59 Chevy Apache – My New Engine

Now let’s talk about the engine that’s going into my ’59 Apache! ” Yeah Baby!” (Austin Powers)

All I can remember is a man informing me of a car that I’d be interested in to get the engine and transmission out of it for my Apache!  He gave me the number of a man out in Alvin, Tx.,  Sylvester is his name! He has a large shop where he restores all makes of cars, but mostly Mustangs ; )  He has a ’72 Impala with a 350 sbc engine that supposedly had 40 k original miles (yeah sure). My brother Robo (I call him Robby) volunteered to go with me and drive this beast to my home, about an hour drive. At least it wasn’t a “THREE HOUR TOUR”! ha ha

Look here~ It’s me in the pic below! I’m Dne’ in case you forgot my name; )  I was nervous about a seemingly long trip back to my home! The engine sounded ok, but as we got going it developed a coolant leak, not bad, then the muffler fell off, but we were more worried about police~ state troopers! There were a couple of moments, but nothing happened and we made it home just fine!

I was a little worried about having such a large car, similar in size to a BRONTOSAURUS, on my precious MJ! But the MaxJax had no problem getting the car up to the top notch where I could work!  Hey, you can see my Little Mule holding up the large Impala hood! Ah, my Little Mule~ what would I do without you! Check out My Little Mule under Tools ; )

After a couple of days of torment, I finally got the ugly engine and transmission out of the rodent infested engine compartment! Kidding, no rodents!  Gee, what was I thinking!  The engine looked horrible! Best thing to do at this time; get it torn down and call Herb! I claim Herb to be the finest engine builder around these parts! And since he ships engines all over, perhaps the finest engine builder in the nation!

Now in the meantime, I need an engine to put in, take out, put in, etc., so I bought a replica engine from www.P-Ayr.com, a supplier of replica engines and transmissions. The block alone weighs about 30 lbs and everything can be bolted to it, like in the photo below. Looks like a real engine!  It would have been bad to forget that it was plastic and installed it, then it didn’t start! ; )

Here the mock engine is being used to make sure that my weld-in engine supports are going to be in the correct place. Plus other times to check clearances for headers, steering, etc. I used my Little Mule to gently place the mock engine into place. I explain my Little Mule in the Tool section! No DIY’er should work alone without it!

And finally,  I installed my shorty hugger headers on my 350 small block! This is the same engine that came out of that ’72 Impala! Herb built it! Need an engine, Call Herb! Need the number, contact me! His contact information will be at the end of this blog.

Here I have the Alan-Groves AC/Alt brackets temporarily installed, and the belts on.

The wonderful day of having installed the engine and transmission 12-14-2012! ; )

All the work in the engine compartment paid off~ looks very nice, clean and bright! The engine is sparkly beautiful! Thanks Herb!

A nice shot of the Ididit steering column and linkage going down to the Saginaw steering gear.

Hopefully the next time I post, I will have a video of starting the engine! Should be fun! I hope to have my engine builder here, Herb! If you need an engine builder, Call Herb (located in Spring, Tx 281-546-6232, or email him at hlgper@comcast.net) , he builds engine’s and ships them nationwide!

Be sure to check out the blog of other projects, issues that I’ve encountered, and don’t forget to subscribe to my website/blog, then you’ll receive posts as I write them! I do about 1-2 a week so I wouldn’t be bombarding your email! lol ; )  dne’