Long short about me: newest car I ever owned was a 1988 S10 Blazer, now this is my oldest... a 1951. I've gone through Novas and C10s and Fairlanes and Impalas. This is my first 235 inline engine ( I normally pull sixes and replace them with SBCs) but I think I might just keep this ugly little guy for now. The car is a one owner vehicle with the original****le and registration renewals up until 1968... and it has sat on a field since then, occasionally moving around. At this point I don't think it has ran in about 20 years. Plans are to cheaply redo the interior, clean up the glass(replace what I need to with plexi), get it down to bare metal- paint low gloss black(with deep red metal flake on the roof), media blast the rims and paint them to match the roof/get smoothie caps and white walls, then put all the cool parts you can possibly put on a 235- split exhaust, offy dual intake, cam it blah blah blah. It's been soaking in marvel all week, so this weekend I'll be trying to get it to fire. Pretty sure I've got my bases covered... we'll see.
Hi. Looks like you have the plan so go for it. Nothing wrong with the 235 sixes unless you want to race. My avatar shows my 46 Chevy coupe with the 1957 inline 235 with goodies. Clifford dual intake with two 2 barrel Weber carbs, Clifford shorty tube headers, bored 0.060 with Clifford 268 grind cam. Your 51 235 should have come a power glide******* for that year. I am still running stock 3 on the tree in my coupe but changed out the 411 ring & pinion to a 355 as I built it as a Hwy car to travel in. With this set up I am getting on the plus side of 20 MPG at 65 MPH. When I attend local cruise in's or shows I display with the hood up and it draws a crowd with many questions. Now & then someone will ask why I did not just put in a Corvette engine & my reply is usually two fold - So you think I should be different just like everyone else - or say it is an early 6 cylinder 235 Corvette engine. That is not exactly true as the early Corvette's had 3 side draft carbs. But my two 2 barrel set up actually gives more + I am bored 0.060 with the hot cam. Jimmie
6 cylinders are fun engines. I drive mine almost daily, and though I've had plenty of issues keeping the car going, the 6 hasn't been one of them (other than ocassional carb tune-ups and and a worn starter ring gear), and performance wise I have no complaints.
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