The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop engine upgrade?

59 Chevy Apache with original 283 and a 700r4 tranny with lockup. I would lik to get more out of the truck. I guess bit more torque and gitty up, it currently takes a bit too long to get going for my likings. Any suggestions?

The best way is to order a Goodwrench 350 & drop it in. That's what I do with them. If you don't want to spend that much you can put a 4 barrel & dual exhaust on your 283. A mild cam also will help but you don't wan't to go to wild with the small displacement engine & auto trans.

The easiest approach would be another six. I imagine a 250 or 293 would give you the kick you are looking for.
http://www.gmplace.com/engine/gmcgmplacegmc_292lb_6.html

http://www.summitracing.com/

Nothing a 4 barrel and some headers won't fix!
And what kinda gears you running in the rear end?
Keep the 283, just give it a good going thru


Don J

When was the 283 last overhauled or rebuilt ?

Not sure when last over haul was, i bought it in March and i notice a tickinh sort of like a stuck lifter. I just dont want to sink money into rebuilding this one and then it crapping out. Rear end gears i think are high but cant tell as the numbering is not on them, we couldnt tell by turning the wheels either. what gears would be ideal for this setup? not trying to pull anything heavy just cruising and gitty up.

Guys i failed to mention i have corvette headers on the 283,(can anyone tell me what the stock headers looked like), i have a 2200 stall, could this be part reason why the gitty up is not up to par?, Also what were the stock rear gear ration on a 283 59'? I'm thinking I still have those.

the standard rear ratio is 3.90, should gitty up fine, but the original ratio with an OD trans was 4.11 .... maybe by "Corvette headers" you mean the original rams horn manifolds? the Vettes had slightly larger diameter, but any rams horn would be fine for a normal 283 .... the setup you bought would be for general driving, especially highway speeds with the OD, if you're into spinning the tires a manual trans would do it easily, mine does

Bill

I sure hope i have the 3.90 will need to check out, a mechanic fixing the rear seal told me he could not tell ratio because he was unable to see something, forgot what he said, bujt he did say that the gears looked sort of small to be what i thought 3.73-3.90. I am trying to find out best combo to use. I already have an aftermarket AOD tranny 700r4, the 283 original engine, not sure on cam specs, and a 2200-2400 converter not sure which. What would be the best "hook up" for this setup for increased torque in low to mid range? I am not going to drag, just want something that can take off line and yet still have HP and torque through power band into highway cruising speeds. I plan to get the 600cfm edlebrock carb with matching intake manifold soon.

I am running a 350 with a700R4 OD tranny,then into the a stock 3:90 rear.Works out just fine,plenty of get up and go and 20 MPG all day long.The 283 should also work out fine with that setup.By the way my 350 is built up pretty nice,and it is mean and sassy.

Nice Dale, so you also have a 2400 stall or higher?

mejia11, if you are capable of assembling an engine you have the option of picking up a small block Chevy long block core from a Chevy or GMC truck dealer for their standard core charge of $100. A local dealer let me pull the pans off the cores he had to see what they were. I found a 4-bolt 350 unit with a crankshaft and rods in perfect condition and cylinders still on the standard bore. Racers tell me that a "seasoned" block that has been through thousands of heating and cooling cycles is actually preferable to a new block becaused the used block is totally dimensionally stabilized whereas a new block may deform ever so slightly as it ages.

Next I bought a set of rod and main bearings and .020 oversize (the smallest oversize available to preserve cylinder wall thickness) hypereutectic pistons from an online seller and took the block, rotating assembly, bearings and pistons to a machinme shop. The machine shop hot tanked and bored the block, honed it with a torque plate and hung the new pistons on the rods that came with the core and balanced the rotating assembly.

Next was finding rings, a Cloyes true roller timing set, Crane camshaft and lifters, roller tip rocker arms, pushrods and a new harmonic balancer to avoid any leaks at the front seal from online sellers.

Finally I bought a new set of Edelbrock heads with small ports suitable for street use because it is so expensive to put used heads into truly like new condition (new valves, bronze guide liners, 3-angle valve job, springs, retainers, locks, seals) that new heads are actually more cost effective and come with very nicely and uniformly blended bowls and finished ports.

Doing all of the above allowed me to select components suitable for my purpose and check all parts during asembly, something that is simply not done by the minimum wage grease monkeys that assemble "crate engines". Also, selecting your own parts enables you to use quality parts where doing so is cost effective. An example is the true roller timing set. It costs 4 times as much as the $20 timing sets used in the crate engines but will not be all stretched out like the cheapy almost immediately, retarding the camshaft and killing low RPM torque.

The result of this is a street rod that will smoke the tires if my grandkids want a burnout ride yet get nearly 21 MPG on the highway with a 2004R trans, a smaller version of the 700R4 you will be using.

If you look in the Summit Racing catalog you will see what a "crate engine" with quality components costs. You would pay a fraction of that assembling your own.

The Task Force Chevys are as aerodynamic as a brick. I will call bs on anyone who claims 20 plus mpg at freeway speeds using a carb. I believe 20 is possible under the right circumstances, but reality is probably closer to 12-16 mpg.

I can get 14.5 mpg in my 1/2 ton longbed gmc with 3.70 gears and a 27% OD and 28 inch tall tires. The engine is a mildly built 389 pontiac stroker motor(actually 447 inches of displacement) with 3 2bbl carbs. But I usually get closer to 10 because of the 3 deuces. What's the point of having them if you can't have fun using them. Anyway I realize I don't have the most fuel effecient setup, but over 20 mpg seems a little far fetched.

