I've gone to the local car cruises and shows forever and most everybody runs a small block with a four-barrel. I was one of them, but I really did not enjoy working on those knuckle-buster V-8's. When I was 15 years old I knew every hot rod in town. One guy in a'57 Chevy BA 2-dr hardtop had a sound all his own. I loved listening to that car as it went through the gears and down the street with a sound all it's own. 235 with two aces, manual tranny with hurst shifter and glasspack muffler. It took me three decades but now I am the six-cylinder guy in town. No more V-8's for me. The inline six is so easy to work on and will go forever. My '77 Chevelle 250 has almost 250,000 on her and is now my winter rat. The head has never been off the motor and the engine and automatic transmission have never been separated or rebuilt. It has never leaked motor oil or tranny fluid from the seals. I have replaced the valve cover gasket I think twice. My current ride is a '74 Chevelle Coupe I brought back cross-country from Tucson Arizona. Factory swivel buckets, tilt wheel, floor shift, sport mirrors and ice cold A/C. I could not wait to yank the original 400 knuckle buster small block and drop in a 250 with 700r4 tranny, even though it did take me three years to find the A/C brackets for the 250.!! I have affectionately named her "Project 74". I knew people were talking about me and they would ask me the same question - why on earth are you driving around in that 6 cylinder '74 Chevelle when you have a '66 Corvette Roadster and a '72 Corvette Coupe in your garage? My answer - Because I Can.!! I have since sold both Corvettes. My next project is a 250 (or maybe a 235 like in the '53 - '55 Vettes) into a '62 Corvette. The '55 235 Corvette is a scarce bird since the new 283 small block was optional that year and the dealer's jumped on it. The early 55's had sixes but before long the assembly line workers were dropping mostly 283's into them. Add the fact that there were only 700 '55 Corvettes produced - mainly because of Ford's new '55 V8 Thunderbird which sold many thousands and had GM scrambling to re-design the Corvette for '56, and you don't see many original '55 235 Corvettes around. Sorry I rambled on so long but I do love my Inline Sixes'.
Ken
Ken
