Inliners International Forums General Discussion Truck Talk Boat Anchor Dept.

While working on my '69 stepside last Sunday I discovered a boat anchor. Unfortunately it was setting between the frame rails of my truck. It appears that the guy I bought my basket case stepside from must have left it out in the rain at some time. The 2 cylinders that had open intake valves are severly rusted and show a 2 inch water line.

This may be the opprotunity to dump the bent 8 and put in a 292. If I'm right I have to change the motor mount stands to the other holes and I'll have to get p/s brackets for a 6. Will the radiator connections work? Fan shroud off of a 250 or even a newer 6 inline pickup? And how about the torque convertor? Is the 6 torque convertor smaller? It is a turbo 350 on a 350 v8. I think the bell housing flange is the same pattern as a v8.

Is a 292 exhaust manifold a 2 outlet or will I have to use headers? Gotta have duals. I'll probably just buy a new wiring harness since I need one anyway.

Thanks for any help you can offer.
Tom

You sound like you want a challenge? It's great to see somebody who wants to go another direction than the same old 350/350 combination in a rod.

Your first consideration is to find a passenger side motor mount bracket for the frame. The 292 puts the fuel pump where all the other motors put the mount. Unless I'm not remembering right, the shape of the brackets are a little different, and won't necessarily work by just swapping it forward to the other holes. But give it a try anyways. You may be able to modify the bracket a little by cutting out a section to shorten it. Then use the factory type rubbers mounts for the '69 truck.

Unless you have a line on a donor truck, good luck finding P/S brackets for the 292. The last time I saw any, they were on a '79 3/4 ton. I had to make mine from parts off of mid-70's cars that used the integral head 250. It was a good challenge, and it worked out fine.

The radiators will work fine. Maybe you could save yourself some worry and just buy a new lifetime-guaranteed one for a 292 from your local discount parts house. I really like those lifetime guarantees!!!! Don't bother with a fan shroud. Get a twin-motor electric unit and make brackets to bolt it to the stock shroud mounts. It looks much better and is WAY quieter and smoother.

The torque converters are all interchangeable. All you have to do is bolt the flex plate from the bent8 onto the six. Most of those vintage trucks, especially the 1/2-tons, had small converters anyways. Since you can use the flex plate, you can also use the same starter. The only thing I can think of there is to watch out and not use a 292 block that only has 2 starter mounting holes (really old style from '63). If it only has 2 holes, and the flex plate is a large-diameter type, then you may be drilling and tapping the third offset hole into the block. Then again, if it's a small diameter flexplate, then this discussion is moot anyways.

Something you forgot, though, is how and where you are going to hook up the throttle kickdown for the trans. Give it some thought as to what intake manifold and carburetor you want, and make sure you can connect the kickdown properly. Of course you don't have to have it hooked up, but you can't just remove the cable from the tranny unless you plug the hole. And then you will always have to manually pull down the shifter to downshift the trans. You could always change out the 350 trans for a 400 (no kickdown cable, only a wire), but you'll need to get a different driveshaft.

All of the stock 6-banger exhausts are single pipe. If you want duals, and can find a 3-bolt large-type truck manifold, then you can use a splitter after the manifold. The only other real option is headers. Personally I do not like the sound of 3 cylinders coming out of a pipe. It makes me think of too many gerbils running on their little treadmills. I have always used a 3-bolt manifold and a 2 1/2" pipe running through a single 2 1/2" Flowmaster. With a nice big cam, you would swear that a bent8 is under the hood.

Yeah, buy a new wiring harness or a kit to make your own. Using an old one off a donor usually means the insulation is hard and brittle.

Good luck and give a holler of you have any other questions.

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David

Thanks for all of the great info David. Although I messed around with my share of 235s I have neve did much to these "new" sixes. One thing has changed since my first post. I had to get the lowering stuff and put together the front suspension and put the axles back in the rear end just to get it home but until I was taking out the convertor bolts the other night, I had never been under the trans. It's a 400. Sure suprised me. The 400 must have come out of the donor truck as I know the original engine/trans was a 307/350 turbo. I remember that big ole kickdown switch on my '67 442 for the 400. Did they get away from that in later years? This is probably a '72 trans. I guess I should have paid closer attention to what my bro in law was doing.

