My son Tom's '57 chebby pickup.....

mrvette

Phantom of the Opera
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I sent to many of you for advice, and comments/thoughts via email....but figgered to post here for all you old hotrodders to comment on, and give suggestions....

so here is his note to me, with my reply below....

I going to give him the link to here so to read the replies after a few are posted, I hope....;)



Guys, I taking the liberty of forwarding on a email from my son Tom, looking for advice on a '57 Chevy pickup he is involved with taking the OEM inline 6 out of it, and putting in a SBC, and so I don't know a '57 pickup at all, nothing about the vehicle, except that a SBC should fit no sweat.....I think even to the tranny, a drop in, I think.....



MY reply is below his note, so please jump in with your thoughts, as surely there is a guy out in this list that knows more than me......



GENE









Hey dad,
while I'm sitting here avoiding a conversation between Shawna and her sister Willow, thought up a few SBC questions for you.
First off, what is the fueling situation on carb'ed 350s? Is it an engine-mounted mechanical fuel pump or what? I might not have the budget to go for an LS swap right away and carb'ed should be easier to get up and running for a first engine swap. I'm thinking I might get away with re-routing the current line from the tank, a little rubber fuel line & a hose clamp. Possible?
Second - Say I wound up with an engine that had a power steering pump on it. No PS box on the '57. I guess Summit Racing could help me find the parts to get rid of the PS pump & route the other belts? I'm thinking of work on pre-serpentine volvos where one belt turns a pulley that drives another, so you can't just drop one component without losing, say, alternator drive. Dunno shit about SBC, so maybe this isn't an issue..
I'm asking around on the forums to find out what needs doing to get a sbc physically in place.

I've also thought about going TBI for simplicity& cost. Anything to be aware of with these engines? I kind of like that they are cheap EFI without so many of the hassles of going LS. No throttle body / pedal issues, no tricking the check engine light, no o2 sensors (no cat or cat tricks) etc...

Anyway. Hope you are well.
-Tom









A mechanical fuel pump is mounted on forward, lo down right/pass side, I'ts kind of a funky arrangement with a ½" pushrod that rides up against the cam lobe for that purpose only, an extra lobe on the cam...right behing the drive gear, the pump puts out spurts of fuel but pressures in the early pumps were internally bypassed so at maybe 4 psi pressure, enough for a Qjet which was factory stock on later iron 350 engines, some of them had 2 bbl carbs also....the earlier SBC engines started out in the mid 50's and had different displacements all over the map....which confusionism remained all through it's existence, there is only ONE version you want and that is the 350 ci displacement, I dunno how you tell on a SBC, long about 87-88 or so they went to aluminum heads and roller cams in vettes and F body/camaro-firebird I think all the line had that setup by '91 or so, the later roller engines are what you want, really, you can still mount a aluminum intake and Qjet on it of that's the way you want to go....and of course use any FI setup you maybe find with the engine.....another topic, there...



On the suck side of the fuel, you have no problem with rubber hose, in fact at carb pressures I have run rubber lines after the pumps to the carbs with no issue, just remember to check them so not leak...I personally never had a issue, but note that GM used steel line....and some guy have gotten careless/unlucky and had engine fires....



All of my SBC vehicles have had p/s pumps with individual belts drive right off a dedicated crank pulley, and we move the pump to adjust tension, lo on the left /drivers side, below the alternator.....they can be simple unbolted and left off, but so she can drive the thing, you maybe put p/s on the vehicle, all you need do is find a p/s pump off some Chebby that will bolt in place, common enough design that I would HOPE you don't run into a jamb doing that....maybe consider a TT wheel, or at least Tilt so to change the steering column for later model, guys can cope, chicks not so much, can you imagine little Linda trying to drive this Clamper we have with manual steering??, much less that bus driver wheel it had on it?? That thing flip her right outta the seat.....from the look of the pix, Shawna's even smaller....



Any aftermarket FI of any type that I have ever seen is WAY in helll over priced, and I have had bitter experiences with anything but factory computers and let someone else burn a chip for them....



Later computers filtered in over the years and can be burned with a laptop and knowing WTF you are doing, I do NOT....mine is run as if it was a '91 Firebird 350 ....changed the chip with the milder/stock cam swap, ditching that POS cam that lost it's coating and ran like shit for years.....



Methinks you need take a nice leisurely trip out to a junkyard and spend a afternoon around looking at various trucks/pickups/vans and even cars, note the position of the various serp drive setups you maybe run across, take some measurements of your frame and fenders, keep in mind the V8 will be lots shorter than that boat anchor in there now, the tranny should not move in the swap...I THINK.....



DAD
 
There's tons of stuff for those, conversion headers, motor mounts, and so on and so on. Either buy those parts or reinvent the wheel and go to the junkyard and start cutting stuff up
 
this has been done for the last 3 decades.....i would spend some time looking at the catalogs for those trucks, they have all the motor mounts and everything else....so my point is if there are conflicts with how things fit they will have the parts to make it right......
 
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