Thread: motor options for my 47 Plymouth Coupe

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A business coupe has a very short roof and only a front seat, The regular coupe has a pretty standard roof line and both front and rear seats.

As Richard basically said you can make anything fit. Plan on spending a pretty fair amount of time test fitting though.

The late 40s/early 50's Mopars had pretty narrow engine compartments towards the front. The first thing I would do is figure out the front suspendion your going to run so you can determine what clearance issues you will have with the oil pan. Short of a custom pan, the 2 options you will have are the 57 center sump pan and the earlier rear sump.

Next I would remove the front sheetmetal and start test fitting (with the tranny your going to use attached). I would suspend the engine and tranny with a chain hoist rather than a cherry picker so the frony fenders can be set back on to check for clearance issues. The critical issue will be crankshaft center line and leveling the engine.

If the vlave covers sit under the top of the fender (you can always remove or time the inner fender wells) great. If not the engine can be set back to the wider part of the engine compartment which may require modifying the firewall. If you don't want to do that then you may have to notch the tops of the front fenders for valve cover clearance and either notch the hood or the run without one.

Or you could wimp out and put a SBC in it

Remember if it was easy anyone could do it