fadingfastsd

no theres plenty of room. I was able to remove the fuel pump with the headers installed.

Ok quick update. The car is getting a 350/T350 combo. new driveshaft and axle. All the old stuff is going. Speed parts are already sold, but the whole engine/trans/2 driveshafts, and axle are all available for the best offer. Need to get rid of them immediately. I'll start a new thread soon about the engine swap.

Thanks Steve! I think overall I will be happier with this setup. I've never had any intentions of trying to keep the car original, I just want to build my idea of a hot rod. I know I'll be happier with a 300+ hp v8 anyways.. I'll be able to get in more trouble that way

Thanks alot for the info guys. Good question on the radiator, I was wondering that myself. So it looks like I've made a final decision. Going to be swapping in a Chevy 350 that San Diego Rod & Custom has recently rebuilt. Got a nice cam in it, going to run headers, intake and a 4bbl, should be 310-320 hp I think. Going to be an interesting change for this car. The speed parts (carb/intake/headers/air filters) are already sold. I will be selling the whole original drivetrain (hopefully all together) asap if anybody wants, or i'll part it out too I guess. Engine, trans, 2 driveshafts, and original axle. Thanks very much for everybodys help, ideas, and info. I really appreciate it. It took me a little while, but now I'm getting excited about the car again and I'm gonna do some really cool stuff with it. Its just too nice and interesting of a car for me to sell and it deserves to be a bad @ss little hot rod. So back to work! I'll be starting a new build thread to detail the engine swap as well

no I'm not completely against using a 6 cyl. honestly I'm just pissed off about that engine and really don't want to spend any more time on it. I will definitely find out what happened this week and get an update posted. I'll probably just try and sell all the engine and speed parts as soon as I can get over to the shop and pull it apart.

Andy thats exactly what I'm thinking with my car. I'm just a little hesitant to put a 'rare' engine in a car thats gonna see alot of miles!

hkestes, thanks for the link. That was a good informative article. I'd love to find one of those, would be an awesome engine! But my main concern is parts, price, and reliability. I intend to drive the hell out of the car once I get a new engine/trans in it, and I need something long term and reliable, with easily available parts. That kind of makes a rare engine a poor choice for my situation doesnt it?

Sorry if this is a stupid question...but what is a poly motor?

Thanks again for the offer Kevin. If I wasn't enjoying this 70degree sunshine here in San Diego, I'd head right over! Any chance you're interested in shipping that baby hemi? We could work out a price including me throwing in alot of flathead parts!

Thanks Bob, Sorry I keep missing out on the conversation here, the site has stopped sending me instant email notifications to replies even though its still set to do so. Anybody else having this problem? Yep I'm still pretty bummed and have been taking a break. The car is sitting over at my buddies shop at San Diego Rod & Custom. We should tear into it pretty soon and start coming up with a plan, so I'll keep you guys posted as soon as I have more info. Where would I find one of these small hemis? It would be pretty awesome to stuff one in there!

A quick question: What Dodge engines are considered the small hemi's? Where can I read more about these, I'd like to look into that option. But where the hell can I find one?

Hey guys sorry I've been really busy and haven't been back on here in a couple days. I haven't looked into exactly what happened yet. The car is at San Diego Rod & Custom right now, and they're checking it out for me to figure out what happened. I was going probly 55 on the freeway, and had been driving for 20 min or so when the knock developed. Temp was fine, oil pressure was fine. Knock became louder at freeway speed, and i went about another mile and got off at the next exit. Right as it came back down to idle the knock got very very loud, right then was when something blew as smoke started pouring out of the hood from oil on the exhaust. I had to head in to work, and my Dad got it towed over to the shop for me. I'm pretty burned out on it at the moment and havent made alot of effort yet. I really don't know what direction to go. The reason for a SBC is the same as everybody elses: price, availability, and parts. I'm open to other options but I just don't know what I'll end up doing. I'll put up the parts for sale as soon as I have a plan. If you search for posts by my name you can find pics of the carb/intake/exhaust setup on here.

Thanks for the sympathy! it helps . I'm pretty bummed, it was alot of work all for nothing. Good for you guys though, i"ll be having alot of good parts for sale: 2x 2bbl Carter Webers, Offy dual carb intake, split Langdons headers, lots more stuff. What engine should I be looking into?

Hey guys, Sorry it's been awhile since I've posted an update on here. I think some of you were following my build on my 51 Plymouth. I swapped in a "newly rebuilt" engine that I bought off craigslist about a month ago. Well I got everything up and running strong, and put about 50 miles on the new engine with no problems. Then last Saturday, I was cruising on the freeway to work, going about 55mph, and a knock developed. I was almost to my exit and got off the freeway. As I came to the exit and back down to idle, the knock got progressively louder and worse. It stopped with a clunk and the engine died. Smoke was pouring out of the hood and into the cab. So I pushed her around the corner, and opened up the hood...didn't look good. Something blew up good and oil was EVERYWHERE. I've had it towed over to my buddies at San Diego Rod & Custom (www.sandiegorodandcustom.com, I run their website ), and they're gonna take a look. I'm expecting pretty bad news, probably threw a rod. So, do you guys want to help me with options on engine/trans swaps? I'm thinking for cost-effectiveness probably a SBC swap with a floor shift manual. Any ideas, comments? I'll keep you updated as this develops. I'm definitely hanging onto the car though, she's a keeper. -Evan

Hey thanks for all the great comments guys. I still haven't heard it yet, The car went into a local shop, San Diego Rods & Kustoms right after the exhaust was done. They are finishing the carb linkage, probably going to convert it to 12V, and do some other stuff. I'll keep you posted on it!