Im new at this and was wondering if a 302 will bolt up to my 1953 3 speed trans. my truck currently has the original flathead motor and its about dead. i would really like to update the motor but keep the 3 speed if possible. if anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated. email me at voda1@juno.com or post on this site
thanks

 

Everybody has their reasons for doing things a certain way, but sometimes you have to pick a better transition point to go from old to new. The old three speed will probably not hold up very well against a newer v8, and the easier point from old to new is the driveshaft. You are going to have to make new motor mounts for the 302 anyway, so you might as well go with the 3 point modern mount system.

 

what is the new 3 point system? The 2 motor mounts and the trans crossmember? again, i'm new to this so my questions may seem a bit juvenile but any help that anyone can give would be great. also do you have any suggestions an which tranny to use? if i have to change it i would rather use an automatic. thanks again

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 05-Jul-02 AT 11:12 AM (EST)]Yep, the 3 point system is the two large mounts on either side of the engine, and the one single one under the tranny tailshaft. I would go with a c4/302 or 351w combo. Try to find a used car that you can test drive, to rob the parts from. Buy the whole car. Then go to an old truck parts supplier and get the conversion motor mount crossmembers. You are going to be surprised how easy a swap this is. You can get the car driveshaft modified to fit and they also have u-joints that adapt one size and width u-joint to another. For the speedo cable, I used the car cable. On the one I had, I just broke the modern plastic retainer off the end of the cable, and then took a hacksaw and made two slots in the metal end. This slipped right on the old 53 speedo and I used a hose clamp to hold it on. When you buy the whole car, you get lots of little clamps, fittings, and brackets that you can use to make your installation look factory.

Another big thing I almost forgot is the electrical. You should change over to 12 volt when doing this. With the whole car theory, you will have the alt and the regulator plus the related wiring. But you will have to go and change al the bulbs to 12 volt and the real sticky point is the 6 volt wiper motor and heater motor. But, I adapted the 12 volt heater motor out of the car to my old heater box.