Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines GM 4 cylinders 151 153 181

Tony, Good to hear the report on your Jeep. What RPMs are you turning at 55mph? I went back through the thread and some of your pictures didn't come up. I bet that CJ is a kick.

30 inch tall tires so about 3300 rpm at 55 mph.It'll go faster but the 2100 pound narrow vehicle gets a bit dangerous .The 153 looks factory and besides more power than the Go Devil it get better fuel mileage. I lost of lot of photos when the hosting site went belly up



And how to make an 1986 S10 151 rear sump oil pan fit on a 153 . Resize the rear main cutout and some hammer clearance where the oil pump is.And it doesn't leak

Very clean install. Sorry about your lost pictures. That pan mod is cool. At 3300 it must be humming. I agree about the squirrelly handling of a lot of short wheelbased 4X4s. A friend turned himself into a vegetable when he put a big block in his CJ. Even my old Blazer is a crazy ride.

I've been making a little progress on my 4 cylinder build. I cut down a GMC valve cover to fit the 153. I now have to make an adapter. Today I made a piston pin that I could press into the rod and piston to check the deck height. Close enough. Now I can haul what needs to be balanced and fitted to the shop.

Now that is cool . . .

Curious: one of the pistons is flat top and the other dished. Undecided?

Thanks. The flat one is the forged Ross. I got them from Tlowe. They are the .040" over 250 pistons that he sells. The other one is from a set of 307 V8 pistons that I thought would work but were too short. This engine is a .040" over 153 with a 181 Mercruiser crank and rods. That gives it a .035" stroke for about 175 CI. I'm happy with the near zero deck height with a stock block. I am also happy with the valve cover. My son did a good welding job. I still have to do some grinding and possibly filling to finish it.

I just saw this on eBay. I'm too far along with my 153 build to go with a turbo on this one but there are 2 more block in the shed.
Manifold

Hi guys, I'm new to Inliners. I have a 81 CJ5 and my Iron Duke is starting to develop a lot pressure in the valve cover. No pressure out of the dipstick. I'm thinking valve seals, but not sure. If I rebuild, I would like to build the motor to around 220hp. Has anyone dome a build up?

Scott

Hi guys, I'm new to Inliners. I have a 81 CJ5 and my Iron Duke is starting to develop a lot pressure in the valve cover. No pressure out of the dipstick. I'm thinking valve seals, but not sure. If I rebuild, I would like to build the motor to around 220hp. Has anyone done a build up?

Scott

I think you would need a turbo to get that kind of power. Check the PCV valve.

Some links that may help.
FIERO
Performance FAQ
Myths and Differences

PCV is good, it's a lot of blow by, oil building up in air cleaner. But it's
Top end only.
Scott

Rings sticking or broken?

Oil control ring not working as it should?

MBHD

Compression is even and runs like a top.

Turbo or nitrous.

I'm a happy guy! I just talked to Patrick Dykes and was able to buy 1/2 a set of Fenton Black Widow cast headers for my 153. One side was broken in shipping so he had one side. I was willing to buy a set but I got the side I wanted for $150. With a little work it will bolt up and clear my 2X1 Offey intake. This little engine is finally coming together.

You'll have to post some pics of it. Sounds like progress.

I'll take pictures when it gets here and also of what it take to make it fit.

My Fenton header got here from Patrick's a few days ago, Quick! I got to play with it a little today and take some pictures. I'll have to mess with the mounting tabs some and do some port matching but it's going to work. It will be great with my Offey 2X1 intake and be way better in my roadster than tube headers. They fit nice and close to the block. It'll be less work too. I'll have to impose on one of my friends who welds better than me unless I decide to braze them.

Black Widow Pics

Nobody? Come on guys this is a breakthrough in using these engines. Here is the answer to unavailable intake and exhaust manifolds for 4 cylinder Chevys using easy to find 6 & 8 stuff. Now that Patrick has good quality SBC Fenton Black Widow cast headers for $300 a set that will do two 153s. The thinking is done!

Beater,
I like it! Question. What are you going to weld?

The way I see it, machine the outside flange thickness to match the intake thickness. It should be .375. You could use a SAWZALL. Build the clamps for the intake and exh a little bigger
.
Do the port matching and you are done.

Where are you going to put the alternator?

It'll have a generator, old school. Farther out, underneath, other side or off the drive shaft if necessary. There may have to be a tab added in a place or two to get it to clamp tight

Cool use of existing parts for sure. The exhaust port sizes between the SBC and the 4 cylinder are a lot different, is that what you are going to weld up?

