After I yanked the original drivetrain from my 55 Ford sunliner my dad bought new I have been trying to get all the parts to put a Y block back in it,a friend wants to buy a very nice 56 ford and offered to trade me the drivetrain from it for a low mile 302 I have in my 65 custom 500 and I am going to do it. I hate to get rid of that motor but it will save me the cost of rebuilding a Y block and will find another 302 to put back in the custom 500. Going to get rid of the teapot Holley and distributor for a 57 intake and 62 distributor and going to use the 57 to 62 exhaust manifolds I also have,not really wanting to use the FOM trans but it will do for awhile and then find something to put the 351-W and C-4 thats in the 55 right now in. The sunliner is not a practical long distance car due to not having much room to carry stuff so I will be looking to a 58 to 60 Ford sedan or wagon to put the 351 in.
Back in the early '70's I was approached by a guy at a show and he ask me if I the would sell the 283 that was in my '40 sedan. He ask if he could look at numbers on the block,several days pass and he makes me a very generous offer on the engine,turns out it was a 265 . I took it and 4 years later I drove the car again. That will never happen again. HRP
The motors are usually shot when I pull them but if this deal goes through it will be the first time I pulled a perfectly good motor,the custom 500 can sit awhile since I have others that I can drive. Since I really want to do the trade it probably wont happen.
In 1969 I sold the 365 HP 327 out of my '65 Corvette to a local circle track guy. He went on to win the season championship with it, and I put a good running 283 in it's place. It was still a 'vette cpe, and who cared back then?
when I owned my 49 Ford coupe... I pulled the sweet running Flathead 6 out ... sold it ... Funny thing... Did that to put in a another Hopped Up Flat six (fuel balanced and twin carbs and Red's Header... Man that ran like slick ! Car is in Tennessee now... Anyone see in there let me know ( Grey Business Coupe 1949)
Kinda hurt my 440 I was running in a C body coupe against my girlfriends 5.0 and swapped out the 383 in my C Body wagon which had kept up with her better than the coupe....the wagon was hit lightly on the fender by some one pulling out of a 7/11 so it was going to be down until I found a fender....sold the coupe and finally replaced the 383 in the wagon which I regret selling but hey when the money's right....oh still have the 440 with just about 75,000 miles on it...
Kinda did that. In 1973 I had a hot 390GT engine in a Fairlane. I was poor and couldn't afford the gasoline during the embargo so I pulled it out and put a small block in its place. Small block didn't get much better mileage but I had to move out of town shortly afterwards and gave away the 390 engine. That was a bad year for big engines. I passed up on buying a complete 428 with 4 speed attached for $250 because of the high gas prices, I just couldn't afford to play at the time.
I was just informed that he is not going to buy the 56 so I will not have to pull the 302 but its got me thinking that if I can find someone with a good Y block that wants a 302 I will trade it.
Sold a truck I was driving once and kept the engine, bad thing is I priced the truck too cheap to start with and deducted to much off the price for the engine that I didnt even have anything to put it in at the time
Ive sold the engine and other parts of one I was driving many times. Ive got a big collection of Y block stuff. A fresh bored 272 block bored to 292. A 61 truck engine with a burnt piston. supposed to have a steel crank? A complete fan to bellhousing locked up 56 car engine . I think its a 292? Two of the big square base holley or ford autolite intakes. a aluminum dual points dist with the crab cap. a new set of std 292 rings. lots gaskets. a 254 Yblock truck engine. a frozen and cracked 292 short block bored .040 a 11 inch flywheel a couple of std bellhousings . A 56 Pk auto trans with the bellhousing mounts. several exhaust manifolds. some teapot 4 bbl carbs. Im too far to ship and would really like to sell it all in one deal.
I still might be able to get the drivetrain from that 56 since the next in line to buy it might be thinking about dropping a 390 in it and I will not have to pull the 302 but fork over cash.
I sold a perfectly good running 350 that was in my 38 Chevy Coupe and replaced it with a 409. Do I regret it? Hell no.
There was a older guy had a salvage yard at Maynard ark. He died in a car wreck. A few years later The family sold the place. They had a auction. They took a big number of pull out engines out of the shop building. Sold choice . The chevy V8,s sold high. After the choice picking was over I bought the remainder for a lump sum. about $15 per engine. Since they where local purchased and folks knew what I paid I couldn't seem to sell them for a good price. Most where FE Fords. So we would clean & paint, change oil and filter & install them in a 67 truck . Then they would sell easily. Of the fifty some engines I bought all I have left is a 1961 352 two bbl engine. It ran very good. We never put it in the 67 truck we just started it up on the ground. It only has two bolt cast engine mount bosses on the side of the block and 67 engine mounts did not fit it. ( And I thought I would save it to maybe install in a 55 or 56 ford) and a 292 chevy six. The chev 292 ran ok but smoked. needs rebuilding?
Around '70, I sold a good running 283 to a buddy who wanted better gas mileage for his BB Camaro. Problem is, the car went with it. '62 Belair Bubbletop. Damn that still hurts....
I just pulled out a perfectly good running engine out of my car, but with good reason by my standards. Last summer my big block lost oil pressure while making a pass. Shortly after that my son was given a 350 that was supposed to be a good runner as an upgrade over his 283. He wasn't wanting to put the 350 in yet, so with his permission, I put it in my car. Since then, the 283 had started smoking and racing season is about to start here, so we pulled the 350 out of my car one weekend, and put it into his the following weekend, leaving me without a good engine to put into my car. Pulled the 283 apart and the bores are just too worn out. Devin
Back in about 1978, I pulled the 272 out of my 56 F100 and sold it to a local farmer which he put in his grain truck. I had a BBC and a Turbo 400 that I installed my F100 which I eventually sold. My old 272 is still going strong to this day in the grain truck.
Had a real nice 55 Chevy with a great running 283. I picked up a fresh 300HP 327 so I let folks know I was selling the 283-they could hear it run,etc. A friend got it and put in his 57 150-ran great. Easier to sell one in the car running I think. May do this on a 40 I have soon--has a ZZ motor but I have a fresh 327 for it here-my preference.
In the early '60s I built a '55 Chev. 265. Brother in law was a manager of a TRW warehouse and he sold me the parts for the same price a parts house would pay, so I bored the block to 3.875" for 283 flattop pistons, cut the slot in a "Duntov ".012&.018" cam, found some "powerpack" heads, and a castiron 4bbl. intake manifold, and an Olds WCFB Roch. Installed it in a '53 Studebaker coupe, and it was pretty fast for it's day. In '63 a guy @ work put a 327 FI shortblock with 283 heads and a 2-4 bbl setup in a '38 Chev, drove it awhile then got in a bind for cash and sold the engine to me for not much more than the price of a new shortblock with garage discount. Put an ad in the paper and sold the bored 265/283 to a guy thatdrove my Stude with the engine still in it. He put it in a '57 Chev. and outran everybody in his somewhat backwoods area on the far side of the county. Still see him once in awhile over 50 years later and he still talks about how fast that'57 was with the engine I sold him. Put that 327 in the Stude then, and damn it was way faster!
I just did it last year, pulled the perfectly great running 355 out of my t-bucket for the hotter, perfectly great running 355 I pulled out of the Henry J to replace with a 489. I then gave the first mentioned 355 to my buddy for his model A to help him along.
back in '73 i bought a rough 56 vette with no engine trans or top for $200. good****le. bought a great running 56 bel air 2dht for $250 and yanked the 283 and t10 out of it and gave the body to the neighbor (just to get rid of it). did get the vette running and driving and then sold it for $650 when i moved to arizona. man. that whole episode was dumb.
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