The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts V8 conversion for '52 ?

I got some time yesterday to look over my new acquisition and all is not as great as I thought. The 250 in it sits way too high and I think forward from the original 235 location. The floor plate has been torched for the shifter tower to protrude into the cab and the front core support was also torched for a radiator of unknown origin to locate forward. I took a few pics of the cobbled mess last night. If I'm going to pull the engine and start replacing the mounts correctly, I'm thinking I'll just go ahead with a small block install instead, as that's what I want to end up with eventually.
Pics are in the link. truck pics

250's are shorter by a few inches in heigth than 235's so how it was mounted must be the problem. Looks pretty cobbled up. What transmission is in it now?

As far as I know the trans is original. It still retains the drum parking brake and all original looking linkage. The trans is only a 1/4 inch from the crossmember. Obviously the bellhousing must have been changed from what I read about the 235's not bolting to a 250. Would the bellhousing mounts be located farther back than the 235 to move it all ahead this much ? I can see the rear mounts are probably the reason the trans sits too high. I'm assuming the originals bolted flat to the crossmember with maybe a piece of rubber between them. This has a tall rubber mount on a piece of the donor crossmember welded to the original.

It looks like a nice vehicle until you take a look at the sloppy engineering. Do you really need the power of a V8? You might consider building a good 235 and bringing it back to original.

The rest of the truck is really nice. All original sheetmetal with no patches in the floor or cab corners. I can live with un-butchering the engine location. That's easy. I wouldn't go back to a 235, as they weren't as good an engine as the 250 in it. If I do stay with a 6, it will either be the one it has now or a 292. My preference would be for a vintage 283 or 327 2bbl. Then I can run dual stacks up behind the cab and look like a big-rigger.

I was under there looking again this afternoon and the bellhousing ears are at an angle and the crossmember appears to have used a straight mount. I found a tag under the seat for future owners that the rear mounts are from a Dodge 400 !! What I need to know now, is if an adaptor is availble to go between the bellhousing I have and the crossmember to fill in the wedge that will exist once I remove the cobbled junk in there. Then I can drop the trans down below the floor line. It also needs to move rearward about an inch too. It looks like they moved it ahead to use thru bolts on the rear mounts that are ahead of the crossmember.

If you can find a 54 or 55 crossmember for the rear you can use stock mounts,that's what I did on my 48.It will put everything back in line.I'm running a 72 250.

That's good news....thanks. I'll put out an APB and have one here for Spring. I'm taking the truck to a storage faciclity today and won't have it here to work on, or in my way.