sounds like a good deal on the 292. Quite an improvement over the 223. Had a guy locally here in Vegas that did the same swap in a 63 stepside. He said the 292 was easier on gas than the 223, especially on longer trips, probably didn't have to work as hard and a lot less gas pedal because of it. Did you have any front mount problems??

                                  Michael

Greg D (7/5/2008)

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It still needs a little carb tuning or maybe even a smaller carb (650 Holley came on the engine) 

Greg,

I just put a 500 CFM Edelbrock on top of my old 292.  Works like a champ and very easy to tune!  I think it fits the manifold a bit better than the Holley although I could live without the shiny silver finish. 

Jeez that looks beautiful. Loving the gold rocker covers.

  I can't say I know too much about carburetors.  I drove plenty of folks crazy asking questions when trying to decide what I wanted for mine.  I could have gotten a 600 CFM Edelbrock for about $60 less than my 500 CFM but enough folks convinced me that the 500 CFM was better for my application.  (still not sure why the 500 CFM cost more??)

  Here's what I learned: at MAXIMUM output, a 292 Y-Block will only draw about 435 CFM into the engine.  It can't physically hold any more air than that.  Since we never run our old engines that hard it's usually a good bit less.  As such, a 600 CFM or bigger carb will theoretically never even need to open up the secondaries.  It's recommended to have a pad of 50-100 CFM over your max so for a 292, the 500 CFM carburetor is a good fit.  In fact, Edelbrock says it's designed for engines less than 305 cubic inches.  That's not to say that your trusty old Holley won't work, it'll just never really do much duty as a true 4 bbl. 

  Now I can't say how true all of that is since I've never done any Dyno testing.  That's simply what I was told by the "old heads."    Anyway, it's food for thought, and definitely will stimulate conversation!

Got a couple pics, obviously alot more to do but you can see where I am headed.
The firewall isn't actually that rusty, just various forms of yuck, lol.
I figured I would change the carb to a 500 CFM at some point, the 600 came with the engine I'll run it till budget (or a trade) allows a new one.

Note:  pictures have been resized to restore text scrolling attributes on the screen.  Ted.

  I saw your pics over on the Slick 60s site.  The engine looks real good...That chrome air cleaner will look sharp sitting atop a polished Edelbrock 4 bbl!!    It looks like you've already got a good modern replacement radiator in there.  By the way, if you're looking for an exact fit for your top hose vs. the flex hose, let me know, I can give you NAPA and Carquest part numbers.

NAPA - 7209

CARQUEST - 20380

Lower Hose:

NAPA - 7135