I had a 49 Chevy pickup with a 55 235 in it. I put Fenton Headers and dual exhaust all the way out the back. That brought the engine to life. Electronic ignition isnt a bad idea either. The headers are reproduced by Patricks, and sold for $250-270 by a lot of different vendors. They do take a little grinding to make them work. I also went with an Offenhauser intake with dual Rochester(the stock) carbs. This looked really cool, but only added marginal power. It also cut my gas mileage in half... I dont know if I ever got them tuned right... On my current stovebolt I think I'm going to try a Clifford intake/exhaust setup. Good luck with yours. As hotrodding seems to becoming a lost art, I am glad for a forum like this where a inexperienced guy like me has access to the experience of people who have been doing it for a while.
I never said I have anything against old people (think young), I just thought he might enjoy reading it.
dad and me have a 235 in a 58 chevy truck. The biggest change was we did was adding in a t-5 ****** from an s-10 truck. We also added tube headers that exit through cherry bombs and lake pipes. Also added a nicson triple carb. It runs great. We have a homebuilt progressive linkage on it too. The only thing that kinda ****s as the moment is on the normal city runs the gas milage is like 10 mpg but in the highway its about 18 mpg. Gonna see i may switch out the pumpkin gears in the rear end and see if that will somehow improve the gas mileage.
The 235 head can't be milled enough to get anywhere near that figure, and anything more than a skin cut requires notching the pistons or sinking the intake seat.
http://www.stoveboltengineco.com <- mentioned already... here are a few others, for parts sources: http://www.cliffordperformance.com http://www.mighty6.com http://www.jjinlines.com http://www.patricksantiquecars.com These folks love inline engines, all makes... lots of great tech buried in their forums(friendly folks also): http://www.inliners.org old chevy manuals, mostly pre 1960's : http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/ The technical area of this old chevy truck site has some good mechanical tech articles: http://www.chevytrucks.org/tech/index.htm Good luck, -W
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