Help me ID this 55 chevy small block

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A friend and fellow retired F/F bought the car from a woman in Ga. It has been in the basement garage for god knows how long. Her husband passed away years ago. The tires look brand new but the DOT date is 4 of 1997. He brought it to me to get road worthy. My friend has non treatable dry macular degeneration and is slowly going blind. Dr said in about a year he won't be able to drive. So he wants me to get it road worthy. I'm replacing the fuel tank, gas line fuel pump. Then I'm going thru the entire brake system. I'll look for the numbers tomorrow. Thanks for your help.
 
Glad to try and help. Everything on these tell a story. For instance. Where the fuel line to the rear is telling. Inside frame rail it was originally an I-6 motor. Outside the frame rail V-8. There is also a very hard to find Vin stamped in to the frame and should match the car vin if not replaced. If your making it road worthy and since it's not original. I would take the time to put in a split master cylinder. Plug off the front/rear brake tee on the pass side and run a new line to the rear brakes for a split system. Stock, if one thing fails. It all fails. Just a thought.

Or like I said. I have an original stock 1955 265
 
Yeah I was going to suggest that to him but then he already bought a new single MC. But I will run it by him. That is one reason why I had already planned on replacing all the brake parts including hoses and metal lines.
 
I didn't know that about the fuel line. This one was inside the frame originally. So it must have come with a 6 cyl. I'm running the new one on the outside.
 
I'm working on one right now, 56 265, 283 crank, 462 1.94 camel humps. Alum 65 corvette gm 4brl intake. Had the canister oil filter, bolt through.
The 62 n up 283 changed so that you could stuff a small journal 327 crank in without cutting .300+ from the counter weights-307
A lot folks used the early 265 crank, beefier, as a high rev sob. 301 or 302, bore the 265 out was another thing.
 
Blind Squirrel said:
Glad to try and help. Everything on these tell a story. For instance. Where the fuel line to the rear is telling. Inside frame rail it was originally an I-6 motor. Outside the frame rail V-8. There is also a very hard to find Vin stamped in to the frame and should match the car vin if not replaced. If your making it road worthy and since it's not original. I would take the time to put in a split master cylinder. Plug off the front/rear brake tee on the pass side and run a new line to the rear brakes for a split system. Stock, if one thing fails. It all fails. Just a thought.

Or like I said. I have an original stock 1955 265
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Ok, I checked the numbers on the side of the block. The casting is very poor and I can't read it. I looked for the intake part number and this is what I can determine. 3748826 Now, it is hard to make out, the 8's might be 6's or even5's.
 
3746826 is 1957 to 1963 265/283 2BC, cast iron. it should have a date code also. should have a 4460 fuel pump, probably a 3736493 water pump, a 11003221 generator, a 1107664 starter or 1107694, and a 1110874 dizzy. If this all holds about true. I'd say your looking at a 1957 cast date 283
 
guess I left out manifolds and heads. should be something like 3733975 left side and 3733976 right side for manifolds. Heads should be 3731554 But there are a bunch others that these "could" be, and would narrow the year further if you cant read date codes. Each year and carb setup has different casting numbers (mostly)
 
Well and everything depends on if any of these original parts have been replaced. I'll see what other part numbers I can get. Thanks
 
Well just to update, my buddy has been driving and enjoying his 55 since I got it Road worthy in November 2019. Now he wants to hot rod it a bit more. I had a 383 stroke built for him that I will be installing along with headers and he wants electronic cut outs. Since he is on a time clock with his eye disease, I’m trying to get it done as soon as I can. according to his doctor he has about a year left before his eye sight will get so bad he won’t be able to drive. Can someone recommend a good electronic exhaust cut out kit. He literally drives his 55 everywhere.

A4D20C93-B678-4333-A48B-F40099C18FF0.jpeg
 
Check out the ones that Dave Kindig uses, they are probably a bit pricey but they seemed to work well.
 
SGBARRACUDA said:
I didn't know that about the fuel line. This one was inside the frame originally. So it must have come with a 6 cyl. I'm running the new one on the outside.
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If my Chevy days aren’t fading too much from memory, when the fuel line is inside the frame rail it was either a 6cyl or a V-8 with single exhaust and when factory equipped with dual exhaust then the fuel line ran outside the frame rail. I guess it was a heat issue on the fuel line.
Jerry
 
