I don’t like simply dropping a SBC in everything, especially across brands.
Saw a '40 Ford online with a supered SBC. IMO, that’s something you do with a fiberglass wannabe, NOT a surviving metal frame.
SBC is a good engine, but far from the best out there. That’s like saying Bud is the best beer. Besides, siamesed ports make me chuckle on a “performance” engine.
@jtsanders
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose
Because I’m disagreeing with you about the Countach
I happen to like the looks of the early ones better. That would be the one you showed, I believe
I don’t like the later ones with the wings, fender flares, the lip under the bumper, and son on
I just think the earlier Countach looks “clean” compared to the later ones
yeah I agree. I liked my 79 mustang s clean lines. the later ones that they added all the crap and ground effects to looked cluttered to me
@wesw
Your 79 Mustang . . . was that one of the first fox body Mustangs?
yep first year. maroon and a little black, with just a little chrome 5.0 insignia on the fender.
I also had a 1980 str6 in silver and blue,
Best of the Fox cars,
Screwed things up a bit on the refresh, IMHO
oh, I don t consider that the same style as mine was
OTOH, SBCs are comparatively inexpensive.
@db4690, there are plenty of Countach’s four you and R8s for me. No problem. And I still don’t like the early Countach.
@jtsanders
It’s all theoretical for me, anyways
I’ll never be in a position to spend money on a Countach
wesw I once considered purchasing a 1979 Mustang V6. The styling was so refreshing following the 1974 thru 1978 “Pintang” It had a bad head gasket and was dirt cheap ($150) in around 1986. I was not at all familiar with the engine so I passed. I understand “Pintangs” have donated many good front suspensions and/or steering assemblies to hot rods. At least they were good for something.
Chevy small blocks dominate in hot rods for one reason, they are the cheapest engines to buy or build, they are even cheaper than almost any 4 or 6 unless you are just dropping in a salvage yard engine.
I am thoroughly bored with seeing them in non chevy hot rods though.
@meanjoe75fan I couldn’t agree more. There is a limited number of restorable cars. It offends me deeply when someone takes an old car in decent original condition and wrecks it. We do not need more prewar Fords turned into hot rods of any sort. If you really want something like that, start with something that is not restorable. Like someone else’s messed up or abandoned project, or a car with a lot of major missing parts or serious rust You can build your dream car from one of those almost as easily (assuming your dream car isn’t a restoration.)
Odd, I thought Ford small blocks dominated hot rods. I guess I need to get out more.
I dont mind the siamesed ports on the SBC (remember this exccellent design started as a bread and butter engine for the family sedan)but the hopup potential is pretty good on small block fords(one of the lightest cast iron eights too)-Kevin
oldtimer is correct about the small block Chevys. Look how many of those pre-WWII modified Fords especially go through the Barrett Jackson auction with one thing in commn; almost every single one of them has a SBC in it.
Minute the hood comes up the distributor can be seen in the back of the block instead of the front.
Personally, if I had a modded 34 Ford I’d want a SBF in it; or a BBF…
Almost every race car running at the 3/8 mile dirt track here runs a SBC also. Pricing internal engine parts both stock and performance usually shows why.
Even my wife knows that if a car doesn’t have the original engine in it, it probably has a Chevy 350. She couldn’t tell a SBC from a hot rock, but she knows they’re the best to have.
Speaking of cars we like and don’t like . . .
I saw a Colt Vista wagon on the freeway today . . . and it wasn’t stuck in the breakdown lane
hey hey hey… easy on the dodgeabishi!
I don t know if I ve told this story here or not, I m not exactly proud of it…
but I had a dodge colt once, 87 or 88, in about 1996, I m still not sure if I liked it or not.
any way, lets start with the bad, shortly after I got the colt, the front seal went, then a cv joint, then the left front brake line, then the right front brake caliper locked up. then the rear brakes went. all in a year and a half.
now the good part and the part I m not so proud of. the car kept going even though the only thing I fixed was the cv joint, with some help from a good friend who held the tranny on his chest for a half hour while we fought to get it back in…, thanks joey.
I was a single dad then, and had been laid off and was a long time catching back up on bills. I was broke. I m broke now, but then I was scary homeless broke.
so that little colt would only hold oil if I kept it two quarts low, anymore would just pour out the front seal, it kept going. first I kinked off one front brake line, then I removed the other caliper and kinked off the line, then the back brakes went. the colt kept going. I stopped for two months with the e brake and touching the pedal for brake lights.
oh yeah, someone stole my keys and I hotwired it too for the last couple months.
with all these problems that little colt still took me through 10 inches of snow , creating a path as it went because of its low clearance, about two miles to my new job one winter morning before the plows had done their job.
when I finally bought my first 75 supercab, I called a salvage yard from work and agreed to sell it for 75 bucks, the guy asked if it ran , I said yeah, so he wanted to drive back to his yard (about a mile or so) instead of towing it, he showed up at lunch and after getting the check and signing the title over, I said oh by the way. you have to stop with the e brake, you d better stop for gas, and let me hot wire it for you real quick.
he took it very well, and I think he even admired that someone had finally got the better of him for a change. he left smiling anyway.
I’m smiling too
That was a nice story