On the first Friday of every August, there is a gargantuan car show in the little town of Monmouth, Illinois. This year brought me to Monmouth and what a show it was!
Amongst all the fine specimens – highlights will be featured another time – was this innocuous looking Chevrolet S-10. With polished S-10 pickups being routine fare at shows for some unfathomable reason, I almost didn’t look at it. Then, the engine bay caught my eye.
A Ford flathead V8! This is such a wonderful and creative inversion of placing a Chevrolet engine in a Ford, Toyota, Packard, etc.
Whomever did this expanded the conversion to the interior, also. Kudos to this person!
Take that, SBC-powered street rods!
That is downright cool, and very nicely done, with a manual trans to boot!! Nice find! V8-60 I think judging by dist location, but it has been years since I have seen one.
No, that’s not a V8-60; those things are little. The first one I saw was on the floor in a shop – it wasn’t much bigger than a typical European 4-cylinder motor.
It’s interesting how the top radiator hose setup is reworked. With the outlet sat the top of the heads blocked off, I wonder how the water circulates in and out of the heads. (Edit: Oh, now I see – I hadn’t caught the bypasses at the heads.) I can’t see what was done at the bottom, where flathead water pumps doubled as motor mounts. I suspect that if I’d felt a need to do such a thing I’d have added outlets to the radiator and left the engine cooling system alone except for making sure I had the highest-capacity water pumps available.
I really like the way the instrument panel is redone. No S-10 plastic crap left at all there…a very good move.
Wow – this is a rare one, and a fun one too. I see that they have eliminated the two water pumps and two upper radiator hoses. Is that a modern water pump that plumbs into the water connections on the heads? I wonder if it helps cooling any, or if this is just how you mate a flattie to a modern radiator.
I would love to hear it run. The owner certainly doesn’t run into a dozen clones at every car show.
There is hope for the World after all! Bravo!
Wow. That’s very cool. Love the interior treatment too!
As a sidenote, it must take approximately three minutes to change plugs on that engine!
Takes longer to pop the hood.
The engine is fantastic. A friend of mine came very close swapping a flat head V8 into a Volvo 242.
The dashboard swap might be even better than the engine swap. Looks very well done.
+1 – excellent!
One has to wonder whether the owner A) had an unused flathead laying around, or B) had an unused S-10 laying around. (c:
Very cool, I suppose it makes sense as I believe the S10 5-speed trans is a popular choice to put behind a flathead in hot rods.
Really? You talking about the standard duty T-5? Those were used in some mid 80s Jeep CJs. Behind the torque of the AMC 258, they tended to pop like corn!
The S10 uses a forward shifter location which works well in early Fords. So the aftermarket is probably there to make it a bolt up affair. I know they aren’t super strong, but I think putting around behind a 150hp flathead isn’t too taxing.
I have always thought that Andrew, a friend of mine did something unique stuffing a 302 into an S10. Still think he did but this guy is even further out.
One big difference is that even though it isn’t as pretty, this is a daily driver for Andrew. It’s over 25 years old so no annual smog inspection in Texas. I’m not convinced that it’s legal for my county but it gets by in his.
Don’t imagine this flattie is street legal but it sure is cool
The flat head conversion is street legal in some parts of the US still without emissions or smog testing.
And it is also possible that the S-10 shed its modern VIN # to be replaced by the serial number of the original vintage car/truck. This in much the same way people mount old bodies on new chassis to get modern running gear/brakes/engines under a vintage body. Example of say a ’55 Dodge pickup on a ’95 Dodge Cummins powered chassis, etc, etc, etc
Because the dashboard is now vintage, the original S-10 VIN dash plate could be gone allowing him to register it as whatever year vintage title or other paper work he had available.
No emissions or smog testing in IL, so I imagine it has its original VIN.
Unless you live in the six-county Chicagoland area or in Metro East. Then it’s every other year for a vehicle 5 years or older.
Cook County et al, always with their hand out. Should’ve figured…
Here in the Metro East it’s only the western half of Madison and St. Clair Counties. Probably the only thing Uncle Abe (the State of Illinois) does for free.
Thanks for the reminder, Brandon. My Dakota is due in September!
Pretty sure that is treading on very thin legal ice.
It will depend greatly upon the state it is registered in, I would imagine.
Can’t drive it out of this county?
My understanding is that if one state recognizes it as being legal, you can drive it to any other state as long as it is still registered in the home state. It’s similar to my having a Missouri drivers license and it being recognized in the other 49 states.
Each state will vary on requirements for what is registered there; there is no federal vehicle license for privately owned cars and pickups in the United States.
Makes me wish I had picked another county. In the Portland metro area, we have DEQ testing for all vehicles 1975-up. In the Medford area, its anything 25 years old and newer, so eventually all vehicles will be exempt at some point. Anywhere else, there is no DEQ. If you MUST have it, Medford has the right idea…
It appears to be done by someone with a tight budget, working with what he has, but long on skill and ability. Well done. I’m impressed.
The dash and steering wheel are nice, too. Really get’s rid of the el cheapo plastic and adds a quality look. I wonder if a seat upgrade is in it’s future? Not sure about the orange wheels, but that look was probably popular back in the flathead hotrod days.
*very* well done ! .
The interior really makes it in my book .
I’d want a less flashy paint etc. but the whole concept is top notch .
-Nate
I could have sworn I saw this car somewhere…trying to remember…
I am guessing the owner likes Da Bears!
Well, I did see a well dressed gentleman in a Lincoln while there.
That put a smile on my face! Take that, bellybutton SBC engine swaps!
Thats cool lots of ability and some good junk and ‘voila’
The more I look at that engine bay, the more I like it. Someone did a very nice job on this.
This is WAY cool. I really like the orange wheels against the dark blue truck. Darker blues with a splash of orange is a color combo that I love all day every day. The red firewall throws it off a bit though.
Bold move sticking a flathead V8 in this…those aren’t exactly easy to come by. I once had this half baked idea of taking a flatfender Jeep and applying some hotrod stank to it: remove all of the front clip except a freestanding grille and a blown flathead V8 with longtube headers and side pipes. Till I figured out that FH’s are scarce. And so are flatty Jeeps in TN!
Kudos to the builder for his incredible workmanship and sense of style on this truck. Who would have thought that a Pinto bumper would look so good on an S10?
I just noticed that! I like the slimmer ‘blade’ bumper look. He just needs to re-work the front fenders and frame rails to integrated it a bit better.
Looks like a couple of airmen down at the base motor pool had too much time on their hands!
IIRC, GM offered an RPO color very close to the old official Air Force Blue on the S-10 and Blazer in the late ’80s/early ’90s. Today the USAF buys either white or whatever RPO shade of blue is close to the old custom color.
A very good buddy of mine built this master piece, it is VERY COOL and it is FOR SALE if your interested. Call Dick at 309-337-4554.