Engine Swap - More Pwr

[Houston54]

The V8 I have been running in the 54 was running pretty well. It is a low compression 355 with Edelbrock cam/timing/intake/carb. I was getting 14-16 around town with it and had plenty of power to spin the tires. However it did have one major flaw which was the oil pressure. Once it got hot the pressure would fall to 20 or less at idle which is not what I consider healthy especially if I was to hang an AC system on it which I am doing the near future. The oil pressure fault is all mine as I did not back check the work the machine shop performed. It turns out they did some pretty shoddy work on the crank, rods and the heads. They are no longer in business though so I guess that says something.

The solution was to build up a 350 4 bolt I had laying around for a few years. I had a new machine shop (Motor City) perform the work. The block is a 1970 010/020 casting which was taken to .030 over and had new cam bearings and freeze plugs installed. The forged crank was done .010 on the mains and .020 on the rod journals and balanced. The rods were checked (two were replaced) then mounted to some Sealed Power H345NCP flat top pistons. The rest of the motor includes a Crane Energizer Cam kit #100052, new crane pushrods, CompCams Magnum roller tip rockers, Melling 55 oil pump with steel pump rod, 487 heads (76cc) with exhaust ports smoothed out (Motor City had recently redone these heads for the old motor), high vol water pump, Mallory Series 85 HEI dist, Holley fuel pump, 8" summit balancer, Edelbrock Performer intake and 1406 carb from the old motor and the Hedman swept back shorty headers I was running before.

Here are some pics of the assemly and install.

The clearances on this motor (Mains and rods) all fell right into spec so I am not expecting any oil pressure issues. Once I get the truck back up and alive I will be installing the new AC system. Having gone one year already without one in this area was enough for this old guy.