why must we put the same make motor in samemake body?

Well, I get the 'those who don't understand hot rods' thing. My daughter's friend was over here the other day and I had the Bass Hemi Coupe sunset photo on my screen. She said, "That would be a really awesome picture if that old junky car wasn't in it."

But seriously...does having a different manufacturer's power plant in it make it any less of a hot rod?

 

you could say that.

 

Yeah after reading Hot Rod Deluxe, it made me realize that back in the day it was run whatever you could get your hands on.

 

Many times you put a chevy in a ford was flathead rear sump,chevy rear sumpford small block front sump.A lot easier to put a chevy in a 1950s ford. Also back then chevy parts were cheaper than the other makes And chevy engines breathed way better then the other makes.

 

Why does everyone swoon over a Deuce? Why does the essential hot rod have to be a Ford? Why try to make everyone think the same? In all reality it's just rude fucks who probably can't gap a plug that yell the loudest. My questions were rhetorical. Fords because they're still plentiful and used to be cheap. SBCs because they were the death of the flathead in HP and hotrods basically emulate racers. The most widely used and adored motor in the game is the SBC. Yes it is a good looking motor when it's dressed right. Yawn factor? Only if it had that lame crate motor dress and a credit card limit's worth of catalog billet shit and braided stainless.

 

An early hemi is not expensive. I helped Sietsma with his Willys 331 . All parts less than $1000. Plus machine work which costs the same for all engnes. So much a hole to bore, so much per journal to grind , so much per head to plane and so mch per head for a valve job.I had done early Hemis back in the nineties and then it was expensive but now we can do them for about half what it cost then. Mike has more than enough power too. We are doing another right now for his vintage style rail, Same deal.
You can spend more too that is for sure but you also can on the 350 Chev. It depends what you want to do with it. I would be safe saying Mike has less than $2500 in his hemi and really want to say $2000 but I might be off there. I know for sure less than $2500 . Engine is around 300+ hp and to be truthful has enough. I know for a fact he has NEVER had it full throttle. Noow The SBC is a good little engine and deserves respect but some of the urban myths about others ticks me off. I have built many street SB Chryslers in the $1800 to $2000 I have built a lot of Chevs too despite what some folks would believe for friends etc Sometimes there is a difference in price of pistons maybe a few bucks but all comp cams in a number catagorey cost the same. Most engines with a four inch bore use the same ring set since ring widths are standardized in the earlier engines. Bearings cost very similar as do timing chains. There is not a big difference in oil pump cost either. Weights are similar and I personally dont lose a seconds sleep when one of my mopars has to run against a similar built chevy. In fact our local Stock car track (Brighton SPeedway)has in bold letters in thier rule book "NO 340 CHRYSLER ENGINES or PARTS ALLOWED" . HUH??????? Why would that be?You cant run a 340 against a 350????
I dont accept the idea that we always must use a chev because it is the best bang for the buck. Never have and never will. The biggest reason most to run them is to be one of the crowd . It is not popular to be different and stray from the norm but it sure is fun!
$ foR $ it would be real hard to say when the power figures are in. Weight wise there is little if any difference. 550 lbs is about what they weigh maybe a early poly would go 570 . I remember helping a pal build a Stroker Poly 318 based engine for his 65 Fury. We bought the pistons (silvolites) off the shelf for $9 US each. Hard to complain about that!
A 360 can be built to very serious street power for very very little $ too. As for Fords my all time favourite Ford engineis the 300 six. Best engine that company ever built. If i had to choose between a 302 or a 300 six the 300 would get my vote everytime. Better head(s) more torque cheaper faster louder longer. There are lots and lots of good alternative engines out there that will do as good or a better job than the SBC . You just have to have the desire. Of Course if you just want to be "One of the Boys" that might not work for U
Don

 

Everyone knows that the first choice would be to put a Studebaker 289 R2 in it... but there aren't that many around, so anything else is 2nd choice!

Sorry, posted to get rid of that annoying message, telling me I haven't posted in a while!

 

Chev. just happens to be the most versatile and reliable motor not to mention if you need a part on the road you can easily get it. You can shoehorn a Chev. into about any car, not so with Fords. However it is nice to have the distributer up front.

 

I don't think your premise holds water.
Anybody that could (not) like a Olds Rocket, Caddy flattie, Hemi, or a hopped up Banger, in a '30s chassis of any genere certainly ain't a traditional hot rodder.

 

This perfectly puts the way I feel,but better than I could.I have a '54 Effie,and when the Kart's '69 Windsor gets tired it will be replaced by a fully dressed and flaked SBC in a goldflake engine bay,because I feel thats the most traditional thing to put in an early '60's showtruck themed Ford.
What needs explaining that I don't get?Oh I forgot if you have to explain,yadda,yadda. . . .
Paul

 

Put whatever motor you want in it. It's your car and you're paying for it so do as you please.

 

does that mean a hemi in a willys is bad?..... how bout a caddy in an A? this is only an issue if you tend to want to swim with the herd. would i love a flattie or a hemi in my T? you bet! i have a SBC because it was available, affordable and i'm not gonna stare at a motorless chassis because somebody else doesn't like my choice of powerplants. it's MY car. build exactly what you want with whatever you've got. i can respect that far more than i can respect the guys cryin about "that's not how it's done"

 

I always thought theChev small block was popular because it was the first and most plentyfull small V-8 . I still think it's your $$ so do what you wish. I have seen some guys dump any ol thing in till they could get what they wanted. So should I be looking for a FH 6 to put back in my Henry ? Shame I have so much in my 354.
GEORGE!!

