I picked up a '61 283 SBC at the swap meet for $200. The****** is 100% complete, starter, ram's horns, pulleys, generator, flex plate, everything. I haven't got it home yet, I've gotta go pick it up. I'm gonna plop it into my wifey's '60 wagon. The dude says it was pulled out of a running car 10 years ago, it turns over but it should be gone though. It has a 2bbl intake. What tips do you SBC gurus have for getting a few extra horses out of the old girl? She sure is a pretty little engine.
L-79 cam (crane blueprint) good street cam, mild lope. Put a thrust*****on on it, they're cheap and help more than they cost. If you want to go with latemodel heads (to run on pump gas) 305 heads are perfect on a 283, small combustion chambers, fair ports. Roller rockers are a good investment also, but then you gotta go with tall rocker covers. Single 4 say about 500-600cfm, if your not after looks and wanna go cheap you can buy late model aluminum truck manifolds all day for 25.00 or less. Hog the plenum out a bit and they breath real well on a small motor. Of course if your after the look, then find a set of power pac heads, and say an old corvette intake. The old L79 intakes are still easy to find, but they can be pricey. Use roller tip rockers instead of full rollers and short covers. Just build your lower end stock, right in the middle of the clearance range on the inserts. Oh yea, good ignition. Either a Mallory dual point, or a unilite. Both retain the external coil, both are dependable. I'm sure that I missed something, so someone else will have to fill in the rest.
Thanks for the tips man. I wanna keep the stamped steel CHEVROLET script valve covers and ram's horns. I've heard about the 305 head swap trick. How can I tell if they're 305 heads? How about a stock early 4bbl intake? I wanna keep the breather oil fill tube. Also does anyone have a P/N for the v8 engine mounts. PS I'm keeping my PG******* for now, it works way too well to ditch.
Nads, I may be wrong but I don't think the V8 will bolt up to the 6cyl. trans. (IT is a 6 in there now,RIGHT?). I'd hate to see you get it apart and be stuck with no trans. Billy
[ QUOTE ] Nads, I may be wrong but I don't think the V8 will bolt up to the 6cyl. trans. . [/ QUOTE ] The 283 will bolt right up...no difference between l6 and v8 trans.
[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] Nads, I may be wrong but I don't think the V8 will bolt up to the 6cyl. trans. . [/ QUOTE ] The 283 will bolt right up...no difference between l6 and v8 trans. [/ QUOTE ] He's using a powerglide, I always thought 235 had a different BP on the back of the block than a V8. I only have 2 of each, Thanks for clearing that up. Billy
If it is the cast iron powerglide with that adapter thingy hooked up to a 235, it will NOT hook up to a 283. You need the correct adapter thingy. If it's the aluminum one then yeah you can bolt it straight up to the 283. Travis
the 305 heads on a 283 work fine , but they look like late model heads with the holes for****esories in them. .i'd stick with the stock heads and have haredened seats installed on the exhaust vales for unleaded fuel..then it will look like a 283
[ QUOTE ] If it is the cast iron powerglide with that adapter thingy hooked up to a 235, it will NOT hook up to a 283... [/ QUOTE ] Hmmm...I was not aware of the adapter, so disreguard what I said. I swapped a V8 into a 6cyl '60 once and didnt encounter any problems with the bellhousing, someone musta replaced the motor and trans with later stuff some time before I got ahold of it .
The origional 283 2bl engine is (was) one of the sweetest little v8 engines ever produced. It will run smooth, move a fairly heavy car, get good milage, and will go 200,000 miles if cared for from new. I would do whatever you can to find out the history of the engine and if it can be determined that its led a fairly pampered life do as little as possible to it. First pull the valve covers and see what deposits are in there, if its fairly clean,good so far. Then I'd pull the plugs and see if there is any evidence of burned oil, an indication that either the valve guides or seals are weak. The seals can be replaced w/o removing the heads. The next thing would be to get a compression test to see the condition of the rings and valve job. Check the results with a manual and see how they compare, if within spec. leave it alone. One last thing is to pull the pan and check the oil pump screen to see if it is plugged with debris. Also while the pan is off pull the front timing cover and replace the timing chain and gears (DON'T put in a plastic gear if you can avoid it). If all of this checks out you should have a good running little v8 that will give you many miles of service. Of course the usual things like new plugs, plug wires, cap, rotor, points,etc. and a carb rebuild is always a good idea. HAPPY MOTORING !! Frank
The engine will bolt up to the PG. As far as what it's like inside, I won't know until I get it, but externally it's super nice, the distributor cap's broken. At the very least I was gonna yank the pan and do an inspection. I was going to replace all the gaskets. Porkanbeaner, you're the man, I printed your PM to me, I'm saving all the info. My 235's had it, despite the fact that I drive her just about everyday, she's getting old and weak. But she never let's me down, starts up every morning and she hauled 5 of us to the swap meet on Sunday, including all the junk we bought home. I'm really excited about getting into a SBC again, I haven't had one since '91. I had a '70 LT1 in my '57 Chevy back in '84, that was a gas. Thanks for all your help fellas.
