Improbable/impractical low-buck engine combos that 'sort of worked'???

Improbable/impractical low-buck engine combos
that 'sort of worked'???

What was the most improbable/impractical/'breaking all
the rules' low-buck engine combo you ever put togther
that 'sort of worked'??? Here's mine. It was the first
engine I ever built - circa 1972-73 - and was a cl***ic
no bucks, not much knowledge but lots of imagination
and scrounging ability - combined wth "not enough
cubes - way too much cam, way too much carburation,
nowhere near enough compression in a too heavy car
with not enough gear" combo! It was a great learning
experience both of what to do and what not to do.
Everything other than the cam and the pistons, rings
and bearings etc.,used in the rebuild were all used
parts, scrounged from various junkyards. The block
was a '59 283 from a 2 1/2-ton Chevy truck, bored
.040 over and fitted with TRW forged flat-top 9 to 1
replacement pistons. The stock 9 to 1 compression
was reduced even further, because the heads I used
were stock, unmilled 1.94 - 1.50 valve, 461 castings
from a '64 300hp-327 with a nominal 64 cc combustion
chamber volume. (I think the stock small valve 283 truck
heads were only about 57 or 58 ccs). The cam was a
new, 50 dollar(!), solid lifter 314 degree duration - 440
lift Crane 'Fireball', (anybody remember those?) with
some swapmeet sourced Isky "beehive" valve springs
and aluminum retainers. I don't know what the actual
compression ratio was, but with the flat top pistons and
64cc heads, plus the long duration cam bleeding off even
more cylinder pressure, the cylinders only showed a
maximum of 120 psi on a compression guage! The
intake was a stock cast iron '64 Chevy Rochester 4GC
piece scrounged from a 250hp-327, fitted with with a
5 dollar Cal Custom adaptor plate and a 735 cfm Holley
from a '70 428 Ford CJ. The ignition was a stock
cast-iron 283 distributor with a 10 dollar Spark-O-Matic
dual point plate, a Cal Custom advance curve kit, Accell
points, copper core wires and a huge, cool looking finned
Delco coil scrounged from 50's vintage Reo truck engine.
The engine was hooked to a 50lb. Chevy truck flywheel
and 11 inch clutch, going to a 2.54 first gear Muncie
4 speed and put into my 3.08 geared, 3400-plus lb '64
Chevelle. Believe it or not, it all "sort of worked"! The
first time at the track - with open headers and on
8.25 X 14 snow tires no less(!) - the car ran a 15.4
at 87 mph!!! Eventually, with a lot of tuning, practice
and some bigger, better H70X14 Goodyear Polyglas
summer tires, the car eventually ran fairly consistant
14.5-14.6s at 97-98 mph, running to 90-plus mph in
second and going through the traps just as it was
starting to pull hard in 3rd gear. The very best it ever
went was a 14.3, but at 102 mph. The E.T.s always
****ed but the thing would rev (and needed to rev)
to the moon and would mph like crazy for what it was.
These E.Ts by the way, were with open headers. With
the mufflers attached, oddly, the E.Ts would be off by
just about one full second, although the mph numbers
would be virtually unchanged. 36-odd years later I'm
still not sure what that "fact" was actually telling me
about the tuning or the combination.
The launch and shifting techinique with this combo was
somewhat bizzare too. The tach was a 6000 rpm
factory Buick piece scrounged from a '63 Wildcat and
attached to the Chevele steering column with black
electrical tape.(Ok, so the car wasn't just low-buck- I
was cheap too!<LOL>) If you tried dumping the clutch
and launching at 2500 rpm the car would bog
and litterly almost stall on the starting line. If you left
at anything more than about 2800 though, you'd fry
the tires - and then bog 30 feet out when they started
to hook up! The 'trick' was to stage and rev the engine
to 6 grand on the first yellow to spin the flywheel up,
feather the clutch and leave with the tach at about
2600-2700 rpm on the last yellow, launching the car
mostly on flywheel momentum, while slipping the clutch
to keep from frying the tires and progressively feeding
more throttle in as the tires started to bite. On a "good"
launch, about 20 feet out, the engine would be at
about 3000 rpm, moaning. groaning and struggling
heroically with all 4 carb barrels wide open and the
tires just slightly slipping. From about 3200 rpm on
up the cam would start to work and I'd wind the
engine to "about 7000 rpm" and powershift into second.
I say "about 7000 rpm", because I was really only
guessing at the actual rpms! The scale on the Buick tach
only went to 6000 rpm, so I'd run the tach right off the
end of the scale, wait an instant, then count to three
and powershift into second . Third gear was the same
way - run the tach off the end of the scale, wait, count
to three and then powershift! All in all, the car was a
bear to drive either at the track or on the street ( It
was my daily driver at the time too!) but a hell of lot of
fun and a great learning experience for much better, much
faster (and more expensive) builds later. What are some
of the other super low-buck "shouldn't have worked, but
sort of did" engine combos that others have put togther????

