HELP..Chevy 400 small block into a '56 Buick

[caifan]

I got this '56 buick special a few months ago and the car had no engine or trans with it. The previous owner was going to put a small block chevy 400 but never got around to it. He sold the car to me including the engine and a350 trans.

Here is mine question. Would i have to do a lot of modifications to adapt the small block chevy 400 and trans in the '56 buick?? :confused:

Or should I try to get a different engine??

Thanks for your time.

[37 Terraplane#2]

Small block Chev is probably the most popular engine out there. REASON? Probably the easyest engine to put anywhere you want it. And once there , there are more and cheaper performance parts available for it than ANY other engine,. Got it,use it .

[Steve E.]

What will you do for the driveline? The Buick has coil springs at the rear and torque tube drive, enclosed drive shaft.

[Oldcar_Mechanic]

Why go through the hassel. Get yourself a V-8 from that era and you'll be happy with it. Those cars were not designed for big blocks and racing. They were cruisers that rode fabulous from the factory.

Sell the 400 and 350 and put it into soemthing that fits like it should.

My 2 cents
Ron

[37 Terraplane#2]

Can't argue with that Ron if he can find a buyer I'd do the same. The Buick is way to heavy to make it a race rod anyway. As you said big comfy cruiser, I once had a 54 special, about the same thing. BUD

[Oldcar_Mechanic]

They were a gret car for sure. I dated a young lady back in 63 that had a 56 2dr. hardtop. What a great riding car it was. It did have some good pep to it as I remember and the confot was fabulous.

Ahhhhhh, to only go back to that time eh Bud??

Ron

[wyraider]

Piece of cake- get 60s 70 motor mounts and discreetly cut the bottom and fab mounts to the bottom of them to fit your frame.(Wire feed spot then fill in, take time to cool so you don't burn the rubber.) If that's not an option a local welding shop will do it usually pretty reasonable. Then make a trans cross member out of simple square tubbing and use channel to mount the ends. You can go to NAPA and they have u joints that will go from your turbo 350 yoke to the original driveline. then get your measurement from yoke to rear end and have driveline cut and balanced, be sure to leave room for rear end travel. It's been a while but changing you're 6 volt to 12 volt is pretty simple just using an internal regulated one whire chevy altinator, if I remember correctly you just by pass the regulator and get rid of it. Look at classiccarwiring.com for diagrams. The best thing to do is use a new wire loom, hot rod wires.com, then you don't have to mess around rewiring,and rewiring, then fixing it later. Other than that a simple throttle cable is pretty easily adaptable to what you have. I've done this in a week or so after work in the past several times and I know it works so have fun. The biggest advantage of going newer chevy is if it breaks you can buy chevy parts anywhere. Of course it's cool to go with a nailhead or something, but plan on getting a motel while you wait for parts.