I'm running a 350, comp cam, flat tops, double hump heads, etc, with a 4 speed and 3.38 rear. I get 24 mpg consistantly.

About 14 on the highway and 10 in town, that's 24 right?

Bigbadswingdaddy, my street rod is a '32 Ford highboy roadster, not a pickup and it really does get over 20 MPG at a consistent 70 MPH on the highway. I built a similar engine for my son's '78 El Camino and it has the same lively performance and about 19 highway MPG with a 4-speed Sagnaw and a 3.08 rear gear. With its 3.80 rear gear and .67 overdrive ratio my roadster engine is just running at a fast idle at freeway speed in 4th gear. The camshaft in my roadster engine is a Crane piece with duration at .050 of 218* and 230* yet it pulls that overdrive ratio easily just as the Crane tech guy told me it would when he recommended it for my application. It also revs up enough to really press me back in the seat make my eyes water when I merge onto the freeway.

I know other street rod guys with even better mileage numbers but they have EFI, not a carburetor. Getting optimum performance requires doing more than simply buying a crate engine and taking parts like a distributor and carburetor out of their boxes and installing them. There is a lot of power and fuel economy potential in matching compression ratio/intake and exhaust port volume/intake manifold design/camshaft/header design/exhaust system design and in fine tuning carburetor calibration (primary main jets, secondary main jets, metering rods, metering rod springs, accelerator discharge nozzel orifice size, etc) and distributor calibration (initial timing, mechanical advance curve, vacuum advance curve).

The point I was trying to make is that if a person is willing to research the subjects of precision engine assembly and tuning and take the time to optimize a combination of engine parts the results can be very good. I've discovered that most casual street rodders cannot resist the temptation of instant gratification and opt for a "crate engine" with "out of the box" accessories.

I'm always looking for "speed secrets" that others have discovered and friends who are racers love to talk about what's inside their engines and what they plan to try next for better results at the drag strip or on the Bonneville salt flats. There is no such discussion with the "crate engine" guys because they don't know and don't care what's inside.

To each his own, right?

Ray,
You're doing it the right way for what you are looking to achieve and for your particular interests and I would like to do the same someday. However, at this moment, a total rebuild and upgrade as mine is would be finished sometime in 2030 if I had taken the "perfect" engine and driveline route. A crate engine for now is a simple tool to see this project to a completion sometime in my lifetime.

Big Chevy 3600, 50 years ago when I was a 16 year old kid I felt the way you do, that assembling an engine was way beyond anything I could ever tackle, and even if I did do it it would take forever. Lucky for me, one of my parents' neighbors was a proressional mechanic. He told me that the process is very simple and I could do it.

Being a gullable kid I believed him, and guess what? He was right! The engine in question back then was a '50 Olds V-8 that I wanted to put in a 1928 Ford roadster that was my daily driver in high school. The engine I assembled myself ran great without any problems.

I encountered the same situation much later when I restored my Stovebolt, a '36 Chevy pickup. This time it wasn't the engine work that intimidated me, it was the body work. I took it around to some body shops and they wanted to take my money to plaster it up with bondo. I wanted real metal straightening and that simply isn't done any more.

By then I was an adult in my 30's and another neighbor who was a very accomplished metal man encouraged me to do the body repair and painting myself, saying "You won't learn any younger".

Again, benefitting from the encouragement I got I dove into the project and gave it a shot. The metal straightening and rust repair was done without bondo and the painting was done using information enthusiastically provided by the manufacturers of paint products and air spray equipment. People really want to help a guy trying top learn new skills!

What was the result? I'll let you decide. I drove my '36 pickup from Southern California to the 1976 VCCA national meet in Colorado Springs, camping along the way on the desert and in the Rocky Mountains. Once in Colorado Spings I competed against the trailer queens restored with money, not elbow grease, and transported in enclosed trailers towed by motor homes. The judges gave my pickup 1st in Class T-2 (1929-36 commercial vehicles).

The message I took away from these experiences is that the only thing holding us back from success is doubt of our own ability. Once we decide to do something we can do it. If a glitch arises there are plenty of people who have been there before who will be glad to help.

Nothing matches the satisfaction of successfully completing a project that we doubted we could do.

By the way, I apreciate your comments about biology and astronomy. I am a geologist and find the arguments about climate change interesting and amusing.

Ray,
I'm archiving your information on engines to be used in the future if I live long enough. I can relate you your childhood as I to, fifty years ago when I was 18, put a 49 Olds Rocket in a 48 Chevy business coupe. I didn't have the $ to do more than the mechanicals necessary to install the engine and tranny and get it running before I ran out of $. I've rebuilt flatheads, Chevy sixes, Ford OVH and VW's on the side of the road. I'm sure you experienced the economy of the fifties and sixties and can relate to my "empty pocket" syndrome and the way we had to keep an engine running.
We will retire in a few months and expect to move to our Hill Country home near Austin where I will be building a large barn/garage for all my fun projects. Then I'll have time to check out those archives and see what I can do with an old engine.

Big Chevy 3600, I know you will enjoy your new garage when you retire. Ten years ago I moved from Southern California to Northern California. Here I built a new house with 1300 square feet of living area over a 1400 square foot 4 car garage and shop.

The building officials were astonished at the building plan showing that. It's just great having a shop/garage where my toys and tools fit nicely.

Truck: We lived in Sacramento for a few years in the early eighties. Truck We need to always include the subject of "trucks" in this forum or Cletis will ship us to the "greasy spoon". lol

My point is that you can't expect that type of mileage in 1955-1959 truck.