I saved a couple of engines from the crusher this morning, but only by a gnat's ***, timewise. The county is cracking down on old vehicles parked in people's yards near the city and so folks are scrambling like mad to save what's decent in their yards before the crusher gets it. In this one yard, they had already crushed about two dozen vehicles, so i offered $35 apiece for the engines out of a circa '49 Ford and a circa '56 Ford pickup that were about next in line to be crushed. They said "Fine, if you pull them ". So I did pull them. One is a SBC with "Speed Gems" aluminum adapter connecting it to a 3-speed top loader trans. The engine looks like an early SBC, having the old starter like on a '55 Chev and having the motor mounts on the front of the block rather than the sides. It came complete with a side-inlet 2GC Rochester carb and all the ***essories; I even got the SW guages that were hooked up to the engine (they were on a chromed plate screwed to the bottom of the dash) and the old Ford Flathead-style clutch linkage that hooks up to the trans throwout bearing shaft. I guess I'll have to check the Mortec site to run the numbers on the SBC, to see what displacement it (the engine) is, but whatever it is, it appears vintage 1950's, so it'll look just right in my 1929 roadster project. The other engine I pulled is a complete Y Block, with standard bell housing. I have no idea what it's displacement is yet The guy who was having to s**** the vehicle said the Y block only had about 500 miles on a fresh rebuild, but that the engine hadn't been run in 10 or 15 years. It has a fresh rebuilder's tag on it, so I hope it's as he says. But for $35, I can't go too far wrong, can I? Is there any way to eyeball a Y Block and determine if it's a 272, 292 or 312 without running the numbers? The owner himself had just pulled a 455 Olds and a 440 Dodge engine which he is putting in a shed. The story on the 440 Dodge is that it was a fresh rebuild too, when it blew a head gasket because they hadn't adequately tightened the head bolts after doinbg the rebuild. I'll have to see if I can talk the guy out of that engine too. Then there's the '59 Olds sedan that's going to be crushed later today with a complete engine and ****** that the owner said ran good when he pulled it into the yard years ago. I guess you can't save them all.
This is the cl***ifieds. HAMB rules are you have to sell both them to me for $70 total and you also have to deliver them to me within 30 days COD.
how about them gauges? what style are they? if they're greenline or twin blue i'd probably take em off yer hands.
Geez, you're right! Sorry, 'forgot I was in the cl***ifieds when I posted. My bad! I'll have to look closer at the guages.
SCORE!!! Way to go. One thing that has always amazed me about people living in the shadow of the Rockies is how many amazing, barely rusted cars are available. Why the authorities would crack down is beyond me, those cars aren't hurting anybody. Two decent engines for $70, WOW. Keep me posted on the SBC if you decide to part with it.
The Jalopy Journal
