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This has nothing to do with a Toyota other than maybe someone wants a very cheap fresh light rebuild 283 Small Block Chevy engine for a groovy engine swap to make their mini truck as stupidly powerful and gas guzzling as you can desire on a budget.
Last winter my wife and I bought this Chevy wagon and after completely rebuilding the
full suspension systems front & rear and full brake systems overhaul with new drilled & slotted rotors up front then doing a full service and valve stem seal job, we drove her around until the blow bye smoke screen got so bad, I had to take her off the road.
I took out the engine only to find it was a 1963-67 Tonowanda 283 and not a 300bhp 350 4bm as was supposed to be.
Damn it.
So what would you do? I told my next door neighbor and he just handed me a 1970 400 4bm block, crank & rods and the heads saying if I built it right I could have it. The engine went to the machine shop the next day for a .30 overbore and came back 2 days later thanks to my engine builder down in Compton, Los Angeles looking like a brand new small block.
I bought an Edelbrock street strip cam from Summit because with the 400 came a free Edelbrock Performer aluminum intake manifold and an Edelbrock Performer carburetor already tuned to the 400, why not?
I'm almost done but, Im waiting on the radiator to come back from the radiator shop and I need new power steering pump brackets because the old one doesn't work from the 1965 283 head to the "newer" 1970 400 head, silly stuff but, no big deal. I also had some support brackets from the car's nose powder coated which I get back tomorrow.
Now that I think about it, I could put the 283 into my own project next year.
This is the car as it would sit today if I was finished with the engine install, cool wagon getting cooler all the time and yes, my parents had an off white Chevy wagon when I was a little kid on Long Island.
I have rode many miles on one just like that only it was white. Wagons are coming back. I always liked the 283 myself. Getting hard to find. Looking forward to your build.
11-10-2016, 02:58 PM
