Thread: BBC in '48 Chev sedan???

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As many of you already know, I am building a '48 chevy 2dr sedan. I have been planning to put a sb motor in it but I was wondering if a BBC motor will fit. Is there anyone who has seen a '48 with a bigblock in it or knows if one will fit.
My worry is that it may fit but there would be no way to change plugs or tighten header bolts because of clearance problems.

A nice 396 or 427 would really rock and roll my old chebby!!

since i have seen 502's in those cars I know it WONT be a problem..... joe

Humm, that is very interesting! Could a big block be in my future? Could the scream change to a rumble?

I do love the low end out of a big block, but it would freak out the little meats that I am limited to in the rear due to the narrow rear fenders. I can get 2" wider rear fenders for around $400.00 and run a 10" tire.

Streets, you said 4" longer from mounts to tranny, is that the engine itself our four inches longer from motor mounts to tranny mounts?

Originally posted by brickman
Humm, that is very interesting! Could a big block be in my future? Could the scream change to a rumble?

I do love the low end out of a big block, but it would freak out the little meats that I am limited to in the rear due to the narrow rear fenders. I can get 2" wider rear fenders for around $400.00 and run a 10" tire.

Streets, you said 4" longer from mounts to tranny, is that the engine itself our four inches longer from motor mounts to tranny mounts?

How to make a big block fit in a fat fendered Chevy. He HE

When I took the 350 out of my 32 and stuffed a 454 in, the only thing I ran into was the motor sat 1" closer to the radiator.

Did you just bolt it to the tranny you already had in there pro60chevy and which tranny is that?

I used the same THM350 that was in it. Everything lined up perfectly.

That is very cool, makes me think seriously now about maybe switching to a bigblock. One thing is that I know it cost's alot more to get into them. I do love the sound a BB makes with headers and 3" pipes, especially if it has some good compression behind it.

I went from a basically stock 350, to a 468. I stuffed it with 250 h.p. of nitrous and beat the snot out of it. Ran it on a chassis dyno and recorded 560hp and 680 ftlbs of torque. I got 12 mpg during the week, and when I took it to the nostalgia drags, I ran high 10's @126mph. I loaded some of the video clips on my web site's multimedia page from last years drags.

Very cool pro60, that gets me going. Now to find one that I can afford will be the next hurdle. I am going to look around, heck everybody is running the "350/350" combo and I am trying to get away from that. There was a new club member at a cruize-in last night that had a 454 stuffed into a '37 ford. I figure if it can go in there, there is room in my '48!

I came across that motor the best way. A guy pulled into the store where I work with a 67 Vette. He could just barely keep it running due to a carb problem. All he did was complain about how he couldn't go to the store and leave it running outside without it overheating. Jokingly I said "wanna trade that motor for a nice cool running small block"? His eyes lit up and he couldn't get the word YES out fast enough. 2 hours later he was at my house with his motor in the back. I even got the dyno papers and all the receipts from when it was built. It ended up costing each of us $1000.00 before we were done with all the extras like new headers, new carb, electric fans, and all those other little pain-in-the-butt things. I think it worked out pretty well.

Man pro60 talk about an awesome score! Ok, that never happens man!

You mean it never happens twice!

And I couldn't run it without a little spray. hehehe

No problem Streets, that will take a little more planning since the position of my radiator is absolute in my car, no room for adjustments.

Ya pro60, "Ya gotts to have da Juice!!!"hehehehe! Very nice, and oh I bet it runs ok too huh?