Flat belt

I knew a couple of old dirt tracker plymouth guys that put the 251 in Plymouths after the war and in engine class wars they said that they were about even with the Ford V-8 60. They could pull the Fords out of the turns because of the torque but the Fords could usually catch up by the next turn. They said what killed them is When the Hudson big six showed up. I have wondered for years if they changed the trans etc. or just went with the original trans. Unfortunately for me [and everyone else], they have both been gone for many years. I sure wish someone with that type of info on the 217 to 251 quick and dirty race day swaps would pipe up if they know anything about this practice. I've done the take your time, work it out at your leisure 217/251 switch but not the bore it in the morning, race it that night thing [like i did on my dirt tracker in 1982].

I sure would like to hear from some of the 'seasoned' members here if they know about running the big six in the early mopars. Two of my old hero's [now gone] told me about racing their 35-6-37 Plymouths against the V-8 60's and how they did pretty well on short tracks with the 251s. My question is...Did people doing this change the bell housing to get away from the peanut trans [on a 36]? Did they drop a truck bellhousing in to use the bigger, harder truck gears? I'm working on the truck bellhousing idea for several reasons, not the least of which is that you wind up with brake master cylinder, clutch linkage [10 inch disk], and even throttle linkage if you want it. I know there is enough room in my 36 because it just fits ahead of the x-member with a early 50s dodge truck trans. The bell housing has about a 1/4" inside the frame rails. I live on an island north of Seattle and don't have the luxury of being able to talk to anybody about this so I would sure appreciate a connection to someone I could talk to about this. Thank you

I don't what year they changed but I believe there is an extra water passage on the later ones. You can see the bump on the very front of the head for the passage. I learned this about 1970 when I put an earlier head on a late block. Water everywhere. Someone must know more about this than me.