Maybe Pete will jump in here this morning, after all I‘m talking about his truck. We took his '52, 3104 w/216 that he had just rebuilt to KC last year and she gave us a little better than 15 mpg on the average, which is good for this truck with the stock 4.10 gear and correct size tires. This past Fall/Winter Pete rebuilt a 235, correct me Peter if I'm wrong, but I believe he said it was a '55 passenger car power glide engine. We were just talking about the mileage a few days ago and he said he really hasn't been to diligent about checking the mileage but a rough estimate was that it was about the same as the 216. Which isn't bad at all considering it puts out a bunch more HP than the 216. I've driven the truck with both engines and the 235 is of course, much quieter, had a lot more pep, pulls much better all the way up the power band and in general is a real nice smooth running engine.
If absolute originality isn't your goal then this is certainly a swap that’s well worth the effort.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
