50 Chevrolet: I am sure every combination has been tried at one point or another with these, so I am wondering who has attempted to moved the engine forward instead of locating it behind the cab? My thoughts are that there is enough distance between the grill and the radiator to move the radiator forward. Once could then move the engine forward enough that the carburetor/TBI of a small block would clear the recess in the firewall. I must admit I am new to COEs so before I get started on the project I want to consider all possibilities.
The first COE I ever sat in wsa a Chevy like yours and it had the engine partially under the seats and behind the cab. The under hood area was used for tons of legroom...I must admit that was the truck that got me started wanting a COE.
Isn't the engine cover so small now that you can easily keep you coe as a cab over engine? The cover seems no bigger than a trans hump in a car. I would think that a late model LSx engine would fit with plenty of room.
The current engine hump is only slightly higher than the rest of the floorboard. Reminds me of the front floorboard area of an older Olds Tornado or Cad El Dorado. The limiting factor for width would be the cab support frame that sits on top of the usual frame, and is roughly the same width. I do not believe I can extend wider than this so I am concerned that a V engine would be too wide. The limiting factor for height would be the floorboard. Which is why I was thinking on moving the engine forward so that the highest part of the motor (carburetor) would be actually in front of the firewall and thus a non-issue. (Obviously the distributor is a factor, but I could use a low profile unit). Using an LS motor I would have to clear the plenums. I am hoping to be able to fit a BBC but I am sure that would have been done by now if possible to do so in the stock location.
victorsam, have you done any actual measuring of your engine bay and your prospective engine? I am doing a very different project so I don't have either a truck like yours or a Chev V8 to measure, but I am under the impression that if you leave the cab at stock height above the frame, a BBC will fit with only minor changes to the floor of the cab. If you go to Willysbills website, http://ozcoetrucks.freewebhosts.com.au/index.3b.html there are a ton of pictures from many different projects.
You would probably be surprised how a BBC would fit. Keep the stock valve covers, low profile intake and possibly plan to run headers over and outside the frame rails and I do not think you would have a problem. I have one in my 37 all inside the frame, tight, but it fits better than a SBC in a vega. You might seriously consider a LS platform, there are some cool features and advantages to them. The intake can be reversed to put the throttle body at the back of the engine without a problem, the camaro and vette intakes are very low and can be had very reasonable when guys upgrade to a new one if you needed to swap out a truck intake. They don't have a dist to worry about and the coil packs can be mounted anywhere a plug wire can reach. Depends which one you get whether they have a throttle cable or not, the drive by wire would make installing a breeze in a coe, just mount the pedal in the cab and plug it in. There are tons of weird/tight packaging exhaust manifolds for them since they put them in impala ss', trailblazers, buick redevous etc. Tons of very low mount accessories as well since all the car applications are under a very low hood. You can get any oil pan from very tall pickup truck sump to corvette roadracing winged sump pan. There are quite a few options to get a low clearance pan so that you can lower the engine even that much more in the ch***is.
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