Speaking of Bro in law, he had a '81 C10 short stepside we lowered. It was an old gas company truck in pretty nice condition. 250 with 3 speed. It had an exhaust manifold with 2 outlets. The pipe y's into a single exhaust with cat convertor. He had a local muffler shop bend up a set of duals and it sounded pretty nice. I wonder if that manifold would fit a 292? I just had a bad thought. That wasn't cast integral with the head was it?

As far as going the wrong way, I'm not the only one. I have a friend that is looking for a nice extended or crew cab Ford 3/4 witha bad engine. He wants to drop in a 300 Ford six. I work with the guy too. Must be something in the air. I may do a quicky 350 just to get the truck on the road and then take my time and do a proper build on a 292. You just can't beat the cool factor of a modified and shinny inline.

Thanks again,
Tom

[This message has been edited by Basketcase (edited 03-04-2003).]

Hi Tom,

You got lucky with the TH400 in the truck. Even though the low gear is a shade higher ratio than the TH350, the 400 will last a lot longer and give you better service. Remember what I said, though, about making sure you get a 292 block that already has 3 starter bolt holes so you can use whatever flexplate diameter you want.

I didn't say anything about my '63, but I'm in the (long) process of updating the original drivetrain (292 w/4 speed granny) to a monster turbo 292 with a TH400. The turbo motor is a while off, so I've had to bide my time with installation of the periferals. I found out the hard way that you can't find a starter with the old-style parallel bolt holes for a large diameter flexplate. All the parts stores have only the offset hole nosecones. And I had already committed to using a large diameter flexplate and heavy-duty large torque converter. So I had to drill the '63 block for the missing offset hole. The turbo motor block is a later model, so already has all 3 holes.

As far as the kickdown switch goes, some of the '67s through (some) '69s had a switch that was mounted at the back of the carb for the TH400 applications. I've still got one of those old things, though I probably wouldn't use it on anything I've got. The newer models all used a switch that mounts on the gas pedal inside the cab. I've converted most of my stuff on the '63 over to late '70's Buick parts, so that's the kind of footfeed and kickdown switch that I prefer.

Now on to the dual exhaust! Yeah, the engine you are visualising was an "integral head" 250 that used a progressive 2-bbl carb. Integral meaning the intake and exhaust manifolds were part of the head casting. They were fundamentally garbage engines, although one could swap everything above the block deck to the older style 194/230/250/292 top end if the head and/or manifolds cracked. They had a pretty bad reputation for that.

Good luck on the improvements to your peekup, and give a holler with any more questions.

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David

Tom, another variation for the exhaust would be a set of cast split manifolds from Stovebolt Engineering. They will fit right nice into your truck as I have a 292 with 5 spd in my '65 Pickup. Also good idea to upgrade to a HEI distributor and like he said, good luck finding P/S brackets. Real hard up this way. I am also using a mixture of brackets and pulleys to get it to work.

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Ontario Inliners

1940 Chev Sedan
1954 Chev Custom
1965 Chev Pick-up

Thanks for the replies. looks like I will be on a major quest for parts once the weather breaks. It could take some time just to collect all of the proper parts before I can even start to do the installation. the more I think about this the more I want to have a strong running 292 in the ole stepside.

In the meanwhile I'll be finishing up a budget 350 build so I can maybe get some seat time in the old hauler this summer. Here is a link to that story on the Corvette site where I'm an administrator. As you will see I'm trying to not spend much but still end up with an engine that will be strong and something I can easily use elsewhere when the time comes to UPGRADE to an inliner. Input and comments are always appreciated and welcome.

Tom
http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24476

heres photos of mine if they help , I have a few more too of others - just email me for them or PM . http://community.webshots.com/user/blunderbustr

[This message has been edited by ran429 (edited 08-09-2003).]

Looks like a nice old truck. Thanks for posting.

Tom

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Building a '69 C10 short stepside mild custom.