Inliners International Forums General Discussion General Forum Information 261 Chevrolet Main Bearing cap

Thanks for adding me to the group. I hope I am posting this in the right place. I am looking for a main bearing cap (#3) or a short block for a 1954 Chevrolet 261 inline 6 cylinder. The cap broke while torquing bolts.
I do no the block will need to be line bored. Can anyone out there help me locate one.
Bob J

The swap meet area would probably get more traffic for this type of inquiry. Unfortunately, permission is required to post there to weed out spam/phishing ads. You can message Stock49 for details....unfortunately again, a certain number of posts are required for new members before they can contact other members kinda' as a vetting process...

Hi BobJ . . .

It looks to me like there is only one part number for that cap used on all full pressure 53-55 235s and 261s. The parts wiki: '57 Master Parts Catalog shows the casting number 3836538. Is that the casting number you have in hand (but broken).

The good news you should be able to source a part from a (more common) 235 that is perhaps unusable and headed to scrap. In mid '55 they changed the bearings from being staked to using a tang to hold them in place.

I suspect one could modify a tang type bearing cap by drilling the relief on a drill press. A paint dab (on the raised stake-button) on new bearing shell could be used to locate the spot.

I am aware of one 261 that was heavily modified by a Club member. He replaced both the intermediates with heavier billet bits, custom-cut and then align bored.

regards,
stock49