Freebie!

I picked up a Chevy 350 engine today. My buddy Brian just yanked it out of his mud truck to install a 427 tall deck and donated it to the plymouth project. Freebies are great! Actually, I kinda felt bad about taking a motor that he had just recently finished building, so I gave him a desktop computer and 19" monitor that I didn't need anymore.

It was built for low end torque for off road driving, so it will need an overhaul for the street rod. A lot of work has already been done, so it shouldn't be too hard.

The original straight 6 is bolted to the frame with the red bracket up front.

Another shot of the front bracket, looking from the rear.

Removing that bracket let the engine swing up, but it wouldn't slide out through the transmission crossmember.

Here's the shifter bolted to the crossmember,

and the crossmember bolted to the frame, on the passenger side.

I figured I could just remove the bottom side bracket that holds the tranny up against the crossmember,

but then the crossmember was too wide to go through the firewall. I tried wiggling it around, but it wouldn't fit. I had to remove the pedals from the crossmember and unhook the clutch from the side of the tranny, which ate up about an hour, but it finally all popped out.

It's not so shiny now, but I have big plans for it.

I can't wait to take the 'after' pictures!