Hot Rods Dressing a SBC to look more Traditional

I own two running cars with '57 283 engines, it's easy to spot the ones that are faked up with phony road draft tubes, small crank dampers and plugged cylinder head bolt holes. I personally don't understand the reason to try to pass off a late model for an early engine. I will admit to using a alternator instead of a generator though. That's a '64 Vette 461 intake manifold with an adapter for the WCFB. Roto-Faze dual point distributor and a 097 solid lifter cam. It's been a great combination.

 

Or this….

 

I'd say this is a good example:

 

Exactly!....

 

Gotta love that cold air package...

 

... and this look would also be correct for the era you asked for.

 

I hope it's in a car by now........ According to my computer , I stole that photo off the net on Friday, ‎11 ‎May ‎2018, ‏‎7:46:17 pm
I was looking for ideas to get rid of the draft tube on Mimi's 57 [I managed to get the parts off a 65 impala]

 

Kerry
Go ahead laugh, now, that engine was built in the mid/late 80's, still on the stand.

 

Maybe this ‘74 model 350? I know, change the carburetor and breather, Q-jet, and swap out the alternator for a generator.

 

That’s my 29 Model A closed cab pickup! The reason it looks period correct is because it is. There are no catalog or repop parts on it. The engine has 40000 miles on it out of a 56 Chevy.

 

You Will Need A H.A.M.B. Tag..

 

Here's my crazy attempt. New crate motor,thumpr cam, head work including grinding the front of each head, fill holes with cut off bolts and high temp epoxy. Then cut a piece of steel to match the camel bump shape and epoxy them on. Smooth them out and put them back on and paint. So far so good. The 62' valve covers help to sell the look.

 

You can sill buy the filter from your local parts store, and it's a bigger filter than the spin on!

 

the acc bolt cylinder heads are a dead give away

 

Let’s see the Healey!….er roadster??!!!

 

The title of the thread was making it look "more traditional". That certainly has traditional vibes with modern things that a large majority probably won't notice or care about.

 

Traditional? The Hilborns and magneto were 60s vintage. The block was 75 over the counter 4 bolt main 4 inch bore. The heads were 492 angle plug heads ported by Mondello approximately 72. Looked like a sprint car engine anywhere from the early 60's to the late 70s.

 

My 283 at the machine shop. Going into a 1917 RPU

 

Easy. Solid valve covers (stock "Chevrolet" or old aluminum), intake (stock or old aluminum) with a oil tube in the front (need to drill/tap intake behind carb for a pcv), points style distributor, short water pump and rams horn exhaust manifolds. If you want to get fancy then a 4 blade metal fan.

 

If the large majority won't notice and don't care that leaves the small minority that will notice and who will care.........so who are we trying to fool, yourself? JW

 

I posted a breakdown here years ago but if you look at the early 60s Hot Rod Annuals the majority (by a small amount) of hot rods were still using cast manifolds. I don't have my notes handy but it started to shift towards all headers in the 63ish time frame?

 

Throwing this in the fray...... Built for my Vicky but went into a buddies '27. The second pic is it's replacement.

 

Those breathers gotta go. They scream 1992

 

If it keeps you up at night that your engine isn't "traditional enough", you have the freedom to spend time and money to make it more traditional.

The original question was making a SBC look more traditional, not making it 100% look like it was from 1955. Which it never will because the subject engine doesn't have the rear vent behind he manifold, has the later balancer, etc.

IMO the engine HRP posted nailed the "more traditional" side of things given the assignment. Sure, you can go further, but with relative ease it looks way better than most 350's. It also leaves some ways to improve in the future if someone wants to gradually do that over time.

Hilarious that badshifter was critical of the 700R4 tv cable (and several other things) not being traditional, and his profile pic is of a bagged square body Chev on large black wheels.

 

I apologize for the hijack but does anyone actually know how bad it would be to use an early balancer on a later engine? I've seen it done more than once but have no idea of the lack of vibration dampening would be on a street driven car.

 

Your "early" and "late" timeframes need to be more defined.
If for instance, early, you mean, 1955 to 1969(ish) the timing marks would be in the same location inline with the crankshaft keyway, these would all take various timing tabs that are spot welded to the timing cover, later engines had the timing mark to crank key offset approx. 8 degrees and had various timing tabs that bolted on with the cover bolts, both the balancers' diameter and width were also relevant. As for the early balancer, depending on the exact year and application, some did not even use a vibration damper.
To most, the subtle differences don't matter aesthetically, but when trying to replicate an exact early period correct look, these later components stand out like a mink coat on a pig.
Of course, if you are capable, the engine timing can be set with most any combination of components.

 

thank god nobody suggested "flathead-look" valve covers. YUK!

 

I would be more concerned about vibration dampening than timing marks since a cam change along with dozens of other things make the factory timing marks pretty much a moot point anyway. I brought this up as it was mentioned in this thread about swapping out a damper for the early one. I've done this before with no apparent ill effects only because I'm accustomed to piecing together Chevys out of whatever guys have which seems to include a lot of early dampers. I have one on my Vicky only because I had it and I'd actually rather use good factory parts than an offshore part, even the cheap ones are about $80.00.