The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 350 in a 49' 3800?

Looking to see if anyone here has done such a thing before and what results it produced. I have a 1949 3800 with the 9' bed on it and am considering droping a 350 with a automatic in it, and did not know how it may mesh up with the 5.14 gearing in the rearend. was curious what it would do for power and speed, or even if you could afford to run it down the road.

The easy rear gear swaps from a 10 bolt 64-72 will give you 4.57 or 4.10 gears. All that's involved is swapping out the pumpkin (center section).

With a 700R4 tranny, overdrive is .70, which will give you final drive ratios of 3.60(5.14), 3.20(4.57), 2.87(4.10).

The 4.10 gears are getting harder to find, but are still out there. There are guys who have made the swap on 3/4 tons who would probably give you their old 4.57 gears.

I saw a 3800 with a small block at a swap meet last fall. It had a later rear and stock brakes on the front. If I remember correctly it had an sm420 instead of an automatic.

The owner claimed he had driven it a couple hundred miles to get it to the meet, and that it ran down the freeway at 70+ mph just fine.

Of course he saw how hard I was looking at it, and thought I might be a prospective buyer. He could have been in sales mode... I guess I was tempted, but really what I wanted to see what how it was built.

Thanks, Guys I was toying with the idea, and it looks like it could work then. As far as the rearend went I do have a rolling chassis from under a 63' 3/4 ton that if I was told right had a 4.11 posi rearend in it but was on coilover springs with a arm that comes down from the frame to it. might be able to steal the gears out of it to work.

Toomany, were you from up in the Quincy area? I noticed the numerous pics from the car show up here. I am about 15 miles east of there.

I think you can remove just the center section from the '63 and transplant it to the older truck. Do some searching here and I'm sure you'll find description from someone who has done it.

Hi Guys,
I have a 3/4 ton Chevy and have been looking for a carrier to do the swap that you are talking about. There is a good swap article in Chevytrucks.org, tech section on replacing the carrier. Here is a link (I hope). http://community-2.webtv.net/Tom3600/REARENDGEAR/
Ralph