472 in a 39 Ford?

[hgdmartin]

I have access to a 472 and a 39 Ford Coupe with original frame, and am wondering how much is involved in marrying them together? 472 is connected to stock TH400.
The other option is to go with a standard SBC or Ford. How much more work will be required to shoehorn the 472 in vs a small block?
Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks.

[submariner409]

The 39 would require a pretty fair amount of time and money to do a good street rod workup.

FOR THE CAR ITSELF, you would be better off going with a SBC or variant due to the incredible amount of good, cheap, plentiful parts, transmission, and rear end mods available. A GM 472 is one heck of an engine, but the mod possibilities are really limited.

To do this thing properly, you're looking at $15,000 - $22,500.

[Chrismac]

As far as physical size and weight, the BB Caddy motors are not much larger or heavier than the SB Chevy or Ford motors. Also, they have the distributor on the front of the engine. With an aluminum intake, the BB Caddy is only 50-60 pounds heavier than a stock 350.
I also like the large amounts of torque with low compression that they make, and replaced a 350 with a 500 in my truck.
You have to look a little harder, but you can find motor mount kits, headers or flanges, accessory drive kits, etc for the big Cadillac motors as well.

[steelybill]

You may be restricted in what transmission you want to use. The old Fords back then had an "X" cross-member just behind the stock (small) transmission. Not really an easy job the get around that. In the 60s I had a '40 coupe with a 390 Olds in it. I did cut into that cross member, down through the center of it, and beefed up the sides of the cut with steel plate, to fit a Cadillac/LaSalle 3 speed transmission. And also used a '49 Merc overdrive 4.27:1 rear end.
I personally wouldn't do that to an old Ford these days.