235 inline six power question

[My72ChevyC10]

My uncle left me a 55 Chevy 1/2 ton pickup. It is a field truck without an engine or transmission. I'm thinking about putting a hopped up 235 in the truck. I love the look of the inline sixes, and I don't want to have the same SBC that everyone else has at car shows. An added benefit is that I already have a 235 that I can use. The truck will be used as a cruiser, not a hauler. I would like to be able to run power steering, A/C, and possibly a TH350 transmission. Will a 235 have sufficient power to run the options that I would like to have and still keep up with traffic on an interstate, or would I be better off running a 250, 292, or 302?

[mr48chev]

If you plan to run a turbo 350 with the 235 you will need an adapter to mate it to a 235.

http://stoveboltengineco.com/catalog...roduct=1396439 Tom also has a lot of goodies for six cylinders. I'm planning on getting a set of his cast headers for my 292.
Also Buffalo Enterprises sells adapters and other six cylinder goodies.
http://www.inliners.org/buffalo/index.htm

That's 350 bucks to adapt the 235 to the turbo 350 and quite frankly I'm not sure it will have the performance you are wanting when you are done. If you want a nice little cruiser that you don't plan on going further than 100 miles from the house with it will probably be fine but if serious road trips are in the plan I don't think the 235 will get the job done unless you plan on a lot of 50/55 mph driving. The engine will look great and no doubt get a lot of attention and if you are good with that head on go for it.
Personally if I was to build that truck with a 235 it would have a 3.55 or 3.73 rear axle and a five speed overdrive manual trans in it. It would let the engine have a bit of bark and still be able to cruise at highway speeds without running at higher rpm than it wanted to.

[G&R's57GMC]

A friend of mine did a 261 (truck engine, big brother to the 235) with a 700R4 trans, Power steering, alternator & a/c in his 55 Cameo.

He used a Wilcap adapter http://www.wilcap.com for the trans and fabed a pair of mounts to the center cross member to act as a torque tamer and support the engine. The engine uses the stock front mounts, the fabed mounts and an aftermarket trans mount.

He made custom mounts for the power steering pump and used aftermarket brackets for the a/c and alternator. This required a double pulley on the crankshaft damper. He got one from The Damper Doctor in Redding,CA. http://www.damperdoctor.com

If your rear axle is in good shape keep the 3.90 gears when using a 700R4 or 4L60 Trans.
It will launch great and have plenty of power + cruise in overdrive.

[Rude Dude]

Here is alt and A/C

http://www.alangrovecomponents.com/C...x_Cylinder.htm

[OrrieG]

When I had my 235 in AZ I added ac. I got a bottom dual pulley off of a big truck that had power steering. I made a bracket for the pump (65 Impala with an after market under dash unit was the donor) using two unused holes below the valve cover on the passenger side. I used it for about 5 years, then pulled it because it was a real drag on the stock engine going up the long hills to my camping spots with a loaded camper.

As far as power go over to inliners.com. The sixes are inherently a smoother engine with greater torque to HP ratio (that is why the OTR engines are still big diesel 6's) and there are lots of aftermarket parts available. If I was going to rod one, I would find a 292 or 302 to use as a starting point. In the late 60's there was a guy in Eugene, Gerald of Geralds Transmission, that ran a front engine rail dragster with a bored 292 that put many SBC powered rails to shame. He did my transmission and ignition work, built great Powerglides and Hydros for racing.

[pipty6]

try patricksantiquecars.com, they specialize in 6 cylinder engines. call they can help answer your questions

[My72ChevyC10]

I went and looked at the truck yesterday. It does have an engine and a transmission. The engine is a 283 mated to the original manual transmission. I believe the truck has the original rear end. I have a couple of questions. How well will the manual transmission and original rear end hold up to a 283?

[booger1949]

i also didnt want to go the same o boring motors that every body else does so i went with a 4.3 v6 which is a 265 an it does real good in my 49, that 283 would b a real good motor to use for sure

[lmdangerous]

It held up this long . It was for its day as good as any. However- you now have the options of any SBC literally bolting in, can add a 5 speed to that bell housing with no problem , or just go with one of several AOD units, like the 7004r or even the 2004r - and with the small block- other than a cross member - they bolt up to the engine. Even with a 4.10 gear you would get decent pulling power , decent fuel economy , and very good parts availability anywhere in the US. The sky is your limit - and it can even be turned into a decent little beater without investing a total fortune.I had a 56 for my high school ride in the 80S . Wish I had it back.
LMD

[425HP409]

Since the truck already has a V8 in it, I would use it. You need to check the engine stamping code to see for sure what the engine is. If it is the original engine, it would be a 265, as the 283 didn't come out until 1957. With it being a V8, adding an Air Conditioning compressor will be easy. However, because the engine uses the pedistal style front mounts and use the bolts where later model Power Steering pumps mount: You have two options to add a Power Steering pump. 1. Use a Power Steering generator from a 55-59Chevy car like the one listed in Ebay #140786506585 2. Install side engine mounts with brackets to the frame and then install the power steering pump to the front of the block. ps. if the engine is a 265, it will not have the engine mount bosses on the side of the block to do this. Because it is a V8. you have the advantage of a great bell housing bolt pattern. The transmission is a fairly weak one, and expensive to rebuld. The differential is a pretty good one, but most of these trucks had a 3.90 ratio ring and pinion and not many parts available. This was good for the farm and going 55 mph or so. I would install either an automatic overdrive transmission or a 5 speed overdrive. This would make your net final drive about 2.75 with the 3.90 rear end. You can always install a later model 12 bolt rear end later.

[lmdangerous]

Remember that the 250 , 292 and the late style sixes have the same bellhousing patteren as the SBC - the late six could bolt to the belhousing that is there. you can buy the crossmember kits cheaper than you can build them these days and that would solve that problem and it the late sixes came with air and power steering from the factory . there are several companies making the late style compressor brackets for the l250. parts - even nice pull out engines are pretty cheap as compared to the SBC BCC. Again you have a lot of good options
LMD

[My72ChevyC10]

Thank you for the replies. I should have added that it is definitely a 283. The block casting number is 3849852. The information I found indicates that it is a 58-64 283. I didn't get any other information off of the block. The truck was orginally owned by my cousin. He last drove it in 1978 according to the inspection sticker. He passed away in 2010. Since I intend to make this a tribute truck, I have decided to leave it as close as possible to the vehicle that my cousin drove in 78.

[yossarian19]

You could go full party-mode and get a 4.2 liter modern I-6 out of a Trailblazer, add 4l60E & call it a slight "factory update"...

[Muleman100]

In my opinion the 283 is a very good, durable and dependable motor. I have used the 283 in a few of my projects with great success

[OrrieG]

283 is probably my favorite engine, since I grew up with them. The stock tranny and rearend will do just fine as long as you don't abuse them. Stock the 2bbl were 195 hp at the flywheel; 4bbl 225 hp (if memory is working right). The Corvettes could get up around 280 hp. With an intake, cam and headers is was pretty easy to make 300 hp at the flywheel and they would wind like crazy. I abused plenty of the cast iron three speed trannys and stock rearends in trucks and cars, cooked the clutch or broke universal joints, only rear end I hurt was from fluid loss. I do not remember ever hurting a manual tranny.