This project just fell into our shop by pure luck. Richard Ying purchased the Model A and drove it just 35 miles before it quit running on his way from Port Townsend to the Bainbridge Island Ferry in Washington State. The tow truck driver was the grandson of a fellow whose Model A had been in our shop the summer before. He towed the car to our shop and we had it up and running again in no time; but Richard decided that he wanted some changes. He wanted the classic look with a more modern and reliable drive train. NOT a hot rod but a fun classic car that could at least drive down the interstate and keep up with traffic. It was decided that we would swap in a Chevy 4.3L V6 engine. This would net plenty of power and yet fit in the stock engine compartment without remodeling the firewall, redesigning the front suspension or building a stronger rear end. The rear end may be a little light duty in this case but we decided to give it a try as it would not be used for racing.

Below are some photographs of the Model A at the beginning of the project. Not a bad little cruiser to begin with, but just wait and see what we did to it!

The New Powerplant: 4.3L V6

After picking up an engine and looking it over, it became obvious that the factory exhaust manifolds that came with the engine were not going to work. Not only did they not fit between the frame rails (they could have with a bit of grinding) but they offset the engine to the left hand side by about one inch. This used up the minimal clearance we had for the steering column and brake/clutch peddles.

We made a call to Sanderson for some block hugger headers and had them ceramic coated for durability and a clean look. I owe the guys at S&N Fab a big thanks for pointing me to these headers and an even bigger thanks for letting me know that I would need a mini starter to clear the headers. Sanderson's web site said they would clear a regular starter. ( I let Sanderson know what I thought about the inaccuracies of their web site!)

After I received the headers I was a little miffed that they did not come with a reducer for the exhaust pipes ( I assumed they would as the ones I bought from them last year came with them.) Another call to Sanderson and they we very nice and asked if I wanted the straight ones or offset ones. I said that I would need a straight one on the drivers side and an offset one to clear the starter, so they sent me a pair of each for free.

The mini starter is cool. Not only can you move the location of the solenoid into three positions on the top of the starter but you can also flip it upside down; which I think will give us the most room for this application. Now you can see from the pictures that the header clearance is still very tight but the engine is now on centerline with the frame. A little grinding will always take care of a clearance issue! Also, the way the motor mounts were fabbed and how the frame rails were reinforced allowed some grinding without sacrificing strength.

You can see by the tape measure that there is less than four inches between the water pump and the back of the radiator. A shorter water pump from an early Corvette will be purchased to provide us with about one more inch of clearance for the pair of electric fans we plan to run.