LUVTruck.com

Hey guys,

WEll the SBC engine is in and bolted, but now...one problem. The carb sticks up higher than the hood....so now i have to cut a hole in the hood for the air cleaner and carb to stick through. About 2 inches of the carb stick up and then the air cleaner on top of this, its only got stock intake and everything, so how did everybody else get there SBC to fit under there?? Maybe my mounts were built to high but everything bolted up nicely this way. Very little firewall modifications. And what kind of alternator setup does everbody run, left or right hand setupnew style or old)

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-1981 Chevy LUV, 283SBC, T350 Trans, White In Colour, Long Box, Never Ending Project!
-2001 F-350 Superduty XLT 7.3L Diesel Auto, Ext. Cab, Long Box, White In Colour
-1998 F-150 XL 4.2L V6 5spd , Reg. Cab, Flareside SB, Red In Colour

Do you have the oil pan sump behind the crossmember? What trans are you running?

As for the alternator, it just depends what you want. Most people have a battery to contend with on the passenger side so they go with a driver's side alternator mount.

Hey,

I never did anything with the crossmember or the oil pan on the SBC 283. I just fabricated some moutns and dropped it in there, the oil drain plug shoots right through a steering arm and a cross member and sits about a 1/4" above the cross member. So the lower part of the oil pan is behind the crosss member. I removed the steering shock, as it really has no prupose for my use. I am running a Turbo 350 trans. Im not too worried about cutting the hole in the hood, in fact i kinda like the idea, i was just wondering how everybody else got theres to sit so low? And if its just a choice for the alt. i think i am going to go with existing style on the 283 if its just a matter of choice. And it doesn't much matter as the battery is mounted in the box of the truck anyways.

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-1981 Chevy LUV, 283SBC, T350 Trans, White In Colour, Long Box, Never Ending Project!
-2001 F-350 Superduty XLT 7.3L Diesel Auto, Ext. Cab, Long Box, White In Colour
-1998 F-150 XL 4.2L V6 5spd , Reg. Cab, Flareside SB, Red In Colour

Is your steering arm in front of the crossmember?

It sounds like yours is higher and farther forward than mine. On mine, the crossmember is about 1" away from the shallow part of the pan. Then my pan sump starts about 1/2" behind the crossmember and actually hangs lower than the crossmember at it's lowest point by about 1". In other words, my drain plug is behind and lower than my crossmember.

I have to take the crossmember out to pull my motor but it's only 4 bolts. No biggie.

Before you decide to stay with your current placement, you might want to see if you have room for a water pump, fan, and radiator up front.

I would love to see some pics of your installation to see what is going on. The only time I had to cut a hole in my hood was on a truck I installed a velocity stack on. If your engine is sitting as low as you say, has the cab been modified to sit lower on the chassis such as having the vibration mounts removed? This seems a bit strange to have the CARB sticking through the hood. What brand intake a carb set up do you have?
Rick

what kind of intake are you running?

Im running an older edelbrock single plain intake and i have a dropped based air cleaner with 6" filter and i can still close the hood without it touching.

Hey guys,

No my cab has not been modifed at all, its completly stock, body and frame wise. The intake is stock i got a 1/2" carb spacer but that shouldn't make too much of a difference. The carbs a 750 Q jet. As for the water pump, its a short neck and the radiator is gonna be mounted outside of the engine compartment, where the grill is type idea.....fully custom application, and if i were to put a belt driven fan (im putting electric), i noticed taht i would have to cut another hole yet for teh fan blades to spin through, it seems the front of the engine sits really high, but it doesn't look like its out of wack or anything, mabye i should have built my mounts to go lower. I used the mounts plans that Blue Meanie has available. Also this is a 1981 model of truck, if that makes any difference. The engine is all completely built and running excpet for the cooling system which won't effect much of anythign under the hood. I'll get pics as soon as possible for oyu guys, hopefully after this next weekend cuz the truck is back home and im at school.

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-1981 Chevy LUV, 283SBC, T350 Trans, White In Colour, Long Box, Never Ending Project!
-2001 F-350 Superduty XLT 7.3L Diesel Auto, Ext. Cab, Long Box, White In Colour
-1998 F-150 XL 4.2L V6 5spd , Reg. Cab, Flareside SB, Red In Colour

cut a hole in the hood, slap a 3" cowl induction scoop (99.95 Jegs) on it and call it a day.

back when i ran a mild 350 in one of my trucks, it all cleared. even with a Victor 4+4 manifold. if you have any notions of running a Victor High Port or Holley Strip Dominator or even a 2" spacer on a regular #2975 Vic Jr. then you are going to really have clearance problems. good excuse to go out and get u a cool scoop though.

It's an 81 guys... do we have anyone who has done a sbc conversion on the "new" body style?

DOH!

81!!

No wonder.

i saw a new style body luv with a 350 and the hood wasnt modified

Hey guys,

You make it sound like an 81 is a bad thing. lol. Drummer asks a good question.....is there anybody but me adapting/adapted a SBC 81'??