Nads I'm running a 283 in my wagon and you know how much I drive it. I've got a Vette intake with filler tube it's yours if you want it.
Nads, i love those little********s! I've had/built both 283 and 327's with very good luck. The motor in my '32 is a '64 283. here's the 'basics' of what i did.. Bored .030, polished crank( small journal cranks are all forged), re-sized the rods and added ARP bolts. I used flat top pistons, and all internals were balanced. The heads i used were "Double hump"( big deal ). I did a typical 3 angle valve job, mild port and polish work, LT1 springs and crane stamped rockers. the first cam i used was a 350hp 327 cam. It ran great with a single 4bbl. I switched that out to a lunati bracket master hyd. stick..at the same time i switched the intake to a Offy dual quad with 2 500 carters. Once tuned it screamed! The final build has a lot of the same stuff, plus a Dyer's prepped GMC 6-71 huffer on it..and it runs just a touch better than it did before.. . Basically, because of the short stroke, there's not a lot of torque to 'em..but they pull rpm's like mad if done right. Also, the old saying "bigger is always better" dosn't hold true to these. To big a head, to big a cam, too much carb will all comprimise gains on the street. They can build power.. a friend of mine just bought a glass '27 T sportsman car. Granted it's light, but with a 301ci chevy and glide it ran high 8's, low 9's ... I have another sitting here for my pick up as soon as i blow up the***** box 305 that wont give up!! good luck Rat...
Cheap intake (Nate's is probably the ticket) & a small carb, with some swapmeet headers & and an HEI dizzy. I think keeping it cheap is a good idea, as spending a lot of money for increased performance may be a disappointment. If you were using it in a 2500 pound car that would be one thing, but your wife's wagon probably weighs 2 tons & 283's don't make much torque. If you're actually going to spend the time & money to build a motor and power is a priority, I'd ditch it & go with a 327 or 350. Not like they're expensive or hard to find! That said, my 283 powered 65 Impala was probably the most reliable car I've ever owned.
Nate, I'll take that intake buddy, I appreciate it a lot, I'll pay you back somehow. I can't wait to drop this engine in, I'm getting sick of trying to merge into traffic on the interstate when it takes me 5 minutes a ramp.
Not really tech related BUT I must reiterate how much. I LOVE my 283 and can't say enough good things about it. Reliability and simplicity are hard attributes to ignore.
Nads- two tips-dont over cam it- dont over Carb it.[especially in an auto trans car]...also watch the head swaps- if combustion chamber is any bigger- forget it -thats costing compression-compression makes the 283 what it was.JUST put a stick behind it then use a 460" lift max and 500 CFM carb max-try it you'll like it!Ditch any "powerslide" in that car........[SHE WILL DO 20MILES PER GALLON!]
Thanks for all the great info guys, I've got a 283 in my biscayne with only 58,608 on it thanks to a nice old guy. For a young gun with no idea how to do anything, I feel confident I can do this now. This is what hamb is all about, people helping people. Doesn't it just give you that warm fuzzy feeling inside...LOL
i'm running a 283 in my '60 camino. stock motor with a .480 lift cam and a stock 650 quad. i bought an edelbrock intake for $99 and drilled a hole for the filler (it has a flat boss where the neck goes). ground down the "edelbrock", painted it orange, used a pertronix kit and it still looks all stock. you will need to change the frame motor brackets from the 6 to the 8 and just use the regular motor mounts. also make sure you get the V-8 fan shroud.
I have a '61 283 in my '64 ragtop. Factory WCFB four barrel but we threw an HEI distributor on it and she wakes right up. Non-trad maybe but that was 10 years and alot of miles ago. With the powerglide it'll pull the***** out of anything for 100' at stoplights...
The Jalopy Journal
