“….Good grief, the awsome looks of that motor just trumped my W motor's looks hard core…..”

“…..The W motors definitely have a cool look too though!.....”

Just this old mans opinion (so you know what that’s worth ) but the 3 most impressive looking engines to come out of Detroit (in no particular order) were the Ford flathead, the Chrysler Hemi and the Chevrolet W motors......especially when they are dressed up with speed parts.


Looks VERY good Ryan.

Are you going to try the HotHeads in-line carb adapters or mount the Holleys’ sideways? If you’re going in-line it will be interesting to see how much distributor clearance you end up with.

I started out with a set of the chromed steel cheapie headers when I did the mockup on the 37. The steel set had a pretty badly warped flange and although I suspected it might pull straight when I tightened the bolts, I ended up biting the bullet and sprung for stainless set off of E Bay too, I’m really pretty happy with them.

If you don’t mind a suggestion or 2 on the headers here are a couple of tips.

Spring for a set of the solid copper header gaskets. Changing out a blown paper gasket in car is not going to be fun with the engine in car (those wide heads make it a real PIA to access the bolts if you’re running a full hood. If the bolts loosen with the copper gaskets, it just tighten them down again.

If at all possible use studs and nuts (like the factory did) instead of bolts to hold the headers on. The reason is the holes in the block are tapped straight into the water jackets. If you have to pull the headers after the engine is filled with coolant and you use bolts it gets real messy with all the coolant shooting out of the side of the engine. I know this first hand as I had to change out 2 of the studs for bolts on mine in order to get enough clearance between the engine and frame to pull the drivers’ side header.

It looks like your steering column comes out a lot lower and to the left than mine in the 37 does so hopefully you won’t run into all the twists and turn to connect to the steering rack/box that I did.



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