My '63 Chevy truck - 230 ci engine replacement pending

Had the 250 in my 66 Biscayne in front of a powerglide. Wound up adjusting the kickdown rod so I only got 97% WOT but it held first gear beyond 15 MPH under modest accelleration. It'd do 75 down the left lane of the turnpike; I didn't give it more because without any sway bars the thing was unnerving.

The 60s 250s ran great. I put in an HEI distributor and ran it at 12' BTDC on 89 octane with the plugs at 0.055. Mine had a PCV system but no EVAP-- there was a little overflow tube coming out of the gas tank that just dead-ended, wide open.
 
I had a 250 in a 1971 Nova and while the engine ran fine, the rest of the car had a bunch of issues; I think caused by a) rust and b) rodents eating the wiring.
 
Seems like a kinda cool project... though id likely have sourced the largest version i could find...

Can you stick a Sniper on it?
 
If there isn’t the desire to keep it authentic, why not a 350? It will bolt right up to the original bell housing. The only changes would be, chassis mounts, throttle linkage, exhaust, and v8 radiator.
 
My first car a silver 68 Impala 2 door coupe, with wait for it................250 6, and a powerglide. It must have been ordered from the factory that way. Was handed down to me, and only had 1st gear. I remember riding with my brother through downtown Seattle when it only had 1 gear working. Needless to say the engine was wore out when I got it.

I agree there are ways to wake those motors up power wise.
 
If there isn’t the desire to keep it authentic, why not a 350? It will bolt right up to the original bell housing. The only changes would be, chassis mounts, throttle linkage, exhaust, and v8 radiator.
I briefly considered a V8 and in the end I decided not to because this is basically just an old farm truck with drum brakes, manual steering and three on the tree. Adding a V8 would make the truck a lot faster and make the braking and handling weaknesses even worse.

It's not a daily driver and I only drive it around 1000 miles each summer on Vermont's back roads and it's perfect for that just the way it is.
 
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It would be cool to clean the replacement engine and paint it with a sorta correct color and valve cover decal if available.

There is a picture of an original 66 here in this old thread.


I have had really good luck with POR 15 engine enamel kits, its a bit of a process but properly applied its not coming off and is much better with heat than the spray bomb stuff.

Interesting debates about the correct colors... it is a hot topic in ford circles about which ford blue is right... and i was recently discussing with a friend GM blue and it seems there is a great debate about GM Corporate blue as well... he was comparing a couple of options to his original paint and the accepted most correct and hard to find paint was the closest... but in all cases i wonder how much of the debate is due to aged engine paint...

Anyhow I digress...

Here is a little engine goodness to keep the interest up.

445d.jpeg
 
Interesting debates about the correct colors... it is a hot topic in ford circles about which ford blue is right... and i was recently discussing with a friend GM blue and it seems there is a great debate about GM Corporate blue as well... he was comparing a couple of options to his original paint and the accepted most correct and hard to find paint was the closest... but in all cases i wonder how much of the debate is due to aged engine paint...
Reminds me of the Pontiac engine color.... It was green back in the 50s, then a light blue, some years more of a turquoise, some years metallic, eventually replaced with the GM corporate blue.
 
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