In this day and age, when everyone seems to be going "green," I realized that I've actually been recycling for years without even knowing it. Heck, I always thought I was just cheap. What I'm referring to is my penchant for never passing up on the chance to save a perfectly good running engine from the trash heap.
For example, not long ago, my pal and Street Rodder publisher Tim Foss mentioned he had an old, greasy, but running small-block Chevy he'd love to get out from behind the garage. Well, never being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I instantly agreed to swap that resting place behind his garage for a perfectly good resting place behind mine, and swung by and scooped up the less-than-lovely hunk of iron. And, true to my word, I took it home and unceremoniously plopped it in its new resting place among the rest of my cast-iron castoffs.
Recently, while diggin' around that stash of car goodies (also referred to by Candy as that big pile of sh- on the side of the house), looking for an old Saginaw four-speed Rob Fortier (my best friend and Classic Trucks editor) needed for one of his many projects, I spied the aforementioned small-block-which, of course, was blocking easy access to said transmission. Well, after successfully retrieving the trans, and surprisingly an old Hurst shifter assembly for it, I decided that instead of moving the engine back to its original resting place, I'd drag it around to the garage and maybe actually do something with it. I knew it had been a good runner and figured a few hours of inspection and elbow grease may very well yield a decent powerplant for either a yet-undetermined project or possibly be a source of some swap meet cash.
A quick perusal of related parts from the same parts stash revealed an early Chevy cast-iron intake, a good Rochester four-barrel, a '57 Chevy oil-bath air cleaner, an old points-style distributor, and a pair of matching early-style valve covers. Heck, if I just added a gasket set and a few cans of engine enamel, I might be able to, as the old saying goes, make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, creating a neat, stock-looking early small-block clone while doing my part as a hot rod recycler at the same time. So, let's take a look at what an afternoon's worth of time and a couple rattle cans can accomplish.