1967 250 Engine

[gus67]

hi everyone, thanks for the help in advance. i have 67 short stepper with the 250 and 3 on the column. my uncle has a 83 with the same 250 except with 700r tranny with overdrive. he gave me his truck complete, is the engine swap something fairly easy or is there alot of work to it?

[PanelDeland]

IIRC the engine swap is a one for one deal.However you may run into some wiring differences since the 83 will have HEI and the integeral head for the 250.The accessories will also be slightly different.The mounts for the PS,and maybe the alt will be somewhat different but if you have the whole donor truck I would think you should have everything.

[jsmithbm]

Originally Posted by PanelDeland

IIRC the engine swap is a one for one deal.However you may run into some wiring differences since the 83 will have HEI and the integeral head for the 250.The accessories will also be slightly different.The mounts for the PS,and maybe the alt will be somewhat different but if you have the whole donor truck I would think you should have everything.

Why not just swap the tranny?

['68OrangeSunshine]

Keep the old head and have a machinist go over it with a 4 angle valve job and stellite seats. Have him put in V8 307 intake valves 1.84", maybe 1.6" exhaust valves. Then you can get a 4 Bbl Offenhauser intake, and headers, and a 4 Bbl carb. -- 390 CFM Holley or Edelbrock 500 CFM. Keep the HEI. Use the newer rotating assembly and tranny.
That's how I'd do it.

[gus67]

thanks 68orange sunshine, that sounds like a good plan. if use the donor block and my head, will i have problems with the engine mounts? and is the tranny swap pretty simple or is there alot involved? thanks again

[Wrenchbender Ret]

I agree with using the head off the old one. Use a carbureted fuel system & HEI ignition. The engine mounts will fit. If you have power strg. you can use the old brackets/pulleys. To change trans. you will need to remove the crossmember under the bell hous. & put one under the trans. If it was mine I would change the engine & put a T-5 manual trans behind it.

[gus67]

wrenchbender will i get better performance with that set up?

['68OrangeSunshine]

If you use the auto TH700R4 you won't need to convert to a high hump transmission cover. Although I don't know how high a tranny designed for an S/10 would come up. Both the T-5 and 700R4 have overdrives, so that's a plus. My preference is the SM465, but that's not much different than the 3 speed Saginaw, just a 4-on-the-floor and another gear [granny]. It is bombproof however. '67s came with an SM420, also 4-on-the-floor but with a different shift pattern, shorter case length, and even lower low gears. Old Jeep guys used to love 'em -- maybe because they fit the small 4x4s. Also bombproof. If I already had a 700R4, I'd use that, not some pie-in-the-sky tranny I don't have yet. [That would be the legendary 833A, a Mopar 4 speed w/overdrive that GM experimented with briefly in the mid '80s on full-size trucks.] 700s had a reputation of burning up if not set up properly, but you can get them rebuilt to heavy duty specs.

[gus67]

thanks 68orangesunshine, all that info is very helpful. just to let you no that i have alot of family in the tucson area, and rio rico. stay in the shade and keep cool.