mart
===================================

 

bought a 70 t-bird with a 429 for $100 that had been parked 15 years. pulled it out, washed it off, painted it up and stuffed it in a 61 F-100. Blew a head gasket after about 2 weeks. Put new head gaskets in and put over 120,000 miles on it.
Also bought a 51 ford four door for $1500 that was parked in 1973, pulled the engine out washed it and stuffed it in a 50 coupe, ran it all last summer, uses no oil, runs like a top. Drove it all last summer. Now I'm pulling it out to put it in my 28 coupe.
As for building engines I've never had any luck, every time I completely rebuild an engine it last about 2 years and then goes for ****.

 

Had a tubbed Nova I bought as an unfinshed roller. Had these big dreams of building it up with a full-on BBC, but my wallet was a little blown out after the buy-in.

Ended up with a cheap truck-block 427 outta some dude's ski boat. The motor was built right, but at the time I didn't know boat motors were built for torque, low-RPM constant speed use. All I knew was I had a 427 in my car and it was bad***. Then I found out the motor didn't like the 4.56 R&P and deep first gear trans. It'd rip a new *** in 1st and 2nd, then go flat at about 5 grand when it needed about 2K more top end to use the gears.

People always used to bag on tubbed cars for being slow, well, I been there and it weren't no fun. I felt like such an idiot I sold the car and went back to aircooled VW's for about five or six more years. If I'm being honest, my 2076cc '65 bug was faster, way more fun and got better gas mileage.

 

Improbable/impractical low-buck engine combos
that 'sort of worked'???

When I was younger poorer, and had no idea what I was doing:

400 small block (new rings and berings) put 461x heads from a junk man, blue racer cam, tunnel ram with 2 (get this!) 2barrel 450 carbs. And this SOB ran!

 

---------------------------------------
Geeze...sounds just like something I woulda' done at the
time too....except 400 small blocks woulda' been almost
brand new, high-tech 'late model' stuff circa '72-'73 and
thus, way outa' my price range!

mart
=========================

 

In high school, I had a 305 with ported 1.94 angle plug heads, headers, Offy intake, 750 Holley, and a 303 cam. My pops helped me put in my '65 C10 with a Powerglide with a STOCK converter + 12 bolt w/3.73 Posi. I would wind the **** out of that thing (7200-7300 rpm) on a regular basis, but the thing was an absolute turd off the line. Above 35, none of my friends could keep up. I didn't know it at the time, but I think my pop was trying to keep me out of trouble by not putting a nice stall converter in it.

 

I built the "junk-o-rama" 316 a few years ago just to have an engine to drive to work with in a 79' Camaro. It was made up of all my friends cast off junk - that they all gave to me.

It was a 283 out of a boat that had been sitting outside for a long time and water ahd gotten through the carb to the cylinders. It had to be bored 60 over to get the pitting out of the cylinders. I was given the motor just to get it out of there.

The guy who gave me the motor had one caveat - he wanted the 283 crank out of the motor to build a 302 out of a 327 he had. His problem was that his 327 crank was wasted. He gave me the motor, I pulled it apart and gave him the crank, and he gave me his scored 327 crank. It ended up needing a 30/30 grind to clean it up.

I found a set of flat top pistons on ebay for a 60 over 307 and bought they for 9.99 plus $25 shipping, and they came with rings! I had them put on the original 283 rods from the boat motor, and new bolts put in before they were resized. A set of $21.99 ebay bearings, and a $19.99 generic gasket set and I was in business.

I was at a friends shop when I noticed a SBC in the s**** pile. I asked if I could have it and found out it was an 84' 305 from a Z28. It had a factory aluminum intake, windage tray, 601 casting heads with 53cc chambers, and all the tin. I took it home, stripped it down to the bare short block and noticed it had an aftermarket Sealed Power camshaft. It had 214/224 duration and 450/460 lift IIRC. The valve guides and seats were shot, so I found out Enginetech had intake valves with over sized stems and heads. I had a friend resize the guides to the larger size, and lapped in the new valves on the old seats after doing a little bowl work on the heads. I reused everything else, including the springs. The heads went on with out a problem.

I cleaned up all the tin, and put it on the motor with the 283's original timing chain (it didn't have much slack) and oil pump. The aluminum smog intake was dropped on with the Z28's q-jet and HEI. A set of $25 swap meat headers and a saginaw four speed, and 3.08 posi rear rounded out the package.

The engine ran *GOOD* and eventually ran low 14's at about 93mph in a 3800lb camaro in full street trim and survived abuse I am afraid to even mention.

