Why Chevy engines in Fords?

[74creamsickle]

My personal pet peeve !! It was explained to me once that when hot rodding got going Chevies were plentiful and cheap horse. That may have worked back in the day but on today's build to put a Chevy in a Ford makes me sick!!

 

[broncnaz]

Dont like when they do that either but its there vehicle so whatever. Usually when at car shows I'll see a nice old Ford rod and before I get all the way up to it I see that SBC stuffed in there and I'll walk right past it.
As pretty much everyone has said back in the day the ch#vy engines were everywhere. The aftermarket was cheaper for them also. It wasnt really until the 80's when the aftermarket caught up with the ford and that was mostly because of the 5.0.
Now its just about the same price to build either engine. And the 302 is a smaller package than the 350.

 

[BluebroncoNC]

Sometimes in life, things just happen. I, being originally from Chicago, a life long Bear fan have managed to raise a son to be a Greenbay Packers fan. How you might ask? Failure as a parent perhaps. Bad jeans from the mothers side? Possibly. Just plain bad luck? Perhaps.

Same could be said of putting a Chevy in a Ford. Just seems wrong on so many different levels.

Fortunately, I still love my son, tho he sleeps out in the garage, no not the one with my Bronco in it, the other one, during football season.

 

[eb-nutt1]

I'll play this game as i've tinkered with cars for 30+years, and my dad has done it for close to 60 years. As stated in a previous post, back in the 50's and 60's if you wanted good horsepower for cheap a chevy was the only way to go. Only the diehard ford or dodge guys keep thier engines and made them better with a higher cost penalty. The late 80's to late 90's brought us the 5.0 mustangs and they became the smallblock chevy's of yesteryear to gofast people. That car alone brought the smallblock ford market to the forefront. Then ford introduced the mod motors and scared everybody away that had come around to the small ford camp. Now that Chevy has given the world the LS series of engines, it is lieterly crazy to build any kind of motor under 600hp for anykind of hotrod, off-road buggy, drag car, whatever. You can go to your local junkyard and get a 300+ horse LS motor and with tuning and cam swap be in the 450/500hp range for around 2000 grand. You can't get started building a small block ford for that kind of money. My .02 cents on the subject.

Yes I am from a die-hard ford family but sometimes money for hp wanted wins out!

Brian

 

[RV77]

Chevy engines are for people who dont understand wrestling.;D

 

[cs_88]

Sometimes in life, things just happen. I, being originally from Chicago, a life long Bear fan have managed to raise a son to be a Greenbay Packers fan. How you might ask? Failure as a parent perhaps. Bad jeans from the mothers side? Possibly. Just plain bad luck? Perhaps.

Same could be said of putting a Chevy in a Ford. Just seems wrong on so many different levels.

Fortunately, I still love my son, tho he sleeps out in the garage, no not the one with my Bronco in it, the other one, during football season.

GO PACKERS!

 

[Wyldebill]

I have a 40 Ford that has A Chevy SB in it because it had it when I bought it. The reasons already listed are all valid reasons people put Chevy engines i Fords, but the one reason I have always been told is because back in the day when people started street rodding the old cars was that the Chevy engines would fit in the engine compartment that had formally held a 4cyl or 8 cyl flathead. In order to get a Ford V-8 in the old Fords, you had to do some massive body mods, like replace the fire wall, and back in the day, not every Tom, Dick and Harry had a garage full of body shop tools and equiptment like many do today.

 

[deltarat]

WOW , I'd have scared as hell to post that here ...... but I've had the exact same experience.

I expected to get flamed over it when I wrote it and put on my flame suit. It is just my experience over 40 years.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Boy , I'm glad my effed up grammer was qouted .......

Da Bears !

 

[blackbeauty]

Chevy engines are for people who dont understand wrestling.;D

What do you mean??:??:? Tell me more. I can usually follow it, but some of the side stories confuse me.

 

[blackbeauty]

My experience with Chevy and Ford trucks is the Chevy will get better gas mileage and have twice or better the life of a Ford without using oil. I have had 3 Chevy trucks that have gone over 350k and never added a quart between changes. All the Fords have started using oil before 100K.

x4

Since I sleep with the enemy, I will throw my 2 cents in the ring.
I agree if were talking about carburetor engines... "What were you thinking," but if we're talking late efi engines, that's a different ballgame played on a different field. I can easily squeeze 20 mpg out of my 5.3l with 35s on 3/4 tons.

 

[av bronco]

Used to be lots of hop up junk for the chebbys but the tables have turned, go to any local dragstrip and the number of mustangs dwarfs every thing else. as far as a car engine lasting 300 thousand miles untouched in the 60s, 70s, and 80s they all came with a nylon cam timing gear no matter who made the engine(excluding race and heavy duty) and really wouldent last over 100k. Ive often wanderd why anyone would use a heaver, bigger, 90 degree boat anchor over a 60 degree compact lighter bullett.

 

[markperry]

The Chevy guy's have a lot more options as far as availability, just pickup a JEGS catalog, the catalog is riddled with Chevy options on aftermarket parts. I don't know if you guy's have also noticed that the Ford stuff is more expensive that the Chevy stuff.

Why can they get a stock replacement 350 motor for 1855.99 and we have no options with a 302, we have to upgrade to a 347 at 3299.99?

:-[

 

[roundhouse]

In the old days The chevy was cheaper, lighter, made more power, and fits in a lot of old cars & trucks much easier than a Ford engine.