Yeah i got to looking here today, there is less room under an 81's hood then the older models. Height wise anyways. Other than that it looks damn near identical as the older models. I guess thats what i get for doing up an 81' model, oh well its not a big deal, just makes it looks like i got a bigger engine then wahts really in there! As for what i have decided on doing with it....i think im just going to cut a hole in the hood and stick the air cleaner up through it. In the future i want to make a fiber glass hood for it once i learn how.....a ram air/cowl induction..its gonna be sweet!

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-1981 Chevy LUV, 283SBC, T350 Trans, White In Colour, Long Box, Never Ending Project!
-2001 F-350 Superduty XLT 7.3L Diesel Auto, Ext. Cab, Long Box, White In Colour
-1998 F-150 XL 4.2L V6 5spd , Reg. Cab, Flareside SB, Red In Colour

smokin... did you have to punch open the tranny tunnel to get the clearance to fit it in? Normally, where the trans/engine mates together is about 1" forward of the firewall. Thats if you made the trans tunnel large enough to fit the tranny. Did you rework the firewall to fit an H.E.I. distributor? or is the motor far enough forward that it cleared the firewall? If the distributor fit without firewall mods then the whole thing is too far forward. I would be suprised to see that the radiator fit with this configuration. You may have to decide whether to get a hood scoop or reposition the motor/trans back far enough to eliminate the problem. The drawings i sent you were for the 76-80 year trucks. I wish i would have known that you had an 81. I assumed that you had a "standard" Luv truck. If you like the way it is now, then just fix the hood to work. If not, you got some more work to do. Im not sure if anyone else here has an 81-82 Luv with a SB conversion.

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Previous setup: 4.1 Buick V-6/TH 350
Current setup: 400 Small Block Chevy V-8/TH 350
9" ford rear end/short bed/blue
What do Water, Electricity and Humans have in common... They all travel the path of least resistance.

Hey Blue,

Ok when i bought the truck i thought "Hmm a LUV wtf is that", so i did some internet searching and found http://www.luvtruck.com so then i realized you could put SBC's in these things so i thought "YEAH!" So without looking more into it got plans from you and everything. I thought that all of the LUV that had SBC conversion were like mine, the so called *81 model*, so if i did like everyone else it would work and all would be well. Well now i discover that i'm the oddball in the group of us with the misfit truck.... ! LOL I found this out by looking through pics and noticeing tha mine looked "different" from everybody else's! And that was once i had the engine in the truck too!

So since then i never though much of it till about now. We are jsut starting to finish it up and noticed this little mishap. Not a biggy though at all.

As for the tranny tunnel, its a turbo 350, and yes i did have to do some firewall mods. I cut it out basically from the gas pedal around to the passenger side and up to where is makes the big curve to the vertical part of the firewall (basically where everyone had to cut theres) The distributor does not contact the firewall, but thats b/c we cut some of it out there. It sits about an inch from the wall like you stated...maybe a bit more but not much. The tail shaft sits right in the middle from the orginal cross memeber to the floor boards. The engine appears to sit lower in the back then the front, but once i looked at any other vehicle they all sit that way, same type angle. And even if i moved the engine back so that it sat basically where the dash is, the carb/aircleaner setup would still be sticking above the hood line.

Whew, so thats the story and im not a whole lot worried about it, it gives me an excuse for a cool cowl induction hood! The starter fit by a 1/4", the manifolds just fit nicely and everything else but the carb setup fits perfect, so i think it will save me work if i keep it how it is! I will take some pics of the installation process and see if i can get them on here sometime soon so you guys can see it all.

_________________
-1981 Chevy LUV, 283SBC, T350 Trans, White In Colour, Long Box, Never Ending Project!
-2001 F-350 Superduty XLT 7.3L Diesel Auto, Ext. Cab, Long Box, White In Colour
-1998 F-150 XL 4.2L V6 5spd , Reg. Cab, Flareside SB, Red In Colour

It looks like you have entered new territory with your mods. Dont be suprised when we send folks to you when they do a 81-82 conversion.If you could get some pictures posted, that would be very interesting to see what it's like.

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Previous setup: 4.1 Buick V-6/TH 350
Current setup: 400 Small Block Chevy V-8/TH 350
9" ford rear end/short bed/blue
What do Water, Electricity and Humans have in common... They all travel the path of least resistance.

Guys, I just received an email from smokinluv (I think) posing the question if the hooker headers would work in the 81-82 model luvs. Hookers website says for 72-80 applications, but I have never personally seen a later model luv closer that 20 feet away.

Feedback, please.

Hey guys,

Well heres an update on the problem. There is no problem! I swapped the Q-jet carb to an edelbrok performer. This dropped it low enough, plus with a drop base air cleaner it all clears. But i noticed however, the 81 in versions of LUV's nose drops a lot quicker then the earlier models...thus creating problems with alternator to hood clearance. But with some "custom application skills", a cold beer, and a hard headed convincing tool...IT ALL FIT! Pics to come soon!

_________________
-1981 Chevy LUV, 283SBC, T350 Trans, White In Colour, Long Box, Never Ending Project!
-2001 F-350 Superduty XLT 7.3L Diesel Auto, Ext. Cab, Long Box, White In Colour
-1998 F-150 XL 4.2L V6 5spd , Reg. Cab, Flareside SB, Red In Colour