Modern Drivetrain Swap into '65 Valiant

AJ/FormS said
back from the dead, but;
I put a 340 in a 65, back in the mid 70s, using a 65 A904 from a 273. It was a drop in. The only hiccups were the exhaust and the gas pedal. I installed some Hooker fenderwell headers, and a later cable pedal system, and that was that. Great swap. I would do it again. But with a torquey 360/or a Magnum, and a LU A999, and probably 2.94 gears or something.
With the V8 torque, in the lightweight Early-A, three gears is all you'll ever need. With 26.5 tall tires. 2.94s will get you ;
65= about 2400rpm in Lock-up, and
60= close to 4000 in Second gear, so you can leave the factory cam in whatever small block engine you happen to chose. This will be a lot of fun. And bonus, you can even leave the 2bbl on it, and even a lo-po exhaust system.You could even install 318 heads on a 360, I did it onto a 340, and it was still a gangbusters lil street combo.
If you are wondering how this can be;
Consider that the 225, if you had one, might make 180 ftlbs torque at 1800 stall. Thru the 904 and out the 3.23s in the back; this would be
180 x 2.45 x 3.23=1424 ftlbs into the rear axles.
But say you installed a 318Magnum with a 2400TC, and suppose it made 260ftlbs at 2400 , thru the 2.74 low gear ratio of the A999, and out the 2.94s in the back, that would be;
260 x 2.74 x 2.94 =2094 ftlbs into the rear axles.
That's nearly 700ftlbs/nearly 50% more torque, than with the slanty. As far as engine swaps go this is about as easy as it gets; you can do it in about a weekend; including a complete rear swap; (not just gears). If I had a long roof with a great body, this is what I would do. (well except I would install my 367HO into it, with the Hooker 5208 (IIRC) headers
I used to do this swap twice a year, in my 68 Barracuda DD; from a 360 4-speed with 3.55s, to a 318 A904 and a different rear chunk. Once in October, and back again in May; no big deal.
Whatever you decide;
Happy HotRodding.

That sounds like the perfect combo to make a fun and streetable car with classic parts! Don’t go overboard with the gears and hi stall converters, just keep it simple. I admire your commitment to swapping engines back and forth! I don’t think I’d have that kind of energy even tho it sounds pretty straightforward.

I’ve committed to swapping in a miata drivetrain, however, since the wagon is in worse shape than I was hoping and i have access to a bunch of cheap parts. The plan is to swap in the entire front subframe which will require new front frames. But the originals are pretty rusty so I don’t think that’s a problem. In fact half the car is gone at this point so a bigger challenge would be to put it back to stock.

fig said
SRT4 motor will fit with plenty of room.

View attachment 1715812443

View attachment 1715812444

Now that is what I’m talking about! What did you use for a transmission?