 

Well it wasn't the first easily available OHV V8, the Olds and Caddy came about in '49.

 

This may have been said already, but its usually the Ford guys that whine about other make motors being in a Ford I gotta Buick Nailhead in my 50 Chevy so you wont hear me whining.

 

why must we put the same make motor in samemake body?

Only narrow minded people think this way..There are no rules when it comes to building what you want..Because the freedom of choice is yours and you get to make the rules..
and if putting the same make in the same body was the only way to do things there would be a lot of disapointed people driving hot rods these days, or maybe not even deciding to build one to begin with

 

The Chy Hemi came in 53 too but the Chev was small, light and cheap.
The other stuff was luxery car stuff.

 

Olds wasn't luxury stuff, neither were the Fords. And most hot rodders were getting them from wrecks. Hell the bottom line of Buick's had the Nailhead before Chevy had the SBC. There are lots of choices and a lot of them were used and are used if you're actually building to a certain era. It seems there were a couple things that seemed to make the SBC the popular choice, but when you go back and look lots of other engines were used and did well in racing despite the SBC's popularity.

 

I stuffed a 455 Pontiac into a 70 Elcamino back in the late 70's. Buddies tried to shame me too but I think it was in retaliation for waxing their asses all the time.

 

I've never waxed a man's ass, what's it like?

 

Hot rodding is about making something better, as percieved by the builder. It's also been about using what's available, and what's been deemed acceptable at the time.

I happen to like LS engines, and have two cars with them, neither are Chevy's, so I'm guilty of heresey on two counts with some folks. Ultimately, I don't care what other people say, or think, about my car(s), although I admittedly build stuff to attract attention. They seem to be appreciated when we're out and about.

If 100 people like my car, and one doesn't because it doesn't fit thier idea of what a car should be because it doesn't have the "right" engine, wheels, fuel delivery system, or whatever, I tend to ignore the minority view.

Brian

 

Great points Brian. I will always appreciate the workmanship of others and well done hot rod like yours.

What I don't understand from a Mopar perspective, putting a small block chevy in a Mopar "because I had it" or "because it is cheap". I call BS on that. It is not very hard to find a 318 or 360 out of the millions built, and it is going to require cobbling to put the chevy in anyway, so no advantage there. As far as cheap goes, unless someone gives you the sbc, parts are cheap for both.

Mopar built one of the best small blocks of all time (remember 340 Darts and Dusters putting a hurt on big blocks on the street?) and it seems a shame to not use them in hot rods. I have heard comments like "well I understand chevies" again BS, aside from a few differences, all small blocks function the same - suck squeeze bang blow. And information on Mopars is available from many sources, like here (just ask me or any one of the Mopar heads on the HAMB)

Mopar people are a different group in that many of us feel Mopars have a soul - and one with a chevy in it has lost it's soul. Yes we are weird, but we have conviction and better quality through engineering on our side.

If you ask someone nowadays, they would probably think early Fords came with a 350/350 and a 10 bolt or 8" in them. So much for creativity in hot rodding.

 

You should run right out and pick up this month's "HOTROD", wherein you'll find a feature on a late 20's Chrysler roadster with a 318, done up in sports car style, from, of all places, Sao Paulo, Brazil. It's killer, it's all MOPAR.

Brian

 

On my way . . .

 

"nothing wrong with a sbc, there's so much cool vintage speed equipment and dress up shit you can get for them...but many times people slap on their boring edelbrock 4 barrel along with some chinese valve covers...if i were to put a sbc in my ford, i'd either try and collect some rare vintage dress up stuff it, or make it look like a bone stock motor pulled right out of '58 chevy or so.."

I couldn't have said it better myself! I'm a Ford guy, but a SBC can actually be dressed up to look like an early motor, a 302 just doesn't look right to my eyes in a 30s to early 50s car.

It's not all about cost and parts availability. The customers dropping $100K on a pro-shop built car are not concerned about the cost of rebuilding the motor. From a builder's perspective, it's easier to order a crate motor than to mess around rebuilding an early Buick, Olds, Caddy.

My 0.02.

 

This issue isn't just across manufacturer lines, its within makes as well. Ive been a Ford guy forever, and its amazing the comments some people make about how "that should have an FE/Yblock/Flathead in it, anyone can build a 302.."
The small block Ford is quickly joining the ranks with the sbc as being "not unique" enough.
I personally would not put a chevy a car i build, but if it is what you have or like, go ahead. It can get old really fast however when you are at a car show and 90% of the cars have basically the exact same combo under the hood.
This peaked in the 90s, I think, and car people have been moving away from 350/350s over the years.

 

These guys should be car restorers, not Hot Rodders. If they want to knit pick that's the arena they need to play in. Hot Rodding is all about freedom, man.

 

i've owned several chevy but not a one had a chevy engine in it but one.
1. 55 chevy conv. w/289 studebaker v-8(no its not a ford)b/w 3-speed manual ran great

2 56 210 2-door 425 buick w/2x4 and t-10

3.71 camero 460 ford w/tc ford 4-speed

4. 62 corvair with 409/340hp.

so if you don't like a chevy put something else in it.i do.its hotrodding do anything you want. i have an 400 olds 1965 does anyone have a cheap chevy body?

 

I think it has a lot to do with everyone using SBC for many years. People got bore of seeing the same crate motor in what seemed like every car. I use whatever runs good that I pickup CHEAP.

 

All you guys that complain that "small block Chevys are boring", "everybody has a small block Chevy" probably get tired of looking at womens boobs, too.