It probably should be discreet or not added.
Also for the commenters that try to say a small block Chevy isn't traditional, It's most definitely traditional by 1958 they are all over in hot rod magazine and The other car magazines of the period, Big difference with that era and say 10 years later is the late 1950s You might see a guy running a Studebaker V8 or even a nash ambassador V8, there also might be a guy running a big Jimmy straight 6 along with the Chrysler 354 hemis and 392 hemis, of course there's lots of Cadillacs and Old's engines and even quite a few Pontiac powered cars in that era. Nothing was set in stone yet but the one thing you do notice throughout the theme of the late '50s is the small block Chevy was starting to gain traction (no pun intended) and every issue there is a few more cars with them installed by the 1965 cutoff date the small block Chevy was most definitely king of the roost being put in almost everything.

The answer to the question that was asked a few years ago now in this thread (that for some reason I read) is on how to make an engine look a little older than it is, The answer is fairly simple any of the combinations of these things will make the engine look older, road draft tubes (no PCV valves They didn't come around till the mid-60s I think 1967), oil fill tubes in the front of the intake, distributor caps with the "dwell window" (even better if it has the little oil fill on the distributor to lubricate it), Chevrolet script or Corvette valve covers with no breathers, cast iron four and 2 barrel intakes (again with the oil fill tube), generators with external voltage regulators instead of an alternator (especially a GM one wire) If you're going with a 1963 to 65 style you can use an alternator), full size starters not a mini starter, generally speaking Ram Horn exhaust manifolds although by about 1960 you do see a lot of hot rods running headers (most painted white) and aluminum intakes along with finned valve covers with either Corvette or no script, Cadillac air cleaners with the scoops or possibly a rounded edge Chrome air cleaner or a stock 1955 to 1962 air filter housing, maybe multiple carbs setups, a fairly aggressive camshaft (not a 1970s smog cam with the retarded timing that you can hear it but something like a "dontov" cam not the awesome off topic 1970s lumpity cam like the "motha' thumpr crane cam" but a totally streetable performance cam), on the exhaust you will need glass packs or "Hollywood" type mufflers, a solid mounted solid steel "cat eater" fan (no clutch fans or flex fans), and as others have pointed out the short water pump and of course an early block that has the metal canister oil filter hanging off the back corner definitely make things look more authentic but the reality is to the casual observer some ram horn manifolds and oil fill intake, a small distributor cap and some correct looking valve covers will full probably 95% of the people that are looking at the engine and to those it doesn't just tell them you don't live in 1958 but you built a car to pay homage to the time period.

Edit: I really write too much, I just posted this and I noticed it's as long as my arm, It's funny and my day-to-day life I'm kind of a silent person and fairly introverted lol

 

They were pretty trouble free carbs; not like the 4300 that Ford replaced it with.

 

How about hide the PCV under the intake for starters if you are running one?

Cal customs Finned, Chevy script, or Corvette valve covers are the only ones I would suggest.

Filler tube in front of any intake you use will look way more traditional, you can get the push in breather to work there if doing the PCV system under intake.

Manifolds are traditional, whatever you can make fit.

Generator instead of alternator.

 

For the record, PCV valves made the scene in the 1963 model year, and Chevrolets had a brass elbow on the base of the carburetor with a threaded valve screwed into it, so that's pretty easy.

 

And remember old Chevy V8 engine colors were orange ! Not red or black !!!

 

The very first small blocks in 1955 were more red-orange, not the Chevy orange they used a year or two later and into the mid-70's. Dupli-colour sells both colours last I checked.

 

Not a lot of that early smog stuff worked well.

 

This was the 1975 monza 265 in my 34 and yes the air cleaner was enamel bed pan it fit perfect over a 6 inch air cleaner base and filter .lol and had a 15.5 gallon Schlitz keg for fuel tank in the bed

 

Yes, 1955-56 V8s were red. I've got a few of them with most of the original paint still on them.

 

@Atomic Reverend Alexander you covered it very well. Nobody here wants to see a Corporate Blue EGR intake, so if one were to clean it up and give it an aerosol overhaul of Chevy orange and swap a few parts, they aren't trying to fake it, just make it look better. It won't fool the diehards, but if you are going to nitpick on that, your bias ply tires shouldn't have a date code either and your oil should come from a can!

 

Actually, '55 & '56 SBCs were red. After '56, they were orange, until some early hot rodders painted them a different color!

 

Truth!

 

I do believe you are correct The very first small block Chevy I had when I was 15 was a real early 265 that was locked solid from rain but it was definitely red and rust, The 59 El Camino 283 I picked up a year or so ago that I finished rebuilding recently was originally Chevy pumpkin orange I'm pretty sure it had never been opened up before I got it.
When I rebuilt it The duplicolor Orange I put on it in my opinion is a little brighter but the old paint was really aged looking and I think the engine had leaked oil on most of it for decades So the original paint was probably discolored a bit. (Sorry I don't have a picture of the engine before or in it's completed state where it looks pretty much stock other than a set of white Hooker headers that look pretty much identical to an ad I found in 1961 for some header company I've never heard of... Also ignore the quadajunk carb) anyways currently the engine is wrapped up in a cocoon inside the garage taking up valuable real estate So there are no pictures and even though the engine is pretty much spot on the looks department to the early 1960s era I have a Astro van t5 behind it because I want to drive it in modern traffic (In my opinion it's a tasteful upgrade since no one can see it and I am painting the bell housing cast iron color to really make it look vintage).
Anyways in the picture below I repainted the engine orange and have used mainly stock stuff because I wanted it to look like it was plucked out of a wrecked Impala maybe a year after it came out because I'm not trying to build a show car but I'm trying to make it where my 31 Model A pickup looks like something a young guy would have been building to cruise Whittier boulevard in 1961 or maybe going to the Tuxies burger dive meet up to cruise Magnolia In my home neighborhood of Riverside California In that same era.
I am not about over the top cars (although I appreciate them for the insane amount of detail) I'm more about drivers and cruisers and street race cars from the era... Kind of like American graffiti movie and because I don't live in that era I just try to get it close so an old-timer can see I remember stuff like that when I was a kid.
When it comes to a hot rod and its engine colors I think it's a personal preference for the most part even back then by the late 1950s anything went which if we are being honest Chevy Orange is a pretty ugly color Even if my engine is pumpkin colored.

 

Attention all FNG’s, Newbies, and Wanna Be’s.

Intervention needed, stat!
DO NOT DO THIS!

 

Err Umm, anyone not happy about a 426 Hemi in a Hot Rod

 

I remember reading Rod & Custom when this kit came out in the 1990s I always thought it was very poser-ish.
What's funny is the small block Chevy is honestly a pretty good looking engine If it's dolled up with the right lipstick wo to speak.