1954 Coupe engine swap questions

[Pete R]

Pictures of the car

Have to say I am quite disappointed. Where are pics of your car???????????

Here are some pictures of the car. The two nice pictures are from before I bought it in 2006. That's the original color scheme--Chadron Red and black. It has a 20 foot paint job that is terrible and it had a lot more rust than I realized until I "got into it." I have repaired the rust in the trunk (including a nice patch from Classic Enterprises), in the floors, and under the fenders. I have replaced the fiberglass front fenders with steel. Some minor rust that shows as bubbles remains at the lower edge of the trunk lid and the lower edges of the doors. And I have to replace a lot of the bottom surface of the left frame rail. Still a bit of work to do, but I'm enjoying it. It originally had a cloth interior, which I'm replacing with bright red roll-and-pleat.

[Pete R]

By the way, the engine acquisition is proceeding. I am tentatively planning (weather permitting) to go pick up the engine next Tuesday. Will be going to York the following Friday to look for odds and ends to complete the swap.

[Pete R]

I rented a U-Haul pickup and traveled just under 300 miles each way yesterday to get the engine; it's now safely in my driveway and I will be working on getting it out of the truck and into the garage today. The engine number appears to be P83231, which from Skip Lackie's list corresponds to 1962 Lark/Hawk 62V. The only surprise so far, and I think this is a good one, is that the intake manifold has the Carter AFB bolt spacing. I've read in other posts that the Edelbrock 1406 might be a good choice for a carburetor and that it might need to be re-jetted a little leaner. Any other advice with respect to carburetors?

I went to York on Saturday and didn't come home with much. Vendor and buyer attendance wasn't bad considering the weather situation (significant snow on Thurs., extreme cold on Fri.). By about an hour I missed a '61 V8 bellhousing with 4-speed and shift linkage that apparently sold for $500. Oh well.

[PackardV8]

Equally important is the distributor and overall ignition system. I see more problems caused by worn distributors than by carburetors. While the engine is out, pull the distributor, have someone who knows how rebuild it with new bushings install a Pertronix or Mopar electronic trigger and have the vacuum advance and centrifugal advance verified on a machine.

Install a new cap, rotor, (points, condensor,) spark plugs and wires.

Dave Thibault is in your region and has good products. I've got a couple of rebuilts with the Mopar trigger also.

jack vines

[StudeRich]

Did you check the right rear lower corner of the Block for a Oil Filter Adapter or it's Mounting Pad?
This '62 could be late enough to have a Full-Flow Block, you may have lucked out and found one.

Since there is no Oil Filler Pipe and I can't see if there is a block-off plate, I can't tell.

You will want to remove that Water Pipe Elbow & Nipple on the Water Manifold and replace with an Automotive Elbow for your Climitizer Valve Input Hose.
It will need an adapter to down size the Manifold hole to accept an Elbow Hose bib Fitting that will accept a 5/8 Heater hose for a '54 Car.

[Pete R]

Equally important is the distributor and overall ignition system. I see more problems caused by worn distributors than by carburetors. While the engine is out, pull the distributor, have someone who knows how rebuild it with new bushings install a Pertronix or Mopar electronic trigger and have the vacuum advance and centrifugal advance verified on a machine.

Install a new cap, rotor, (points, condensor,) spark plugs and wires.

Dave Thibault is in your region and has good products. I've got a couple of rebuilts with the Mopar trigger also.

jack vines

Thanks, Jack. I saw Dave at York again this year. He was displaying a lot of nice products, like a reproduction R4 (?) dual-four-barrel manifold. Nice.

Pete

[Pete R]

Did you check the right rear lower corner of the Block for a Oil Filter Adapter or it's Mounting Pad?
This '62 could be late enough to have a Full-Flow Block, you may have lucked out and found one.

Since there is no Oil Filler Pipe and I can't see if there is a block-off plate, I can't tell.

You will want to remove that Water Pipe Elbow & Nipple on the Water Manifold and replace with an Automotive Elbow for your Climitizer Valve Input Hose.
It will need an adapter to down size the Manifold hole to accept an Elbow Hose bib Fitting that will accept a 5/8 Heater hose for a '54 Car.

After your suggestion, I checked the right rear of the block. Nothing there but a small pipe plug. I do have all the parts to install a Fram partial flow oil filter, so I guess I'll be doing that. The engine came with a tall oil filler pipe to hang the filter on. For the Climatizer plumbing, I hope to reuse some of those parts from my 232. In fact, I'm hoping I can reuse the whole water manifold from the 232. Assuming I can do that, it will give me the 4-bolt thermostat housing and the proper upper radiator hose orientation.

[Pete R]

I got some more numbers off the engine: casting number on the heads is 1555294; casting number on the block is 535601; intake is 1547530 (I could have any of these slightly wrong as they are a little difficult to read under the paint and dirt).