Unconventional said:
https://search.aol.com/click/cbclk2/dWU9N0RBNDU3Njg2NTA4NEM4QyZ1dD0xNTkyOTQ4MDMyNDU1JnVvPTc3MTAzMzQxNzM1NTU4Jmx0PTImcz0xJmVzPXlheUdlV0FHUFMucVFOa01nMkcyTGpkX011cVlNcHM2NGs3ZEtvWVUwLmVtMWxFLQ--/RV=2/RE=1592976832/RO=10/RU=https://www.bing.com/aclick?ld=e8N4wscltfwx_CGBfwWqpXqDVUCUxewWDaBxcrnqeiB05fCfPLopCDYlTtz8DEPcqW4kCXLHnlMXFlOMXzpXKcgXlE3aPpheK5MCIn-P8GB3ULrDssYvoaMAUmUahpc3EZ8AGtvUjm0G9ehXBJt1tQLu5w6ZSYcvgc9SXGTUCMiBCe-h_P&u=aHR0cHMlM2ElMmYlMmZ3d3cuYXV0b2FueXRoaW5nLmNvbSUyZmV4aGF1c3RzLW11ZmZsZXJzJTJmNzdBMTcwOThBNjY2Mjk1MC5hc3B4JTNma2MlM2RZQUhPT0JJTkclMjZEWklEJTNkUExBX2JfMzI4ODc0MDg1XzEyMzM2NTIyMDM2NTI2MTZfMTcwOTgtNjY2Mjk1MF9jJTI2dXRtX3NvdXJjZSUzZGclMjZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtJTNkY3BjJTI2dXRtX2NhbXBhaWduJTNkMzI4ODc0MDg1JTI2dXRtX2NvbnRlbnQlM2QxMjMzNjUyMjAzNjUyNjE2JTI2dXRtX3Byb2R1Y3QlM2QxNzA5OC02NjYyOTUwJTI2bXNjbGtpZCUzZDEzMzhhOTFjNjc3MDE5MGI4NGU2ZjdlZTEyMzBjYjVjJTI2dXRtX3Rlcm0lM2Q0NTgwNzAyODg2MzE4MDA2&rlid=1338a91c6770190b84e6f7ee1230cb5c/RK=2/RS=PsgRTB6tg4FhyM7idM7eF8gX780-;_ylt=Awr9DuRAdfJed_AAGShpCWVH;_ylu=X3oDMTE0bXZiaGxkBGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNvdi1lYXN0LXBsYQ--;_ylc=X3IDMgRydAMw?IG=0afd0ee46d0740e5a7000000005d6d92

AutoAnything QTP muffler with built in cutout, jic the above link does not function.
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At first seems like a lot. But a good cutout kit is 500. And I need to upgrade his exhaust from 2” to 2.5” so it really isn’t that much. I’ll show these to John.
 
OK but your throwing money that is nothing more than noise and seat of the pants happiness. That little 283 is not going to burn enough fuel down the pipe (if duels) to warrant the upgrade and electric cut outs are more of a novelty pain in the pa-toot than they are worth. Better money spent to upgrade car cruise-e-ness IMHO. Once the cut outs start to carbon up they will fail to work. The high end ones seem to suffer less from this affliction, but man, pricey. Oh, sold the old 265 but still have some goodies left.
 
Blind Squirrel said:
OK but your throwing money that is nothing more than noise and seat of the pants happiness. That little 283 is not going to burn enough fuel down the pipe (if duels) to warrant the upgrade and electric cut outs are more of a novelty pain in the pa-toot than they are worth. Better money spent to upgrade car cruise-e-ness IMHO. Once the cut outs start to carbon up they will fail to work. The high end ones seem to suffer less from this affliction, but man, pricey. Oh, sold the old 265 but still have some goodies left.
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Read above where I’m installing a 383 stroker, and headers. Hey I’m doing what my buddy wants. What if you had approximately 1 year left to drive?
 
Sorry, just pulled another 16hr run and missed it. Don't pay any attention to me. I'm gonna go crash and burn now. Good luck.
 
Well another chapter in this story. My friend John wants a bit of a hot rod while he can still drive. So now I’m putting a 383 stroker SB in it with headers. Made 425 hp at 6800 on dyno. In need some type of fuel line heat insulator as fuel line runs fairly close to the headers. Can anyone suggest something that works?
 
Little more info please. Going to use manual pump off of block? Did I miss the fuel delivery system to be used? If you run electric push out of the tank and forgo the manual pump. You can run outside the frame rails ,, cross over, and come up the back side of the block at the firewall and eliminate any exhaust heat. You only need to run to the front if using the manual pump.

Go here for the tank you need.

https://www.tanksinc.com/
 
Manual pump. I already replaced tank , lines and really not wanting to do it again. I ran the line outside the frame already. Just need to insulate about a foot of the line.
 
The DEI fire wrap comes in a 2ft run and in different diameters. But it's pricey. They are very proud of there product apparently.
 
manual fuel pump ?
must be a chevy thing, i never seen one on my mopars
 
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