454 into 60

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Poor motorless landcruiser
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I think if i take the body lift off the 33's will look better, its borderline right now
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Your the man wit the plan. Go for the swap and pics please. But I have the x3 the 33 being to small. They look great on a spring under truck like mine. But i would go for bigger for a soa. My 2cents.
 
I was gonna do the same to my 60 but you beat me to it witch is a good thing I guess for me cause I can then see what else needs to be changed but good on ya it's gonna be awesome when it's done
 
So the motor is all back together with new water pump and new power steering pump and everything is all cleaned up. I painted the engine bay today, not that good just kinda cleaned it and coated it with white. I didn't take too much time on it I'm kinda just sick of working on this thing and want to get it done so I can drive it, plus I need to be able to drive it for a little bit. I'll put some pics up tomorrow.

One question I have is on the transmission. Does anybody know how the kickdown works on the th400? I got a b&m kickdown switch, but if the motor was hooked up to a th400 before, shouldn't it already have some sort of kickdown switch on the carb somewhere? I do remember some sort of cable near the throttle that was hooked up to some vacuum diaphragm. I wonder if that had something to do with the kickdown, or if it was some sort of cruise control. As far as I understood, the switch sends a signal to the electrical kickdown on the tranny, and thats how it works on the 400. I think the 350 is different. Any knowledge on this subject would be appreciated.
 
:grinpimp::grinpimp::grinpimp::grinpimp:
 
I don't recall on a 400 how the kickdown works...does it not have some type of switch or soemthing? Irecall the 400 being different than the 350...been a long time.

You might want to ask around on some of the GM hot-rod forums...
 
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what are you plans on cooling this engine in the 60?
 
Elbert said:
what are you plans on cooling this engine in the 60?
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I'm gonna try and reuse the original radiator off the truck that I pulled the motor out of. It has the built in tranny cooler too so it'd be nice if it works. Its wider than the stock landcruiser radiator and i measured and it looks like it should fit down there just barely. I am planning on just fabbing up some brackets to hold it in place. If that doesn't work that aluminum high performance radiator that man-a-fre sells is actually made here in phoenix. I talked to the guy and it bolts right in and he said it would cool an ls1 motor fine, but its also 700 bucks. So thats plan A and B.
 
I started to test fit the motor in the engine bay today. Looks like I am going to need to get some ram horn style exhaust manifolds. The driver side exhaust fits because of the way it exits in front of the oil filter, but the passenger side manifold comes out past the flywheel and I would gain about 3 inches if I got ram horn manifolds, which would be perfect.

Finding these ram horn style exhaust manifolds for the 454 seems difficult, anyone know where to find them? I'd rather just buy the cheap cast iron style ones than have to buy actual block hugger headers.
 
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I don't even think they make ram horn style exhaust manifolds for the 454. I found some center dump style headers but thats about it.
 
So now after looking at it I think I figured out a different way to mount it than I had originally planned. If i flip the advanced adapter motor mounts upside down on the frame and lower the engine in the bay more the exhaust should just barely clear. Originally I had wanted the mounts to be toward the top of the frame rails, but if it means fitting in the bay i guess thats what I gotta do. I know I have seen guys on here use these motor mounts like this before, I think it should be fine.
 
Here is my mock up of where I have the mounts so far. This is about the only way I see the engine fitting without trimming the firewall or anything.

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As it sits, about the only way I figure getting the thing to fit in there just right.


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So as it sits there is about 6 inches clearance between the oil pan and the front diff. However, the motor is only hanging in and is at an angle, so I figure the back end should come up about 2 more inches.


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Here is a close up of how I have it sitting right now. The mounts are only slightly tacked on so the hoist is really holding the motor up.
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I've only seen ram's horn manifolds for the SBC. You might try looking for manifolds that fit the old school corvette 454 or BBC. I don't know if the manifolds off a 396,427, 454 are interchangeable?

The ron davis radiators are nice (I have one, but as you say they are $$).

I think you better give yourself max room between the radiator core and the waterpump...move rear of engine back against firewall best you can, so you can run the mechanical radiator fan * fan clutch combination...

I think cooling is going to be a real challenge. I know you probally could get a BB radiator off a pickup in there but it certaily would require some modificaitons, and then not sure you would be able to get air flow across the radiator properly. Do you have plans on fabbing a radiator shroud out of aluminium sheet or something?

It will a nice powerhouse if you can keep it cool. If you can run the stock exhaust that's what I would do. Seems like you would have some decent clearance with an auto trans?
 
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