The best looking engine in a oldhotrodis the Chrysler or DeSoto hemi

The chebby still makes more power, the vortec 350 in the 99 Yuckon I used to have, (last year for the real 350) easily made double the power of the 302 in the 95 Bronco my brother has.

Ive driven them both,towed the same trailers with both, with the bronco I had to downshift from 5th to 3rd on most hills, the yuckon pulled em at 70 mph, never even noticed the hill.

Unloaded with notrailer, the bronco required a downshift to 4th on even mild hills at 70 mph, the yuckon, with the cruise set on 70 didnt even notice the hill, the engine noise got a little louder, thats it.

The 350 is the best small block V-8, but it comes wrapped ina GM vehicle, kinda like the Cummins is hands down the best diesel, but unfortunatly comes wrapped in a Dodge.


No worries about me putting a 350 in my EB, but if my 3 litre Toyota turbo diesel ever arrives........

 

[LilRedBronco]

My take on this , which came from my roomate in the USMC who was learning about mechanical stuff at the time , thus read everything he could on the subject.
Waaay back in the day , when GM was about to reveal their new push rod V8 , they made the decision to release all the specs on it to the after market , which allowed the aftermarket companies to build a performance part rather easily , without all the R&D required for Ford stuff , who was trying to keep their motor stuff "secret".
The end result , go fast parts were made by everyone for the SBC , and they all had to compete against each other , which drove costs down. Thus , the motor became very popular , which increased the market for it even further.
Add to that , the interchangability , its a hot rodders wet dream.

and then there is Ford , with about 27 different families of motors , none of which interchange with each other.

So tell me , if you were there back then , and building a hotrod and it HAD to go fast , and you had a small budget , what would you do ?

Definitely get that for back then but now a days it is different. Think about it Ford trucks have been a mainstay of American motor scene for decades and they typically have the big engines.

I understand that there may be MORE chevy performance parts out there but its not like there are NO Ford performance parts.

I am designing my project for a 32 Ford Coupe roadster and I can get a period correct flathead motor with performance items made by 3rd parties like Offenhauser, Edelbrock etc. There is a plethora of Ford performance engines.

Now I get it when folks talk about dependability and all but putting a Chevy engine in a classic Ford is just stupid to me it ruins it.

If a builder can't deal with the Ford engine issues than build a Chevy. And part of my frustration is because of these issues many of the stores in this area have tons of Chevy stuff but I have to go to 4 stores to find spark plugs for a 302... that is also pissing me off.

Why can't the world be the way I want it? ;D

 

[LilRedBronco]

x4

Since I sleep with the enemy, I will throw my 2 cents in the ring.
I agree if were talking about carburetor engines... "What were you thinking," but if we're talking late efi engines, that's a different ballgame played on a different field. I can easily squeeze 20 mpg out of my 5.3l with 35s on 3/4 tons.

But that IS what I am talking about. I still haven't seen a REAL reason to build a ford and to then put a chevy engine in it. I am not trying to be stubborn maybe it just is beyond my comprehension.

I could see if we were talking about a motor company that didn't make a V8 and the builder wanted V8 Power which is how Shelby got his initial fame.

I get taking a mid 60s Sunbeam for example and stuffing a 289 in it but Ford does make a performance engine.

So when talking strictly about build a Ford classic or Ford hotrod my question still stands.

 

[GRN_MEANIE]

The reasons I see the most come down to 2 things
1. Chev'y rear oil pick-up clears everything known to man. Ford's front oil pick-up sucks.
2. Chevy's are cheaper, it's starting to be less of a difference if your building a carbed motor, but when you take into acount fuel injection the $ difference becomes outrageous. Modern Chevy FI kills Ford FI if you are building something that didn't have FI

 

[stang67]

I think it sucks too!! I think if you can't work on a ford engine or can't afford to put one in a ford then buy a chevy. I know when I start looking for my old hot rod and it has a chevy engine in it then I will ask the owner to remove or just buy something without a running engine. It's almost impossible to find a ford hot rod without a chevy engine. I get the benefits of the chevy. I know alot of crossover rods and to each his own. But, seriously....buy a chevy.

 

[Buldozer]

If I wanted a Chevy, I would buy a Chevy....I drive Fords and I don't want a Chevy. So I guess you can call me a traditionalist! I don't understand the reasoning behind putting a Chevy engine in a Ford....Chevy makes plenty of vehicles so why buy a Ford? Once in a while I hear someone say I already had the Chevy engine so I just wanted to make use of it. I would sell the Chevy engine to someone with a Chevy and buy a Ford engine....but that is just me. I would be the same way if I drove Dodge or Chevy... that is I would want that same brand engine in my ride.

I don't care if the Government starts giving away Chevys to get people to take them....I am going to drive a Ford..... as long as they make them and I can get parts for them. Oh, and did I mention I don't want a Chevy??

 

[DozerDoug]

If I wanted a Chevy, I would buy a Chevy....I drive Fords and I don't want a Chevy. So I guess you can call me a traditionalist! I don't understand the reasoning behind putting a Chevy engine in a Ford....Chevy makes plenty of vehicles so why buy a Ford? Once in a while I hear someone say I already had the Chevy engine so I just wanted to make use of it. I would sell the Chevy engine to someone with a Chevy and buy a Ford engine....but that is just me. I would be the same way if I drove Dodge or Chevy... that is I would want that same brand engine in my ride.

I don't care if the Government starts giving away Chevys to get people to take them....I am going to drive a Ford..... as long as they make them and I can get parts for them. Oh, and did I mention I don't want a Chevy??

AMEN;D ;D