 

74' 305.

194 H/O heads, flattop pistons, Crane 292H grind, Mallory dualpoint, performer intake, Carter AFB, Fenderwall headers.

Backed by a 3 speed saginaw.


Its kinda doggy off the line, but abso****inloutly screams at 3500 rpm. It'll break the tires loose.

Im lookin for a 350 to build real power.

 

my buddy and i pulled an olds 350 from a giant 1970-something olds on its way to the crusher, rebuilt the carb and welded it into his 1965 chevy truck. it ran like a bat out of hell til he sold it a while later. it was the first vehicle we actually got running together when we were kids. great times! we had a shop with half the roof caved in, no electricity and about $35 bucks worth of tools! (and a few 6 packs of corona!)

 

A 307 chevy, stock 350 crank advanced 4 degrees Holley carb 9.5 power valve Wire guaged back secondaries to 15 thousandths.Great hole shotter car Extremely quick in the low .Wouldn't go over 100 mph It was in a 72 chevelle 273 rear No shift kit Had hei. First car.Motor did not last long Afew months Gas washed rings in 6 and 8. Two used motors Thrown together .all used stuff,My Frankenstein

 

Then another time I reringed a 350 It was for my work truck.Paid 100 bucks for motor New stock cam Put 600 miles on it and the damn thing blew up on the turn pike.I TORE DOWN AND FOUND OUT iT WAS NOTHING I DID.Found out that year block had lifter valley issues.I shot a lifter through the oil pan Twisted rod Still have the lower peice of the connecting rod Still lock tighted together and the rod was snapped.500 and labor down the drain.Built 3 or 4 motors since then. That one still doesn't sit well with me. Out of at least 10 That's the only one that didn't make it.Every time I build a motor after that I worry

 

Mild 383 chevy in a 2700lb car. Which in itself is a pretty good combo. The unusual part was driveline. Stock converter, 2.41 gears, and tiny 13 inch tires. With that light a car, and that high of a gear the car relied entirely on torque. The super tight converter and torque arm suspension allowed a familiar driver to pedal the car to the nth degree. Since it was my daily, always knew the ragged edge of traction a lot better than the weekend warriors I streetraced against. Plus that tight converter, tall gear, and huge torque curve made for the most productive gearshifts you ever saw. Being the driver I never saw it, but everyone claimed it'd pick a tire up going into second gear.

That car just killed anything with street tires, after I talked ya out of a length cause of my tiny tires, I'd beat ya by 3 lengths with more in reserve. Good times

 

There's a guy I know that's got a '73 Dodge van, with a 350 Olds Diesel....talk about impractical, the engine had a hard time in the Cutl***es they put them in, not to mention the wagons, and the Chevy pick ups...

 

-.060" over 2 bolt 350 block.
-cast crank, stock rods, and 4 valve relief cast Badger flat tops.
-461 Camel Humps.
-Crane TR 250 roller cam.
On methanol with a good dose of nitro, it ran for three seasons in my IMCA mod.

 

Briggs&Stratton 5hp roto-tiller engine on 100% methanol !!! >>>>.

 

------------------------
What?? Just alky? No Nitro?????

mart
===========================================

 

You building a prototype for the next generation of GM cars?

 

Friend of ours in HS stuck a Mopar V8 like out of a 57 Plymouth in a 47 Chev coupe. used the old Mopar selector shift manual ****** (you could actually purchase an over the counter shifter for those....Sparkomatic...etc. His car ran very well, but was one of the weirdest setups around. Weirder than Jack K's Stude V8-powered 34 Coupe, weirder than Larry P's 2x1 flattie 49 Plym. Neatest offbeat swap was a 50 Old 2dr sedan with a 331 Hemi and genuine B&M Hydrostick®. ***ian Red and just sneaky as all getout. I know there was other strange stuff out there, but these days I'm lucky if I remember not to put an uncapped pen in my pocket.

dj

 

#### OK I guess you said you wanted combos that kinda worked !! The Nitro Experiment didn't go well as we did try it. Seems that the good ol boys at Briggs and Stratton didn't ever plan on anyone doing this type of a experiment. Seems there were not enough Head Bolts and not Near Enough **** To Hold That slightly modified Camshaft we made in the block !! This was UGLY !!! >>>>.

 

It was around '75. There was a 396 bbc sitting in the middle of a field. The block had hi perf on the side. Oval port heads and flattop pistons. Pulled the motor apart, chiseled out the pistons. Honed the bores, re-ringed the pistons, micro polished the crank and slapped everything back together with new bearings. 3 angle valve job on the heads. Old factory aluminum hi-rise with rectangular ports, 800 holley double pumper and a Sig Erson Hi-flo 2 cam. It was like having a 100K mile motor with new rings and bearings. Oh, and for good measure, a 10,000 RPM nitrous unit, just in case.

