Motor swap/Exteme Modification

[HJ-ETEX]

Is there any interest in a thread dealing with motor swaps or other extreme modificatications such as brake or rear axle swaps?

[HJ-ETEX]

One of the first extreme modifications of a Kaiser was to swap an Olds 303 V8 in a 51 Kaiser. Sounds good BUT the horsepower increase wasn't very much and judging from the example I saw at the Oshkosh National, the Olds V8 interfered with the stock steering. I was disappointed. I presume the main reason for the interest in putting an Olds V8 in a Kaiser was because only Cadillac and Olds were the only V8s that used a GM Hydramatic as supplied to Kaiser.

[Fid]

Tom, that pewter colored 1951 Frazer my dad had for short time had a 283 Chevy V8, installed by Dale Hammon, and it worked very well using a Chevy II 3-speed OD tranny. Of course, the shifter had to be mounted on the floor as the original linkeage wasn't going to work with the other tranny.  He installed the manifolds on it upside down and on opposite sides so that made changing spark plugs a bit of a challenge.  Also the distributor was so far back that changing the points/condesor was a bear too but as far as the configuration itself goes, it worked great.  The car was quite nice but he had to sell it to make room for Edgar Kaiser's Henry J when that became available. That Frazer was on the April 2007 car on the KF Kalendar. I drove it a couple of times and it was really nice. I would've felt confident driving it anywhere.  I know the guy dad bought it from, Bob Hawkinson, drove it from the Twin Towns to Oshkosh in 2001.  Of course, Tom Britanyak drove an Allstate to Oshkosh from Salem, Oregon and it was stock!

[ben-tex]

Motor Trend magazine had a series of articles on modifications they did to a 51 Kaiser such as putting in a Desosto (as I recall) V8 among other things. They used the car to "test drive" aftermarket add ons as well. One of the first conversions using Chevy V8 was done by Terry Zeug I think.

[Gordie]

I think that those topics need airing as many of us want to modify our cars for everyday driving.  The how to and where do we get the parts articles would be great!

[ben-tex]

I had a 54 Early Special that we (HJ and I and I was mainly the pocket book and tool chaser) converted to Chevy V8. HJ has done at least 3 such swaps. We wrote up the conversion in the Quarterly in some detail. At the time my idea was to do the job in a way to make it easy to convert back to stock. If I was going to do it today I would not be so concerned about that.

[HJ-ETEX]

Lowell, Dale also did such a swap on a 51 Frazer for Ray Frazer that appeared at the Manitowac National. I was particularly unimpressed by the upside down exhaust manifolds. I continue to make the joke that you had to change the points by opening the glovebox. Well, I don't believe in cutting up a car to do a motor swap and I go out of my way to make it look like it was something that came that way from the factory. When I put a Buick V6 in my brother's 51 HJ, I made a special transmission crossmember (the crossmember also supports the brake master cylinder) that was a bolt-in replacement and the engine mounts used existing holes in the suspension crossmember.

[Fid]

My dad did a couple of Henry Js with flathead Ford V8s and he said that worked quite well using the original rear end (don't know which of three possible HJ ratios the cars had, my guess is 4.55:1).  I know we dropped a 283 in a Henry J once - had to install Chevrolet coils in the front but using the standard 4.55:1 rearend rendered the car pretty useless. You could spin the wheels from a dead stop in high gear!  I've heard a Pontiac Tempest rearend would bolt right in a J but I don't know. Of course now people are putting them on S10 chasis or having shortened rear ends custom made.

[HJ-ETEX]

When I put the Buick V6 in my brother's HJ, the Dana 23 rearend didn't last long. On morning I backed it out of the shop, the car did a little hop and broke the rearend. As a result, we did 2 things: we located a parts car  - which ended being 2 cars, one that ran - and secondly, started measuring other cars for a replacement rearend. The HJ had a BW T50 5 speed with a 10% overdrive so a replacement HJ 4:55 rearend worked adequately. We were also ready to use a Dana 27 rearend - 3:31 ratio - from a Studebaker Lark V8 and a Mopar rearend from a 75 Dart Sport. If I were doing the swap now, I would find a GM 200R4 (4 speed, 30% OD) automatic trans and use it. Bobby Roades recently did a similar swap except he used a big Kaiser rearend (Dana 44 but OD ratio) and a GM TH200 (3 spd) trans. He didn't like the rpms at highway speed, but before I could advise him to find a 200R4, he replaced the Dana 44 with a rearend from an S10. 

[HJ-ETEX]

Lowell, I got sidetracted talking about my brother's HJ. I wanted to mention that a Studebaker guy down in Texas told me he had a HJ and he put a Stude V8 in it. I think it was probably a 232 with a DG automatic. He said they spaced up the body to clear the engine & transmission. This guy also had a 78 Dodge 3/4 ton that had a 360 V8 that he blew up. He had lots of Stude V8s and no Dodge V8s so he put a Stude 289 in it.

[HJ-ETEX]

Gosh, talking about motor swaps reminds me that when my brother blew up the engine in his Vega, I put in a Chevy 283 V8 using mostly factory parts. Replacement of the stupid 4 cylinder was not economically possible at that time and there weren't any other reasonable 4 cylinder or V6 engines available. The problem was, I had to use a regular 3 spd transmision so the car had significant wheel hop even in 2nd gear. Later, I did I did a Vega for myself and with an automatic trans and a lower (numerically) rearend, it had much better road manners.

[Fid]

A Vega with a V8 was quite a race car back in the day - probably still is if there are any left. The Vega bodies rusted worse than the HJ bodies do and there wasn't as much of them to corrode so it didn't take long, especially in a state like MN.  I had a friend that was hell-bent on buying a hopped up Vega he spotted for sale. It had a 350 V8 and try as I might, I couldn't talk the guy out of buying it. It threw a rod and tore a hole in the oil pan big enough to put your fist through!  The small block Chev actually fit right in the J with no cuts, other than to accomadate the larger radiator which was necessary. I would still like to do one like that some time.

[HJ-ETEX]

I chose a Buick V6 for my brother's HJ because it was short, a commonly available engine, more powerful than the stock 4 or 6 - but not too powerful, and, there was a notch between the back of the oil pan and the bell housing. There isn't such a notch on a Chevy V8 oil pan unless you make it yourself. I have seen 2 HJs with Chevy V8s and I could see that when the front suspension was compressed, the passenger side tie rod would hit the bottom of the oil pan. There was less than 1 inch of clearance at rest.

[HJ-ETEX]

The tie rod fit nicely in the notch between the back of the Buick V6 oil pan and the bellhousing. BTW, like HJs, the steering linkage on Vega/Monzas was not symmetric so there was a dent on the passenger side of the oil pan on Monza V8s for clearance of the tie rod end. A lot of people were too stupid to notice this so it was typical that poorly constructed Vega swaps didn't turn to the right very well.