Joe, thank you for taking the time to write that big response. Very helpful.
I have a million questions for you, but will stick to a few.
-From reading your post, it sounds like you're saying I could gain adequate clearance for a 292/250 by moving the radiator forward (and down) without having to modify the firewall? Please correct me if I misunderstood you. I'm 6' tall and I already have to stuff myself into this truck, but oddly enough, that's partly what I like about it. But I don't want to be even more cramped!
-Regarding brakes/wheels/axles...(Should I ask this in a different forum??) I was planning on exactly what you are running, which is disc conversion up front on stock axle, drums in the rear, manual and no power booster. Glad to hear it's working for you. So with that being said, I was hoping to run my stock artillery wheels. For the rear, I assume I could just get new axles with the 6 lug pattern. But up front I'm told my stock wheels won't work with a disc conversion, yet I saw a truck (online, not in person) which claimed to have discs and stock wheels. Those who say it won't work claim the caliper will hit the rivets on the inside of the wheel. My thoughts are possibly spacing them out a bit, but I don't know if that's possible. Or finding smaller calipers and making my own conversion kit, but I'd prefer to make it easy and just purchase an already engineered kit if possible.
If you have any thoughts on that, please share. I know your '37 didn't have those wheels, but thought I'd ask just in case you have any insight on this. I'd really like to somehow get solid answers on this prior to ordering my disc conversion kit so I know what bolt pattern to get. Don't want to get the 6 lug pattern if this can't be done because then I can't use the 5 bolt axles I already have for the rear. If it can't be done, would rather just get 5 lug for the front.
-Regarding the foot pedals, this is a major concern of mine. Since I'm keeping it a manual, left foot braking wouldn't work even if I was willing to drive the truck that way. Are you saying there is no way around this issue? Bell housing clearance to the foot board and also having no space for the pedals to be at least somewhere close to where they are now is what I worry about.
I'd really like to keep the truck an inline 6 and was hoping doing so would solve more problems than it creates versus doing the SB 350, but maybe it won't. The 350 is I think 2" (maybe more) shorter than my stock 207, but might create width problems (exhaust to steering box clearance??) And I REALLY don't want to do a V6.
Thanks again.
Ron
Last edited by RBs36; 10/12/2023 3:33 PM.
