Anyone have a favorite car back in the day that had a neat engine swap? I had a black 39 chevy coupe with red rims and whitewalls. It was powered by a 52 olds, hydro and a ford rear end. Just something neat about old time hotrods!
As you can see by my avatar, I'm into 40 Fords. Over the years I have installed or help install the flathead Merc, SBC, 289 Ford and 351, Olds, Hemi, and now I'm doing a 401 Buick nailhead in a 40 pickup project. My coupe has had 3 different types of drive train in the 45 years that I have owned it. I must say the full race 296 flathead was the most fun and gave me the most memories.
I had a '53 Plymouth convertible with a '55 Dodge 270 Hemi in the early 60's that is looong gone, but wish it weren't. Not a car on everyone's wish list.......but I did the swap when I was a teenager, successfully, and the car was a good looker for the day.........just a fond memory........ Ray
A buddy of mine back in '63 had an older brother who had a '50 Ford tudor with a '55 Chrysler 331" hemi in it running through the Ford ****** with an engine adapter, had the tunnel cut away for the Anson floor shift. Hot, noisy, and FAST!
Olds engines were and are a popular old school swap. Another engine swap I've seen for late 30's Chevys was a built 270 GMC. My cousin had one in his '49 coupe, it would MOVE.
My '35 was originally going to get a an Olds engine but now I have decided that a 265 Chevy with 4 94's feeding a Weiand WCFD intake is going to take it's place. I like how the Chevy motor uses the original Flathead engine mounting pads and everything looks appropriate. For a second I was considering a Cadillac motor but I snapped out of it because I really dig early Chevy V8's.
We had a 62 Ford PU, SWB unibody. We dropped a 63 Caddy 390 in it with a later 400 3spd auto. That truck would rock.
I'm going all out with a 392 in a chopped 41 Plymouth coupe, backed up by a TKO 600, 3.70 gears in the rear and ww tires. Let's smoke them ****ers!
That 392 looks awesome. I can't wait to get on my 331 one day. The mixture of black and polished aluminum really sets it off. What is that motor pumping out HP wise?
I really dig the 292 Chevy 6 that I wedged under the hood of my '63 Biscayne to replace the very tired, original, 230 I6.
My most successful swap was a 350 Chevy to replace the OHC Six in an old Firebird back in the 70's. I drove that car for a long time and was very happy with the results. I'm embarr***ed to admit it but until recently I've never swapped to anything but a small block Chevy. My first swap was a 283 with cast iron powerglide into a '41 Chevy pickup. It worked but was never really finished. I sold it at 17 and have regretted that for all the many years since. Currently I'm putting a Cadillac 500 in an old GMC pickup and expect to be very pleased with the result. But this is a current project not something I did back in the day.
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