Sometimes these engines come up and I feel it is our duty to save them from the s**** pile if we can. Or at least I have fun trying Couple years ago I picked up a 1951 8BA, no use for it but it is a easy rebuild with stock bores. It literally was in the s**** metal pile when I picked it up from the owner of a company before it was hauled away. .... I really have no plans for it but have been picking up parts for it as they come along. Next week I hope to save a 1970 318/3spd. Owning Dodges I actually have a use for this engine and hoping it all works out. I can not tell the future. Either way we all find uses or homes for these orphan engines .... and we sleep good at night doing so.
If I happened upon a 261, I’d happily put it into my 1950 3100 with my SM-326 Muncie and whatever rear axle I’d find. I’m guessing a 261 would make similar power to the 230 I’m currently going to use. Would a 261 bolt up to my 216 bellhousing?
It seems that South America got lots of obsolete North American car stuff, and not just GM. Ford installed Y blocks in cars well into the '70s down there.
I wonder why those older design engines weren’t good enough here anymore, but were good enough for South America? I’m sure at some point our exhaust emissions standards dictated newer designs, but maybe the older designs couldn’t make enough power for US customers?
Might be that they couldn't afford new tooling down there, so they took what they could get.... but yeah, progress in engine design has always been a thing. The 1937ish design of the stovebolt was antiquated in the US by the 1960s.
Yep. According to old records I could dig up the 261 was only available in 1 ton or better rated trucks like school buses, dump trucks, and commercial tractors. It was the hot transplant for more torque in 1/2 ton trucks and really desired by hot rodders. I would ****** up everyone I could find.
The '63 Chevy 4x4 carryall I had in the Army had a 230 when I bought it. I installed a SBC in the Depot hobby shop. Direct bolt in using the 6 cylinder mounts, bell housing, and flywheel so it definitely wasn't a 235.
It would be a pretty good guess that the 235 and 261 engines from Brazil were made under a licensing agreement. The info I uncovered said the Brazilian 235 was produced until 1980. Argentina produced a lot of Ford parts, ranging back to Model T days. My '26 Model T has an Auto Diz distributor from Argentina. So, it's a mystery that may be hard to trace down. I say if it works, use it.
The U.S. government flat out give the design of the Chevy 6 to the Japanese after W.W. II. along with the Harley Davidson 45, and several other designs, glad doing that didn’t come back to bite this country in the ***!
A story I read a few years back said GI's were fixing up some of their rigs on one of the islands in the South Pacific after taking the island. Some of the parts needed were taken from Japanese rigs. Direct swap and got them up and running.
I have a 1964 FJ 40 The engine is a copy of a 235 except it is a little bit larger the head is even laid out the same. In 68 Toyota came out with a 12 port head and no it will not fit a chevy
261's were cast in 1954 also.....the fact it has numbers on the distributor pad indicate it's a production block and not a service block cast in '64....So it's likely a first year production 1954 block...
with a water pump in the block? and a block casting number that was used from 58-62? I kind of doubt it. but that was the first thing I thought when I saw the 4 on the block, so I see where you're coming from
History I've read about my mopar 218 flathead 6, they were made up into the 1970's and used in vehicles outside the USA, also they were used in the USA in industrial equipment like welders, farm machinery & airport tugs. Yet 1959 was the last year they were installed in USA vehicles because of stricter emissions. Yet it was just a great engine design it hardly changed from the 30's to the 70's. Just like the old Briggs & Stratton flathead lawn mower engines ..... they just worked so they made them forever.
For the short time I went to college in the early '60s, I had a roommate from Brazil. His family would send him newspapers from home, and I would look at the new car ads. If I had been in Brazil, I could have bought a brand new made-in-Brazil 1957 Ford in 1963. All the tooling went down there, the cars were still being made and they were cheap in American dollars. A picture of a stock 4-door '57 Ford pickup made at the Solon plant. Really ahead of us in their styling.
I think I've read that Dodge was still using them in the Power Wagons up until 1968 or so, or whenever the Power Wagon finally went out of production.
The Jalopy Journal
