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Re: 440 in a '58 Suburban

From: Daven Anderson
Email: l96lfury@springmail.com
Remote Name: 209.245.15.244
Date: May 17, 2002
Time: 00:05:24

Comments

Well the motor mounts are a little more of a challenge than the '60-61 cars,my '60 used NOS B-V8 'biscuit' mounts and the '57-59 cars use larger 'can' mounts,of which the '58-59 B-V8 mounts are very hard to find (and no repros I know of at the moment). The best shot would be modifying A-V8 (277/301/318 poly) can mounts to fit the B V8 (as was done on a '57 Plaza 440/727 in my town). The trans crossmember will need to be modified as well. Alumcan is correct I have a 440,BUT my car is a 4-speed manual as well,WHICH I can assure you is more difficult than any automatic trans. swap (for one,the 1-2 shift rod had to be shortened as it hit the torsion bar adjuster when shifted into 1st gear!) So you either have to modify or fabricate the motor mounts and trans. crossmember. Exhaust manifolds or headers can be B or C body application (since the pipe behind it will be new). I recommend a floorshift for the 727 in this case. You'll need a new driveshaft. I HIGHLY recommend swapping in a later 8¾" rear axle (even with a STOCK engine, if the car is driven regularly!),in general 65-70 C-bodies are close enough to Forward Look width to work very well (especially in wagons with their larger wheelwells). You can also get all the parts for the '65-later rear drums,you get a service parking brake setup which you'll need as you're losing the driveshaft parking brake on the stock trans.,and BEST OF ALL no tapered axle shafts to contend with! And of course front discs,now that you can get kits like the AAJ and Magnum Force/Wilwood that bolt on directly to the stock spindles,this is cake to do! So just a basic overview here,the swap is not anything that will throw off anyone with experience is swapping,and there is ROOM underhood (anyone who just got done with a big-block in A-Body swap would LOVE to do yours,ha ha!)

 

Last changed: March 03, 2024