235 in a Chevy 51

[Gilles]

A friend of mine wants to put a 235 engine from a 57 truck in his 51 Chevrolet. I think these engines are not the same. What are the modifications to do? The transmission is a 3 speed manual. I will rebuid this engine for him so advice will be appreciated.
Thanks

Gilles

[Phat]

Only diff in the motors is the waterpump is a bit longer but you can buy or fix that by moving the pulley.  The 57 is a better 235 as it has bearing incerts and full oil pressure not babbit and dippers.

[Overdrive]

You don't mention if it is a truck or car you want to put the motor into.
I put a 58 235 in my 51 Chev pickup. The only thing I had to do was to change the front mounting plate. The 58 used side mounts, the 51 uses a front mount. It just bolts off one and onto the other. You can of course just drill the required holes in the 58 front plate. No trouble with the water pump, it is the later 235 that where longer. If you do need to change the pump, keep the plate fron the back. Mine had been removed earlier by someone else and the rebuilt did not come with one. Ended up drilling the extra hole in plate from 51.

As an extra, pull the long bolts that secure the valve cover from the old engine and install them in the new 235. This allows you to use the 51 valve cover. Makes it a bit of a sleeper.  

The new pressure oil system is much nicer than the old splash oiler.
You will have to use an aftermarket oil pressure guage or get the guage from a 54 to handle the higher pressure ( up to 60 psi).


Good luck
Overdrive :b-d:

[Gilles]

Thanks for the answers. The car is a passenger 4 doors 51 Chevy.

Gilles  

[Gilles]

The transmission will remain the  51 manual 3 speed. Are you sure there are no modification to bolt the 235 on?

Gilles

[GPster]

I checked this one time on the Inliner's International site. From what I remember the easiest way to do it is to swap the the parts from the original 216" on to the front of the 235" to get the front mounts taken care of. The front mount is on the plate on the front of the engine and it requires removing the cam gear cover and the cam gear. Water pumps fall into a questionable realm. There was some difference in the '53 and '54 cars from the others and car to truck is not always the same. While you're at the front of the engines you might check it out. The later engines appear to have a waterpump that is longer than the early ones and there's also some difference in the width of the belt. You may be able to use all the stuff from the 216" including the crankshaft damper/pulley and the cam gear cover and water pump. That way it might all line up and the original generater mount will work. If I remember correctly there is not a bunch of room between the fan and the radiator and the later stuff might cause some interference. Most of this stuff is what I've read on the inliners site. It wasn't necessary to join the site I just read the fequently asked questions and gathered this info there. GPster

[Gilles]

Thanks for the info.

Gilles