The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop V8 with stock steering

I'm going to start on my motor inplant today. A Chevy 283 w/ TH-350 into my '55 1st series pickup. Can anybody tell me what problems I might run into. The 283 has the rams horns exhaust. Will I run into the stock steering in the driver's side? Will cross member under the firewall be a problem? We are diving in later today so I thought I better come here for some insight.

Thanks All..Buddy in AK

Greetings, BuddyinAK. Sounds like you're going to have some fun up there in the tundra! All kidding aside, the two points you mention (steering and crossmember) will be your main points of interference. Since you are working on an AD truck, MANY have gone down this road before and you can benefit from their experiences. In a nutshell, you need to remove the bellhousing crossmember and replace it with late model engine/trans mounting crossmembers. then you move the steering box outwards from the frame about 1 1/4'-1 1/2" and heat and bend the pitman arm back in.

There is an article floating around on the net entitled "V-8 juice for your Stovebolt." It was authored by Pat Ganahl for StreetRodder or Rod & Custom back in the mid seventies, and covers this exact swap in some detail. The good news is that you can buy the crossmembers premade in the aftermarket (Chevy Duty is one supplier) for a reasonable sum. The spacer bracket for the steering box looks pretty simple to build and you should be able to have your pitman arm heated/bent safely by a competent technician at a reputable local frontend or machine shop. I'm sorry I don't have a link to this article, just type the title into your search engine and you should be good to go.

Hope this is of some help to you.

Regards,
Wannabe

Wannabe,
Thanks for the info. I found the article and printed it out. That will be a lot of help. I spent this winter building a 283, it's all new now, looking pretty in Orange. It's a 1957 with the front motor mounts so we'll have to figure that part out and move on from there.

I'll post some updates as I go.

Buddy in AK

Maybe you can past the location for that site on the v8 transplant, not sure why the steering box need relocating thanks Ed ke6bnl So. Calif.

Buddy, sorry man, my bad! I just went and re-read the Stovebolt FAQ section of Tech Tips. A couple of the fellas there suggest using late model 305 manifolds switched side for side (driver's side to passenger's side and vice versa). apparently it's the dump for the exhaust pipe which interferes with the stock steering box. They also said early 265 V-8 manifolds would work, but might be harder to find. Check out the Tech Tips section here to read more about it.

Are you planning on running front engine mounts and a trans tailshaft crossmember? Might not be a good idea, I've heard this could put excessive stress on the engine to transmission mounting. Definately you should upgrade to Grade 8 hardware. Hope everything works out well-can you post some progress pics as you go? I'd be interested to see how well it works out-pretty sure others will, too!

Regards,
Wannabe

everything is pretty much as the article said, BUT, the lower radiator hose, I haven't been able to figure out. Anybody that actually did it, have any hints. I have tried the flex hoses and even cutting and spliceing? thanks

Have a radiator shop move the lower hose connection on the bottom of the tank. It shouldn't cost too much.

I plan on putting block hugger headers on the sbc motor I use and when I get to that part I will see what room I have. I did pick up 3 steering boxes from a fellow and one did have a approx 2.5 x 6 in tube steel mounted to the gear box for clearance spacing he said I will see what these does for me.

What have you all done for the auto trans support for the th350 some seem to just put in a drop tube cross member and cut the cross member out and others cut the original one down and add a plate to the cut out to bolt the trans. Any thought on that. Ed ke6bnl So. Calif.

For the Tranny cross member we cut the old one down the middle then knocked off the rivits. We set up the motor and tranny to where it needed to be and clamped in the 2 crossmember parts just behind the tranny tail mount. We then added some 2x3 tube steel to fill the gap and added 2x3 gusseted angle iron with a hole for the tranny mount. Welded it up and bolted it in.

OOPs.....
Forgot to mention we also cut the breake line hidden on the backside of the old crossmember. It would be best to leave that step out.
Buddy in AK

In March 1999 I bought a 1950 3600 pickup. About 20? years earlier the tired 216 was replaced by a 307 V8. The rest of the truck was kept stock. This motor had rear dump exhaust manifolds, I'm not sure from what, maybe original 307. The steering box still had to be moved out 1.5-2". The hole in fire wall for steering column was enlarged. A little distributor clearance was beat into the firewall with the correct size hammer. The PO got a 55-57 car bellhousing with the mounting ears and it mounted in the exact place the 6-cyl bellhousing mounts on the crossmember. They fabricated side motor mounts welded to the frame. Behind all this was the original SM420, driveshafts, etc. Neat homemade conversion. Your automatic will be different and I agree that the bellhousing crossmember will have to go, but it adds a lot of strength and rigidity to the frame. Something needs to bridge across the frame rails close to that location. I also would be concerned about front motor mounts and tailshaft mounted auto....

posted 04-02-2003 02:10 PM
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For the Tranny cross member we cut the old one down the middle then knocked off the rivits. We set up the motor and tranny to where it needed to be and clamped in the 2 crossmember parts just behind the tranny tail mount. We then added some 2x3 tube steel to fill the gap and added 2x3 gusseted angle iron with a hole for the tranny mount. Welded it up and bolted it in.

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"Keep the shiny side up....."
'50 GMC Suburban
'55 1st Chevy Pickup

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Posts: 102 | From: Fairbanks, Alaska | Registered: Sep 2001 |

Buddy in AK
Shop Shark
Stovebolter # 1606

posted 04-02-2003 02:13 PM
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In March 1999 I bought a 1950 3600 pickup. About 20? years earlier the tired 216 was replaced by a 307 V8. The rest of the truck was kept stock. This motor had rear dump exhaust manifolds, I'm not sure from what, maybe original 307. The steering box still had to be moved out 1.5-2". The hole in fire wall for steering column was enlarged. A little distributor clearance was beat into the firewall with the correct size hammer. The PO got a 55-57 car bellhousing with the mounting ears and it mounted in the exact place the 6-cyl bellhousing mounts on the crossmember. They fabricated side motor mounts welded to the frame. Behind all this was the original SM420, driveshafts, etc. Neat homemade conversion. Your automatic will be different and I agree that the bellhousing crossmember will have to go, but it adds a lot of strength and rigidity to the frame. Something needs to bridge across the frame rails close to that location. I also would be concerned about front motor mounts and tailshaft mounted auto....

I do have the side engine mount/crossmember I will have to study the possible use of the modified original crossmember for the trans and I do have a tubular after market trans drop but am also concerned about some strength for the frame rails. Thanks guys. Ed ke6bnl So. Calif.