The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts 350 into a '59 Viking 60 dump truck

hi guys-

new lister here, but i hope this isn't a newbie question. i'm thinking of buying a 1959 viking 60 w/ a dump bed on the back for use around the farm. the previous owner pulled the original motor which the current owner told me was a 283. he further told me that i should be able to drop in a 350 w/ out too much trouble.

what i'm curious to know is if an early 350 will really bolt in or not. are the motor mounts the same on these? what about the tranny? will a 350 bolt to the muncie SM420? what about a flywheel? is there something peculiar about the flywheel that might make it difficult to get all this stuff to work together?

i'm not worried about swapping out an electric fuel pump for a mechanical one or things like that. i figure that i'll convert over to an alternator, so i'm not worried about having to find a bunch of brackets to get a generator back in there either.

what else should i be concerned about? the truck will just be for use around the farm and for hauling junk off to the dump, so at the end of the day, the old girl just needs get me around.

thanks for the help,

-robert (in north ga)

The 85 on back 350 is a direct bolt in. It depends on how much of the old system is still there. If the bell houseing is still there it will bolt right up. You will need a pair of the old ram horn ex. masnifolds. There was a "horse shoe" that bolted to the front of the engine for front engine mounts. The rear mounts are on the bell houseing. It's all a mater of finding the parts.

thanks wrenchbender.

how about the flywheel? what flywheel would i need to use? i got the sense that it's just a matter of finding the right parts, but it's knowing which parts to use is what's tough. can you recommend anyone that specializes in these old parts or would i just need to start posting on the parts wanted list?

thanks again,

-robert

That's what he was saying, if you use a pre-85 350, all of the same parts used for the 283 should bolt directly onto the "new" motor. A small block Chevy is a small block Chevy for the most part until they changed to external balancing and one piece rear main seals in the mid 80's.

thanks for the help-

what i don't have is anything from the old 283. no flywheel or anything. what i think i can do then is just use any pre-1985 flywheel w/ an 11" clutch and that should bot right in. i'll also need an adaptor to go from the old type front motor mounts to the later style side-mount and finally a pair of ram's horn manifolds and i should be going down the road.

i think that i've found an adaptor in the classic parts of america that will do the job of adapting the side mount motor mounts to the front mount type. this should work in the larger chassis, correct? the dimensions of the blocks are the same, so if it'll adapt a motor to a 1/2 ton, it ought to work in a 1 1/2 ton. is that correct?

thanks for the help guys,

-robert

Robert,

I have both big and small TF bolts that have SBC V8's, they all bolt in with the same hardware.

Since your truck had a V8 at one time I'm betting the front cross member still has the lower motor mount brackets still bolted or riveted in place. The motor should already have the mounting bracket bolt holes drilled and tapped on either side of the timing cover. This entire front mount kit is available from all of the vendors.

The bellhousing needs to be from a truck, it is different than the cars. The truck uses one large anchor bolt on each side while the cars use two small bolts. The transmission input shaft hole is also larger on the trucks. Let me know if you need the hole measurement or pictures.

The flywheel needs to have the correct ring gear to match the starter motor. I believe mine all have the 154 tooth ring gear and the flange mounted starter motor. I got a cast iron flywheel and 11" clutch kit from Auto Zone and couple weeks ago.

To sum it up, if you use the original front and bellhousing motor mounts everything will line right up and bolt right in.

Good luck!

Mike B

Hi Mike-

Wherever you are I wanna buy you a beer. Just order one up from the bartender and have him send me the bill.

I ended up finding a 1975 Blazer engine that had the flywheel still on it. The SM420 transmission still has the bell housing on it, so I'm hoping that it'll bolt right up.

One thing that I'm still curious about is the clutch size. Being a big heavy truck, do you think that it might make sense to try to find a flywheel set up of for a 12" clutch or do you guys think that an 11" clutch will work.

On the flywheel and starter, I imagine that I should just go with whatever starter matches the flywheel, correct? The starters have the same external dimensions, right? Therefore I just count the teeth and I'm set.

Sorry if these questions sound stupid. I know that it's just a matter of getting all the right pieces and bolting it all up, but I wanna save as many trips to the corner that I can and just get it to all the little bits and pieces.

Thanks for the feedback guys, especially Mike and Wrench Bender!

-Robert in North Georgia

Robert,

The starters are not all the same. The early bell housings had a smaller starter hole and the starter bolted to the bell housing through a end flange. The later starters have larger end bell and a larger hole in the bell housing and mount via long mounting bolts that go into the block. Just match the starter to your bell housing and match the tooth counts (I checked my tooth count and it's 168).

My Fire truck has a 13" clutch (322 Buick motor) and I run an 11" in my tow truck with a 350 SBC. If available I think 12" would be perfect.

Mike B

Thanks, Mike.

I'm gonna dust of some parts and start seein' what'll bolt together and what won't. I'll keep y'all posted.

-Robert