The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Need Help Putting Passenger 235 in 57 Pickup

Well, it sounded like a good idea at the time.

I recently bought a 57 Belair 235 engine so I could put a hydraulic lifter engine in my 57 truck. I had the engine rebuilt and today's the day I was going to do the swap. It didn't take me long to see that this was going to be a long day.

The car engine has side mounts like on a V8. The truck has front mounts. The passenger engine has no place to put the front mounts. (They're not in the plate on the front of the engine; they're on the sides of the block.

What are your ideas for getting this motor in my truck? What other challenges am I going to find today? Will the tranny (3-on-the-tree) fit ok?

Any help I can get would be greatly appreciated.

Jerry

Jerry: can't you change out the back plate on the front cover and keep your front mounting points? Thats what I did when switching from the old 216 to the car 235 engine and yours should be the same.
Yes, the tranny should fit. Sounds like your going to use the bellhousing from the car engine. Of course you can always change that out too.

The car engine had a powerglide in it so I'm using everything off the truck engine.

The mounts on my 57 are not on that front plate. I used to have a 50 Business Coupe that was setup like you describe. I suppose I could re-locate the mounts forward on the cross-member and use that plate as you suggest.

I was also thinking of getting a V-8 conversion kit and using that. It would seem that it should work since the 6 cylinder mounts in the same place at the V-8 on the Belair.

Jerry,

I have read that you should be able to take the 6 mounts off your 6 and install them on the front mount location on the 57 6. The mount holes should be up there for your use and you can abandon the side mounts.

The 58 block I have on my garage floor has front mounts and I think all 235's had em until production stopped in 62 or whenever....

Jerry: are you saying that not all the 235's had the front mounting plate? Where are the 57' truck mounts?

Dave,

Yes; the truck block is setup on the sides at the front of the motor for the mounts that go to the front cross-member. There are no side mounts (half way back) for the car mounts. The Belair motor has no mounting place at the front sides of the engine but has a triangle shaped set of 3 holes about half way back for the side mounts.

I'm wondering if I can use the conversion engine mounts that fit a V8 in the truck like what Chevy Duty sells. Any ideas?

Jerry

I'm quite suprised to hear that your car 235 doesn't have the boss and threaded holes for the truck mounts, as a number of folks have talked about using the car 235 in their trucks :confused: and the hydraulic 235's were used in the trucks w/ the auto trans - can't see GM having 2 different block castings

the 57 truck 235 has mounts like such - and drivers side - the V8 mount kit is a bracket that mounts off the rear of that crossmember, along with engine brackets that are slightly different than the 6 cyl ones, and a pair of mount pins that are very different than the 6 cyl ones - don't waste yer money

Bill

Red58,

You first pictures are right on the money. The Belair block doesn't have the holes there. They are back further for a mount like the later model V8s have. I'll get a picture.

Jerry

ive seen a kit so that you can mount v8s on the 6cynender mounts ill try to find it

yea it was on lmctrucks its 100bucks sould work

http://lmctruck.com/icatalog/ca/0068.html

You can also check with Clifford Performance.... formerly Clifford Reserch, They're out in Cali, and specialize on 6 cylinders. Been around at least 27 years, a good outfit. Good luck! Jim

The next issue was the down draft tube. It will not go in place and mount as it did on the old block. The side motor mounts are in the way. Now I'm starting to wonder what other problems I'm going to run into.

I'm starting to think this is a 58 or later motor but I don't have anything to help me ID the engine. The long block is assembled and I can't seem to find a casting number on the block. The head appears to be a 56 (Casting is 3836848). Here's what I have for the engine block:

Passenger side toward the rear: CON4 and A152
Passenger side stamp pad behind the distributor hole: F0II8J. Is this telling me that I have a 60 motor?

This engine came with a Powerglide behind it. Am I going to have an issue mounting my bellhousing and tranny behind it?

Thanks for you help.

If the A152 is a date code I'd say you have a '62 year model motor that was cast on January 15, 1962.

That makes sense. I've decided to mount the engine like the 54 and earliers were mounted. The front plate behind the harmonic balancer is drilled for it. When comparing part numbers, it looks like the rear mounts were the same. The consensus is that the bellhousing and tranny will mount up. I'm going to try to get my pilot bushing today. I'll know by Sunday if she's gonna work.

Thanks everyone for your input.

ie: draft tube. set it up with a PCV. this is the first i have read about the differant engine mounts. i will look closer when i find a newer 6 for my 39. thanks.

I'm not using the side mounts so my downdraft tube will work ok.