The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop SBC accessory layout

For those that have completed a SBC transplant into a 1949-53 I am interested in what you did for engine accessory positioning.

I am planning a Gen 1 383 build for my 49 and early in the engine build process I need to decide on water pump rotation determined by conventional v-belt or serpentine belt selection. I am not planning for A/C but potentially will have power steering in addition to the water pump and alternator.

My preference is to leave the inner fenders original but if necessary modifications for clearance are possible.

Any pictures or insight appreciated.

Look at Alan Grove performance or March Performance, both offer pulley kits for tight engine compartments. The 90's SBC had a good accessory layout and everything bolted to the front of the engine, radiator clearance may be an issue though. Look through the gallery and see what others have done.

I wanted to stay narrow. So I built my own alternator and AC brackets.

The issue which you will run into with the 283 is the lack of bolt bosses on heads for a slick installation of a junkyard serpentine belt setup for perfectly aligned pulleys.
HRL might have a tip for using 305 heads on a 283. The combustion chambers on a 305 are smaller than a 350. I don't know if the chambers are similar enough to the 283 to work. The 305 heads have the bolt bosses you will need for serpentine belt setup.
To create a stock V-belt setup for a 283, you will need to locate very rare a/c brackets. Then you will need to battle with lining it up so the pulley is lined up.

....IF you have the bosses on the head you will be ahead of the game considering what some folks pay for pulleys ect. I used small block, 305, and used the brackets off the V6 S-10 pickup. Worked like a charm and the a/c pump and alternator are up top for easy access. Just some food for thought.

I got lucky, a friend of mine gave me the brackets and even an alternator for free!! Sometime you get lucky.

WiCruiser said he is building a 383, not a 283. The 383 will use later model heads normally from a 350, he should have mounting options.

The bolt in the heads started in 1969 and up. If the 383 motor is a crate engine with 202 heads or aluminum heads it should have bolt holes in the heads. I have a 46 chevy truck with v-belts. I took the fan off my engine and went to an electric fan due to tight space. I also used a short water pump. There are a lot of questions I would ask and discuss before you get started. Look at other trucks and ask a lot of questions before you start. Speedway Motors has a lot of parts for this conversion.

A 383 should be a .030 over 350 with 5.7 or 6.0 rods and a 400 crankshaft. There is machine work on the block so everything to clear.

My engine was originally a 1991 350 from a K2500 but has been bored 0.030 oversize and I am planning to build with a 383 rotating assembly (18cc dished pistons, 5.7" rods). The block was machined to clear the 383 rods. I am currently planning to use the original 350 (193 casting) heads (I know they do not flow well) with all the mounting holes available in the ends for accessory mounting. I anticipate using a short water pump but have not decided yet about engine driven fan or electric, either way I anticipate some form of shroud will be beneficial.

I did a 400 transplant into a 1992 Jeep Wrangler previously and am familiar with Alan Grove and March Performance but they offer a wide variety of accessory locations depending on the space in the vehicle so I am hoping to get some insight from those that have done it already what works best; thank you MNSmith and Achipmunk for your respective pictures.

The brackets work differently for short and long water pumps. Typically the short water pump was used on 68' and back engines, with those there were no mounting hole in the heads. The long water pump started in 69' and seems to to the standard on Gen1 SBC.

You mentioned reverse flow water pump, those are almost always used with a serpentine belt drive. With this system you need to use idlers' and sometimes a tensioner to get everything turning in the right direction.

The electric fan is going to use less space, a mechanical fan often requires a fan shroud as well.

I believe one of the advantages of using the long pump is that the alternator can be mounted in front of a cylinder head making the overall package narrower, with the short pump the alternator is too long to fit in that area. I need to review the difference between the short and long pumps again.

I located the original engine accessory bracket for the 91 engine (still has the A/C compressor installed) and it does include the mounting points for a tensioner and I believe the alternator. I am not planning on having A/C and not sure if I can just delete the compressor or will need to add an idler pulley in that location to get the required wrap on a serpentine belt.

