The 56 235 motor is a pretty good motor. First year for precision bearings (read that as no shims needed), first year for the neoprene rear seal, first year for the 848 head.
The 54 261 is also a good motor. Of all the 261 blocks, the 54 has the thickest cylinder walls so can theoretically be bored out a little larger than the 56-62 blocks. One the other hand, uses shimmed bearings, rope rear main seal, low compression head (depending on the casting, 86.2 or 95.5).
So, theoretically you could rebuild the 261, send the cam to Schneider Racing Cams in San Diego and have them put a mild grind on the cam, rebuild the head (if you really felt like playing you can have the head rebuilt with larger valves, stainless Manley Street Flow for the exhaust, GM 50-52 powerglide intake valves, open the throats a bit, machine the valve stems for a modern PC seal, drill the steam holes in the 848 head, and you would have a pretty good runner with the dual manifold and exhaust.
I completely understand the if it ain’t broke sentiment. I do. But I have a different take. I love to tinker. I am ok with failure with some of my tinkering. It comes with the territory. I do not want to be in the nursing home stuck in a bed lamenting over what I did not do, but rather think about the things I did do. So I work hard, and then I play, and play and play.
If you want to play, go to it. The worse that can happen is you don’t like it. Then you will redo a few things and try again until you do. When the window closes on your physical and/or mental and/or financial ability to play closes, with very few exceptions, it generally does not reopen. No better time than now!
Last edited by Dragsix; 03/08/2025 3:25 PM.