I never used the tach. I just shifted when it quit pulling in a '65 Chevelle with 4:88's on slicks. The car looked like an abandoned car on purpose, plus I had no money. One guy said my car was so ugly, it had to be fast.

 

in 1957, I was 15, and had about $600 in the bank. I bought a 36 5 window($50), and a rebuilt 39 ch***is(hydraulic brakes)($100). I wanted to buy a Chevy v8, but the wrecking yards wanted $300. My Dad took me to guy that he Knew, and I bought a 259 Studebaker v8($100) with 19,000 miles on it. Had to buy the adapter, and some extra stuff, and insurance, but I ended up with the fastest car in the school.

 

In 1974 I worked at a machine shop - one of our regular customers had a '63 Biscayne 4 door with a 3 cylinder Perkins diesel hooked to a Powerglide ...

 

89 Mustang 5ltr with a wild (not even sure the duration) cam, stock EEC IV FI, home ported heads with 194? 158? valves. Old used long tube headers and solid engine mounts, 373 gears and 10" slicks out back. It would lift the left front tire a couple of inches when I sidestep the clutch at 6000rpm and shift just before fuel cutout at about 6200. Would run consistent 12:99s all for less than 3,500 including the price of the car. Only problem was that it didn't really like to idle, little or no vacuum for power brakes and didn't have much power below 4000rpm. Oh and it did look pretty cool after I painted it.

 

-------------------------------------------
Must have been a real tire melting screamer! Not much
worse except that it's all factory and original, my Dad
owns a '75 Mercedes 240D automatic.- a 3400 lb. sedan
packing a screaming 64 hp! 1/4 mile E.Ts are aproximately
'dawn to dusk'......give or take about a half hour or so!

==============================================

 

How bout a moped with a can of starting fluid strapped to it and plumbed into a carburetor port. AKA "redneck nitrous" It actually worked pretty good, well for a couple cans at least.

 

In the late seventies I bought a 68 Camaro with a 307 and powerglide. Drove home but I had to have more power. Traded a buddie a Volkswagon motor for a wrecked 71 Impala with a 400 in it with only 60,000 miles. Bought a short tailshaft T350 and swapped the 400 small block and trans in the Camaro with a used 350 HP 151 cam, a Z-28 aluminum high rise, 1 5/8" headers and a 600 1850 model Holley carb. None of the parts were new and back then I think I had about $600.00 in the whole thing. (Of course I made about $3.25 an hour at Dairy Queen)
Never really had it dialed in right but it still made gobbs of torque up to about 5500 RPM. I still like 400's.
Rick

 

In 1977 I bought a '41 Chevy coupe with a 331 Desoto hemi and powerflite(?) It didn't stop very well and steered even worse. $100.00. It did run pretty well once we got an electric fuel pump and a starter that would work. For a little while we used a 6-volt starter. We thought we had a real blazin machine on our hands, even painted my name on the door with a spray can. Had house trailer paneling for floorboards and selected interior panels. 16 years old and had to have it, nowadays it would be a high dollar rat rod.

 

a few year back i had a 77 mustang II that i swapped in a 302 i got for a case of Canadian. Motor needed to have a ridge removed up top of each cylnder, being broke i just removed them witha dremel and then honed each cylinder. Bought a new comp cam, bearings, rings and gaskets. Left the stock 2-barrel on it but gasket matched everything ( took over a day to do the top end ). Bought what i thought was a FMX ****** turned out to be a C4 with a shift kit and 3500 stall. Complette dog until i put a stock conveter in. Would outrun my 5.0L Capri RS regulary.

Craig

 

My middle son Chris When he was 13 . I gave him a 64 ford fairlane Htp. The 289 was shot. But he got it running . For christmas he got a $60.oo ring overhaul kit. All by himself he pulled the engine and put in the new rings and rod bearings. The camshaft was flat so he put a 351 winsor hydraulic cam with used solid lifters. Topped off with a 69 302 cast iron 4 bbl intake and a carter afb from a 3oo hp 327. With double springed points it would wind 8500 RPM. Blew the oil out the dipstick had blow by at high rpm. He had a lot of fun with that old car. Tore up a bunch of three speed ******s. Kept the hwy by our house covered in fresh black marks too.I still have the car sitting out back. Chris died in a car crash when he was 17 in 93.It will be 16 years ago the 16th of this month. It really makes me feel good to remember all the fun we had with that old junky ford. OldWolf

 

I put a 300 6cyl together from 3 dirrfent junkyard motors all three were blown with spun bearings just kept switching used bearings and diffrent mains and rod caps until it seemed kinda tight. I am still amazed that it ran good for about a 6 months.