1949 Chevy Purple Pig Project - Into Overdrive

Here's where we left off, though one of the less than joyful aspects of living by the ocean is that bare metal surface rusts pretty quickly. Nothing a little acid wash won't cure. Let's drag that dummy block outta there!

If you're following this build and plan on doing similar, you'll need to remove the stock parking brake mechanism (arrowed) as it interferes with the rear of the left side cylinder head. Detach the bracket from the lower dash and it'll pull through the firewall.

Gearstar ships their transmissions already filled with ATF, hence the plug in the tailshaft. We used a new stock GM trans mount and this aluminum spacer to attain the correct engine/trans angle in the car. The Chassis Engineering engine mounts that come attached to their crossmember are higher than the Walton Fabrication ones we originally used, which work perfectly with the trans crossmember from the same company. Of course now the crossmember is slightly too low, hence the spacer.

Last time I saw the Smeding 383 it was still warm as it was wrapped and loaded into my truck. Unwrapping it was just like being a kid at Christmas

Smeding supplies flywheels with its motors, but doesn't install them prior to shipping, so our first task was to fit this and torque the bolts down.

Coupling the engine and trans is always so much easier out of the car, and with no fitment issues as the front sheetmetal is currently removed, bolting 'em up and slipping 'em in was a breeze.

If you're a professional mechanic this won't be news, but I'd never seen one of these tools before, and I'd always rotated the motor using the dampener bolt on the front of the crank to align the torque converter and flywheel bolt holes. As it needs to be turned at least one rotation to tighten the three converter bolts, this turned a chore into a pleasure.

Though I am using a spacer, the trans saddle is dropped, so I shall fabricate a flat one and eliminate the spacer at a later date. I should stress that Walton Fabrication's crossmember is a very good product, but should be used with their engine mounts. I only took them out as the Chassis Engineering crossmember I subsequently fitted had mounts already in place, and the Walton mounts wouldn't fit with the new IFS crossmember mounted.

Gearstar supplies transmissions with a trans fluid cooler, fitting kit and hose, as well as extra ATF to top it up once installed. Though we aren't installing this now, as we currently have no radiator on which to mount it.

It's easy to forget later, so I installed a new K&N oil filter on the motor while it was fresh in my mind. Hey, I'm forgetful!

With Sanderson headers bolted to the engine, all I need are a water pump, pulleys, radiator, exhaust system and a driveshaft. And brake lines. And shocks. And airbags. And I thought it was nearly there...