54 inline 6 in 49 pickup

[doogan]

I am new to the dodge family and have a 49 pilot house with bad engine.  I have the option to buy a running 54 inline 6 cy engine.  Will it fit in the truck without any issues or should I search for the stock engine?

[Young Ed]

54 what???

[doogan]

This is from a 54 dodge 4 door sedan.

[Young Ed]

If you have a smaller truck with the 23" engine it will fit with minimal work. You will need to swap some external stuff like the oil pan and pickup and the manifolds.

[Bobacuda]

Assuming both are 23" engines, it should not be bad.  Is either vehicle a Fluid Drive?  Crankshafts have more mounting holes for Fluid Drives, but I think a regular flywheel will still bolt to it.  I learned the hard way that the FL coupling would not bolt to a "standard" crankshaft.  Maybe someone else that knows more will speak up on this.  FL carbs are different than those on conventional, standard vehicles.

 

If I were doing this, I would put both engines on stands and change out all the stuff that looks different between the two.  I would remind myself to swap out the oil pick-up when swapping out the drainpans.  I would keep the car's head on the block,the car's thermostat housing on the head and use your truck's bell housing, flywheel, starter and carb linkage.  I would look at the manifolds and if they are different (your truck carb linkage bolts to the side of the intake, a car does not).  Some exhaust manifolds are different.  I would swap them out as well.  While I was at it, I would make sure the heat riser was either working or removed.

 

Last thing - are the fan belts the same width?  If not, get the '54's fan pulley and the generator so the belt width matches the balancer on the front of the engine.

[greg g]

Another consideration is the if the car was fluid drive and the truck is not, the crankshaft flange on the car motor will be marginally thicker than the non fluid drive unit. It is a small difference but it does position the ring gear on the fly wheel slightly further back from the starter mount.  The truck bell housing mounts to the frame rails, the car's mounts to a cross member.  The truck bell housing carries the clutch and brake pedals unlike in the car, so you will need to retain your truck drive line components.  Just make sure the starter gear is going to fully engage the ring gear.

[wayfarer]

Most of the 23" and all of the 25" cranks will have 8-holes. Most of the Plymouths (201-208-218) have only 4 or 6 of the holes. Yes, some Ply will have 8 holes all depending on year and application.

The issue with the 201-208-218 is that the crank flange does not project as far as the rest if the engines (1" vs 1.185") so they have a different flywheel that will add words to your vocabulary if used on a 'normal' crank. 

 

All of the flywheel/flange bolt patterns are the same, just the number of holes being different.