On my Jeep conversion with the short pump the alternator was mounted high on the passenger side and the power steering pump was mounted low on the driver's side. I had a two groove crankshaft pulley with one belt running the water pump and alternator and a second belt running the power steering. I could envision a similar setup for this truck. the Jeep also had an electric fan mounted to a home made shroud such that it pulled air through the entire radiator surface. I believe I had about 1/2" clearance between the back of the electric fan and the water pump pulley.

Several of the after market a-c and street rod suppliers offer the "high mount" options for accessories. We have patterns for extreme high mounts(squeeze radiator hose from both sides) as well as low mounts. We would think we were in heaven to have as much room as an AD has.

[img]https://i.postimg.cc/zbmRR5x5/IMG-5379.jpg[/img]

TuT reminded me to say anyone using the serpentine system from a V6 S-10 pickup will have to buy a water pump for the S-10 since it is a reverse flow. Just wanted to throw this back in.... thanks TuT.

WICruiser After a few learned to just put the engine a palm of your hand from the firewall on the passenger side,that is with a tin script valve cover.

Iused a big distribitor and measuring from the front chassis rivet as instructions showed I was able to cup my hand around it. I used the kit from Classic Parts. Worked like a charm.

I need thicker glasses.

Achipmunk, I know I have seen the location instructions somewhere but can not seem to locate them again. Could you point me in the right direction to find them?

The short pump is 1 3/8" shorter than the long pump which seems like a lot when we are talking about finger width clearances so I am probably going with the short pump.

A serpentine setup may be narrower than multiple v-belts but serpentine setups for the short pump do not seem to be readily available so I will probably go with v-belts. On my Jeep repower I believe I used a 2 groove crankshaft pulley with a back spaced PS pulley which worked out pretty well. I used Alan Grove brackets for that engine.

here is the picture/instruction I was talking about. Hope this helps.....I put a strip of tape down the frame rail and checked/double checked and the engine sat down on the mounts smooth as silk.

Achipmunk, thanks for the instructions. There is a note that indicated with the large distributor firewall modifications are required, did you need to make any changes to the firewall?

no, and i could wrap my hand around it. . A little tight,yes, but removing and replacing cap was not a problem.

I realize this is a different engine but sometimes you have to get creative. I made a new alternator bracket to drop it down slightly and move it forward. My water pump pulley started it's life as a reverse rotation ford pulley. I put the 8 groves in it and made a spacer and countersunk the bolts to clear the blower belt. I am using electric A/C with remote condenser and electric P/S to simplify things and keep the engine compartment clean. I guess my point is just solve one thing at a time and don't lock yourself in a box just because that's what everyone else does. I'm just a normal guy and I figured it out. It was quite overwhelming when I started. I just poked away at it and then it was done. Thank you for your time.

I made a 235 serpentine set up six years ago but there was so little interest I back shelved it. Brackets were made from common shop items. Only finished one is on a 57 3100 that has been trouble free for six years.

Photo of it in the prototype stage:
[img]https://i.postimg.cc/nXf1HK0k/IMG-4179-2.jpg[/img]

A-C compressor can be deleted.

WICruiser, You can piece together brackets from different vendors and get everything positioned were you would like. I used a short shaft water pump on my 68' 327, there are no mounting holes on the heads, a power steering bracket from Brothers Truck (I believe it is actually an Alan Grove), alternator bracket from Speedway Motors (Spectre bracket) and serpentine pulleys from March Performance. It all worked out great, I still intend to add a A/C compressor sometime later and had that all worked out as well.

The point being as Mick53 has shown you can come up with a setup that works if you just do some research and a little creative engineering. Just a note my 327 is going in a 59' so I do have a little more room to work with than you. Good luck.

Thank you for all the input. I realize that there are a lot of options from a variety of sources that can allow the accesories to be located in a variety of places.

My biggest concern is that I intent to decide about the water pump rotation and related belt type long before I have the engine in the chassis much less with all the space defining aspects of accessory location.

Now that I have decided that I will go with the short pump and v-belts I can plan my engine build accordingly. Once I hav ethe engine installed int he chassis I can install the surrounding parts as needed to decide which brackets and pulleys will work best.

Have a look at Bills Hotrod Parts. Good selection of bracket options