chevy 283-will it work???

hey fellers....wanted to see if someone could tell me if a 1957 283 with FRONT motor mounts will fit into a 54 chevy belair with little/no fabbing??? Also, would it bolt to my orig. manual tranny??? I currently have the 235/3 spd........thanks

 

No OldWolf

 

The engine will fit, but you'll need to find a different bellhousing and tranny. Which will almost definitely require an open driveshaft... which will require a different rear axle (the one from the 57 will work nicely if you drill offset holes for the locator pin for the leaf springs. You'll move the axle about 1.5" towards the back of the car to center the wheels in the wheel opening.). Then you'll have to get creative, or let go of some cash for exhaust to clear the goofy inboard drag link steering. Might as well run duals now that you have headers. And you'll need a different parking brake setup since the stock one will hit the driver's side cylinder head. You'll need to remove at least a portion of the vertical support ribs on the firewall to clear the wider v8. If you go with a standard tranny, you'll need to at least modify — if not replace — the clutch linkage. And you'll probably need a different flavor of air freshener.

Edit-- I'll have to look again, but not sure about the front motor mounts and the goofy steering setup. Either way, that engine should probably go in an earlier car that runs hoodless so everyone can see it's an earlier block.

 

A '48-'54 Chevy truck three speed has the common bell housing pattern that would bolt to a 283 bell and allow you to retain the torque tube rear. A '55-'56 265 LH exhaust manifold will clear the steering; in fact, the reason that they exit in the front is that the original plan was to have the V8 ready for use in the '53 models, but the Korean conflict interfered with Chevy's schedule.

 

Actually, there are adapters that allow the use of the stock 3-speed/torqe tube rear. Speed Gems made them at one time. I have one that requires the use of the old cast iron Powerglide starter/adapter ring. But, the 3-speed is very week behind any V-8. I thought it would work pretty good if the later model 194-230-250-292 style 6 was used with one of those old adapters.

 

In the old days we used the corvette front mount but those may be tough to find and costly now. Dont waste your time trying to run the original trans, go to an open driveline as was mentioned earlier