Engine

Original 216 Engine

In the spirit of keeping it "original" looking, and to best fit the engine compartment, I am going to keep an in-line 6 cylinder engine. The Chevy 230/250/292 series engines are of the same basic design as the small block Chevy V8, in terms of technology. Even many of the peripheral parts are interchangeable with the very popular SBC engine (starter, flywheel, oil filter, etc.), which will help with parts availability. This engine series was made from 1963 until 1989.

There are more modern in-line six engines (Toyota had a nice one in the 80's Supra), but for my purposes, a 60's Chevy should be the easiest and least expensive approach.

Chevy 292 Engine

I picked up a 292 in-line 6 cylinder engine for the old truck around Thanksgiving. Buresh Automotive, an auto shop in Vacaville, was doing a 350 swap on a '68 Chevy truck. He said he usually junks these old engines, but this one ran so well, he decided to put it on Craigs List instead. The truck itself was in beautiful shape, and appears to have only 80,000 miles on it, so this could possibly be a never-rebuilt engine. Anyway, it is supposed to run really well and I intend to install it pretty much as-is. I am going to replace the crankshaft seals, since I can see they have been leaking (understandable if they are really 35 years old) and clean it up as much as I can, but mostly just leave it alone. I have also seen that the vibration damper is starting to miss-align (separate) at the rubber, so that will need to be replaced.

Up til now, I had been planning to use a 230 engine, which is very similar to the 292, but there are significant differences. The most immediate for me is that one of the motor mounts is in a different location, and I had the motor mounts all done! I have also discovered that there are much better motor mounts than the old Nova mount that I used for the 230, so I guess I will  do this all over again.

Another difference: apparently the 292 needs a different flywheel. The 230/250 engine use the same 7/16 flywheel bolts as the SBC, but the 292 uses 1/2 inch bolts. Also, later 292 cranks are drilled for three dowel pins instead of just one. This engine came with a flywheel, so I am good to go on this, but if I had to use my old SBC flywheel (which fits fine on the 230), I would probably have to enlarge some holes. Both of these flywheels have the bolt holes for an 11 inch clutch.