Classic cars/Trucks better w their manufactured motors

We like seeing a classic car/truck with some type of their manufacturer motor whether it be 273 or hemi in a Dodge,Plymouth etccc, Ford motor in a ford whether it be a 302 or coyote and chevy whether it be 350 of LS whatever motor in the in them etccc.Scene some weird crap in cars/trucks over the years.

I love oddball stuff. SBC/LS swaps are too common to be exciting by themselves, but aside from that, I love it. Finnegan's Blasphemi, the Hemi Gremmie, Steve Wynn's Hemi Cobra, nailhead Buick in a T-Bucket, etc. Love it.

I'm just bored with sticking the same engine in everything (LS)


Keeping things brand copacetic is generally easier as there's usually some sort of legacy engineering that remains. Eg 3G hemi in place of a 1G . But, oddball swaps can be good if they make sense. An LS in a pulling truck, not so much. An IH LVin a pulling truck is much better.

Well, I am swapping in a Dodge 230 flathead in place of my 51 Plymouth's 218. Not real exciting till you realize that the 230 has an after market high compression aluminum head. A set of reproduction Fenton split exhaust manifolds. A reproduction Thickstun dual 1bbl intake topped by a pair of Weber based fuel injected throttle bodies run by a microsquirt controller. The ignition is handled by a modified stock flathead/slant 6 electronic distributor with the aforementioned microsquirt controlling the timing and dwell.

Future plans include swapping in an A833OD trans, once I sort out how to deal with the trans mounted parking brake issue. Adding AC as well. Maybe a radio too, lol.

Years (decades) ago, in Detroit, there was a guy by the last name of Miyamoto...
He took an old Volkswagen Beetle, and converted it into a unique car. He used a BBC (454)? iirc.. installed it
in the front, built a custom frame for the car. He also made it, so the entire body would flip up, like a Funny Car! He tubbed out the back, had something like huge 14X32's tires on it.
Craziest part, was a huge wind up butterfly key, off the decklid, that would constantly turn while he drove the car...
It was hilarious to look at, back in the day.

Some of those old classic motors are getting pretty hard to come by these days. At one time I had 6-8 Mopar motors sitting around here. Today there is only one left, and if its even rebuildable is pretty questionable. The only reason it is still here is because it it had to get to. You can't go to a junk yard and buy an old motor these days either. The current "old" motors are in most pick a part yards are around 10 years old.

Kent Fuller - of Top Fuel chassis fame - had a Porsche 4-cam Carrera motor in a Beetle, and an MGTF (or maybe TD?) with a BBC.
The MG was mind-boggling.

Generally, I prefer keeping engine swaps on-brand, but some argue that's not true hot-rodding, using the post-war scene as their reference.
Ain't worth arguing over, though - Gen 1 Hemis look good in '32 3-window Fords, right ?

My 38 Ford has a 340 six pack the air cleaner says Mouse trap with a chevy emblem in a mouse trap 🤣🤣
We also did a 440 six pack in a 39 Desoto, made the same air cleaner but called it Rat Trap 🍺

Now that's a pretty cool car!

Once you own a machine it is an American/UK traditional “right” to modify it.

Other countries differ.

In the airplane area swapping engines has had HUGE world changing consequences.

In the late 1999s I had a strong urge to buy a very modest priced used Jaguar V10 HE sedan nearby with the Michael May “Fireball Combustion Chamber” and transplant the engine and an aftermarket 6 speed manual trans into a 1995 Ram 5.9 V8 46RH.

Jags have well deserved bad reputations for electrical systems and iffy dealerships.

But I regret not doing that project “when I had the free time”.

Later I was “covered up” with other urgent and time consuming obligations.

Time.
You do not understand it until you get old.

My long term project .I'm building a 59 Morris Minor with a Gen3 Hemi. I named it "Minor Brain damage"

Unique!

Great project name.

i couldn't care less what power plant someone runs in their car.. i'm sure whatever they picked was for a good reason..

I have put a lot of more modern motors into a lot of classic cars and trucks, but I much prefer to put the Mopar motors into Mopar cars & trucks. I have also been known to slip a few Mopar motors into other brands, but most of those were to prove a point (which they did). I did not install any other motor into a Mopar body, but that is just me, others car do as they wish.

I believe any gen of Hemi looks great in any car+, but the old LA and the magnum Mopar small block (5.2 & 5.9) fits much better in most of them. Don't have much love for any of the modern smaller then 5.2 Mopar motors. Good thing I'm about done doing this stuff.

thanks