You know, building a bigger motor for our old trucks would be cool, but
we can't all afford a big block Rat. While reading thru an Oldsmobile Diesel
motor website, the guy owning the site said that while it IS a 350 block, it
isn't a TRUE 350 block, and that it has MUCH thicker cylinder walls,
otherwise the compression a diesel has would have blown out the thin cylinder
walls of the gas block really soon. He said you can safely bore it out to
427, or higher if the block has a special scan done to insure no flaws. But
the diesel block could be converted to a much bigger cubic inch motor
internally while externally remaining the size of a 350 , and using many
standard Chevy parts ! I don't know if this is possible or not, maybe some of
you posters who had diesel mechanic friends who know about this motor can
verify the wall thickness. But that would be ONE use for this boat-anchor
motor ( as a diesel ), to convert it to a simply ASTOUNDING small-block
big-inch honker. If anyone is interested, I'll dig up the website I found a
few days ago.
Jerry in Virginia
'55 TF Suburban
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
|