If putting a 350 in my 60 vette, is there ways to make it look old, such as, no hole in the valve cover, more discreet way to vent motor, front oil fill,4 bolt valve covers/ not center bolts,etc etc....
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Re: Disguising a 350 to look more like orig equip
The problem is venting the engine. The old 283 had a hole in the rear of the block for a road draft tube and the vent at the oil fill in the front. If you install the correct intake manifold that gets you half the system. The center bolt valve covers is another problem. You might be able to get a machine shop to drill your block to accept the draft tube and the heads for valve cover bolts. You could also look into an old set of heads with the correct bolt pattern for you car.
I don't think you should eliminate the engine venting. It will eventually cause problems. -
Re: Disguising a 350 to look more like orig equip
The center bolt valve covers do not have to be used. GM sells an adapter made from aluminum that bolts to the newer heads that use the 4 center bolts and allows use of the perimeter bolt valve covers.Comment
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Dave, Contact Mikie #14...
He's a past master at making 350 +++ CID motors look like 283's - all due to years of cheating in drag racing. That's not to say he won any races, but the motors looked stock...Comment
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Re: Disguising a 350 to look more like orig equip
There's a whole bunch of things to consider for something like this. Is it safe to assume you just want it to look 'vintage' or fairly original versus having it look acceptable for NCRS judging? If so, one thing would be to use heads that do not have accesory bolt holes on the ends. Oil fill would mean just using an old intake. Crankcase venting would seem to be one of the more difficult items. I have heard of people fabricating a PCV setup where the PCV valve is located in an area of a valve cover that is least visible with the aircleaner, etc. Just be sure it is not in a spot where it could suck oil. Maybe fabricate some baffling to avoid sucking oil. This would seem to be pretty tricky due to the space limitations. Just a few thoughts ...
RogerComment
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Re: Disguising a 350 to look more like orig equip
It won't pass judging, but you can set up a newer block with an arrangement like this and have a properly-functioning PCV system; only requires one hole in the side of an original valve cover for the intake hose to the air cleaner, and use existing oil fill tube and PCV valve/hose to the carb at the other end. Not too obvious, will work fine.
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Re: Disguising a 350 to look more like orig equip
Dave,
If you want to BUILD a 350 (or even a 383) that looks like a 283, it is TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO EASY--------------------WITHOUT cutting ANY holes ANYWHERE! First, you need to locate a good, rebuildable 67-earlier 327 block (it will have the hole in the back of the block for crankcase ventilation or a road draft tube). Next, have the main journals of a 350 crank turned down to the size of the 327 journals. Also, the flange on the 350 crank, between the rear main bearing and rear seal journals needs to be turned down just a little to fit into the groove in the 327 block. Then just build it like any other small block-----------------and use your 60 road draft tube if you wish, or, use the adapter which was used on 63-67 engines and install a PCV valve between the adapter and a fitting on the base of the carb. Again, too easy.
Want to jump it up to a 383? Use a 400 crank, turn the mains down to 350 size, line bore the 327 to 350 main size, use main cap studs instead of bolts, and build it just as you would build a 383 from a 350 block (350 blocks require a little rod clearancing at the bottom end of each cylinder, too easy with a die grinder).
You can even do some things with heads to make them look like 1960 heads. Since mid-60 engines went to the straight across bolt pattern for the valve covers, you will have a better choice for heads. Although, you will need to stay within the 60-67 years for heads. The reason is because 69-later heads had bosses/holes on the ends for attaching brackets, and the 68 heads got threaded holes in the side for a water temp sending unit. Therefore, the "plain" heads are 60-67. If you use any head besides the ones with the double hump symbols on the ends, they will have smaller valves. They can be machined to accept a little larger valve (such as enlarging from 1.72 to 1.84 intakes and 1.5 to 1.6 ex), plus a little port and bowl smoothing will improve flow in these heads. If you want to go with a 2.02 or a 1.94 head, then your only choice is the heads with the double humps. Not to worry. We used to make "cheater" heads from these by VERY CAREFULLY grinding down the two humps, then, working the symbol into another style, such as the pramid symbol, then sandblasting the end of the head with a very coarse grit to kind of restore the original cast look. I have such a set of "cheater" heads on a SB400 with an early "looking" FI unit in my 56. I also had my machinist plasma spray weld additional bosses on the heads for the earlier style staggered bolt pattern valve covers so that I could use 9-fin covers on a set of 66 2.02 heads which have the home made pyramid symbols. I vented the block by installing a hole in the rear of the block, installing home made baffeling and routing a fabricated road draft tube into a fitting welded into the right exhaust pipe. NO HOLES IN MY 9-FIN COVERS!
So, with some ingenuity, you can easily achieve a period correct look and have considerably more displacement, power and torque.Comment
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Re: Disguising a 350 to look more like orig equip
Just returned from Carlisle and got some great ideas, How bout a small hole bored into the mani fitted with a pcv with a nice metal line plumded discreetly to the back of the carb or elderbrock RPM mani with a bored hole in front for the oil fillup and then you could use the stock chevy valve covers...cool huh?Comment
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Re: Disguising a 350 to look more like orig equip
Tom,
Great info, thanksComment
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