Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines Chevy 261 Replacement Engine ??

First time on the forum- First post.

Wanted to share this interesting chevy 261 short block that I recently purchased with the intention of building/installing in my 1950 Chevy Fleetline.

It came in an original GM crate... labeled 3707737-261 CHEV. 1954 and below that it says 311 LBS. The motor is lightly used. Bore measures 3.75", block has steam holes, has crankshaft, rods, pistons (std) and camshaft with alum. gear, front plate and timing cover. That's it.
The block codes are CON4, then it says B127 and the block casting number is 3733950 It has the "Captain" bars above and in between the CON4 and B127
It has the 54 early water pump with the two round holes... and the most interesting thing to me, is the engine serial number which is FEA 417214 None of the later 54-62 engines have serial numbers like this that I can find. From what I can find on google this serial number belongs on a 1948 -235 motor? Maybe I got that wrong?
So, this is a 261 engine built in 1957, with a 1954 early water pump with a 1948 engine serial number. ??

My only thought is that this was purchased as a replacement engine for a 1948 Chevy Truck ?

Thought you may find this interesting. Not sure I can get pics to load. Thanks


[img:left]https://www.flickr.com/photos/162594583@N06/46254268191/in/dateposted-public/[/img]

[img:left]https://www.flickr.com/photos/162594583@N06/46254268271/in/dateposted-public/[/img]

[img:left]https://www.flickr.com/photos/162594583@N06/46254268251/in/dateposted-public/[/img]

[img:left]https://www.flickr.com/photos/162594583@N06/31315112707/in/dateposted-public/[/img]

[img:left]https://www.flickr.com/photos/162594583@N06/46254268351/in/dateposted-public/[/img]

Greetings . . . welcome to our site!

Unfortunately, the guys from Flickr are trying prevent images from being cross-posted on sites like ours. Those URLs are only good when posted as links back to their site. This is because the URL they are providing needs to be processed on their site in order to retrieve the actual image. Once processed the pictures can be found in the page source (right click 'View Page Source' in Firefox - the link to the static pic is located at-or-about line 105 in the html page source).

Now to the pics. The crate is a nice find:

The part number on the crate is definitely for a fifty-four 261:
GM Parts Wiki

I concur on the date code on the block - Feb of '57:

With a casting number of 3733950 and that date code you've got a '57 261 short block.


The serial number was likely transferred to this block:
in order to keep it consistent with paper-work on the vehicle. The fonts don't look factory to me - especially the FEA (the type face is to small). I have heard that some States used engine serial numbers for titles/bill-of-sale back in the day. Hence the transfer.

Indeed.

Based on the physical evidence at hand - we can say that there once was a '48 truck that was running this short block. For some reason it was pulled and replaced by the '54 that came of that crate. And then the '57 was put into the crate for safe keeping . . . supposition of course - but plausible given what is at hand.

Nice find. Now the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question is: why was the '57 pulled in favor of the '54?

regards,
stock49

Warren Foster (who was retired GM exec) told me that GM marketed a sort of "crate engine" that was based off of the 54 261. They had the later production dates described. The theory was that they wanted to offer a "drop in" replacement for the earlier 216s when they wore out so that all the accessories would not have to be changed. The serial number pads were blank when they left the crate so the original numbers could be stamped in. My bet is that this is what you have.

Great marketing strategy!

That is interesting. I think GMC did a similar thing.

This site is too hard to post pictures on especially since the online hosts have changed and are charging for their services. On the HAMB I can post from my desktop, just drag and drop. Thats the only place I put pictures now.