Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines 235 into a 48 chev

This spring I bought a 1948 chevrolet sedan delivery (216, 3 speed, closed drive line, 4.11 rear, 6 volt). The 216 is on its very last legs.

This week I acquired a 1962 235, complete including flywheel, 12 volt starter, bellhousing and clutch.

Will the 235 mate to the 1948 3 speed?

What should I look out for in this engine swap? Thanks in advance for any and all comments, suggestions and warnings.

I think it will fit just fine. I'm putting a '60 235 into my '48 coupe and I asked a similar question either here or on ChevyTalk. At least with the '60, it has side mounts and the '48 has front engine mounts, so you need to drill new mounting holes. You will also need to fabricate new tranny mounts

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'50 Chevy Fleetline DeLuxe ('55 235)
'48 Chevy Fleetmaster coupe ('60 235)
Chicago
http://www.geocities.com/hellfish122

I put a '62 261 in my '50 pickup. The issues I had were:

Throttle linkage needs to be modified. Not too hard.

Water pump needs to be shortened. I got a water pump pulley off a junkyard Ford that fit perfectly and pressed the pump shaft down and cut off the excess.

Temperature sensor:
The 235 head has a bigger hole (1/2" npt) for a temperature sensor. You can use a 3/8" flare to 1/2" npt fitting to adapt the original sending unit.

Oil pressure:
The original 216 had a max of 30 lbs oil pressure so the gauge is set up accordingly. The 235 needs a 60 lb gauge. Either get a GMC gauge or a '54 gauge and change the face.

Mounts: use the 216 bellhousing and the rear mounts will fit. The front of my 261 was already drilled for the front mount so it dropped in.

Flywheel: I wanted to keep my footstomp starter but I wanted the nice 11" clutch on the 261 so I had the 261 flywheel machined to accept a 216 ring gear. Total cost: $50.

Carburator: Use the carb off the 235, the mount is differant.

Exhaust dump. The '50 and later exhaust angles back and that matches the 235/261 just fine. The earlier straight down dump doesn't. My exhaust bolted right up.

You don't have to convert to 12 volts if you do the flywheel thing that I did.

I converted to an alternator when I went to 12 volts. I also installed a dual point distrubutor plate for a better spark.

Here are a couple of pics:




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1950 Chevy pickup with '62 261, 4 speed.

Oh, I forgot to add that I have the original '50 4 speed and torque tube in the truck and it all fits nicely. The bellhousings and flywheels are interchangable but I needed more than a 9" clutch to deal with the 261's higher torque. I got the engine out of a bus. It came with an 11" hydraulic clutch but I wanted to keep it mechanical and used the 1950 bellhousing. Your 1948 3 speed and bellhousing will work fine.

You really have two ways you can go here. The 235 will bolt to your original bell housing but the 48 trans will not bolt to the 62 bell housing. If it were me I would use a later open drive shaft trans and a taller ratio rear end, about 3.55 or 3.32 out of a later model car. Makes for much better drivability. If you use 54 bell housing it still has the side mounts, bolts to the open drive shaft trans. and bolts in your car. You can take the plate from the front of your 48 engine (under the timing cover that has the front motor mounts on it) and put it on the 235 then every thing bolts together. I have this setup on a 261 in a 37 sedan except I running a t5 five speed.
Gael