I have room in the manifold to get a pretty good match. The ports in the head are not quite as big as the gasket and somewhere I have a gasket with a divider between the center ports like the head and the manifold have. Any welding will be to the flanges to get the mounting tabs to work right. One option, the most involved would be to cut the flanges from an inline manifold and weld or braze them to the header. I don't think I'll have to go that far. I mounted an alternator to check clearance and it was fine. I think the generator will be fine too. The header is close to the block so the pipes will be inside the frame rails and under the car.

I'm totally new to GM inliners I'm building a 23 T using a Mercury Marine/Chevy 153 engine rated at 120 HP. I've always like 4s and 6s over V8s for light rods. When given the chance for a free Mercury I remembered that in the 60s they got run in Midgets so jumped on it not knowing that finding manifolds would be a hunt!I'm told the intake can be cut away from the marine manifold and used but haven't tried that yet. This will be strictly a street ride with a 700R4 trans (sorry can't use a clutch ) and an s10 rear in about a 1200 pound glass T. What got me hooked on small engines ? As a teen I watched a 62 Chevy II walk all over a hemi powered 37 Ford Pick up the motor was built to the max with V8 head etc. the car ran Ct. Dragway and was called Mystery 4.

Leon, Welcome to our world! If you read through this thread you will see some ideas for manifolds. Remembering that the 153 is 2/3 of a 230 six and has the same port spacing just with two of the middle ports gone. The exhaust is the same spacing as the small block V8 with slightly larger ports. So any 3 carb manifold for 194-292 sixes is an easy modification. I can not believe that mine is the only one I've ever seen. They may be out there. I have heard of V8 tube headers being used but not a cast one. 4 cylinder headers do show up on eBay sometimes. Clifford made a 4BBL intake. Our own Scott Marshall(CNC-Dude) owns the pattersn and rights to the Duggan 4 and six cylinder engines. He is putting his foundry together now. He also has the ability and means to produce any cast aluminum part needed.

There are a couple of threads on the HAMB on these engines. There are some good pictures that may give you some ideas.
Chevy II 4 Banger
Chevy 153 Four Cylinder

Beater I'm on both the HAMB threads now I'm Leon Renaud on there same as here I missed a stock set of manifolds on the HAMB already and Owens doesn't have any either!been watching your thread on modified 6 stuff. My problem is I'm not up on GM straight engines but like I said that little Mystery 4 has always stuck with me! I'm disabled and building on a very tight budget so I have to pich the pennies and do a bunch of fab work but I'm a forced to retire welder so I kind of like the fab part .

They make a great engine for a lightweight T and they still produce them as an industrial engine If you watch the Vintage Midget race car ads online, go fast goodies still show up from time to time.,

Hey Gary, Good to hear from you I was starting to worry.

Leon, There are guys on eBay who sell flange sets for the Chevy 194-292 sixes. You can use those to make intake and exhaust setups for your 4. Owens? Are you talking about Owens Salvage in Wellington, Texas? Bob is a good friend. Because of so many boat engines there way more engines than auto manifolds. The guy I got my original engine from was cutting down one of the early two carb marine intakes. It wasn't pretty but it would work. I think my modified 6 is the easiest way.

sounds like you are describing a exhaust manifold I saw on the Toyota fork truck that uses the 181 industrial engine (vortec 3000)

If you'd like to fabricate your own intake and header, contact Hells Gate Hot Rods at 208-305-6469. Their online catalog is good, but not complete so call them on the phone. They have everything you need to fab up a header and an intake like you want with nice thick flanges that need no extra work and plenty of mandrel bent tubing in appropriate sizes.

My whole set-up was around $250.00 delivered

Ask for Andy!!

New member here but you guys are right down my alley, In May I purchased a 27 track T out of Carson city NV, Powered by a .030 over 153. Venolia 10.5 Pistons, BMR Alum Rods, A McGurk Roller Cam of unknown specs, Roller Rockers, Balanced and blue printed, Hilborn stack injection, McLcod Clutch and Flywheel and a 5 speed out of and S10. Car is a blast to drive with few exceptions, Car is running a fast EFI computer that is getting a upgrade to a Holly unit.

That sounds like a fun car. Do you have pictures? It was so close to me but I don't think I've seen it.

Welcome Impala!!

I'd really dig some pics of that ride!!

Are you taking off the Hilborn unit or just changing the control box??

Going to a better ECM for better fuel management, Car has Fast EZ EFI that just doesn't let me fine tune Let me round up some good picture and I will get them posted.

Sorry fellows but haven't been on in a while, I do have some good pictures of the car I need to post, car is currently down for some work, has and old McGurk solid roller cam of unknown specs that has had lifter fail on # 2 exhaust, will Small block lifters work as stated at the beginning of this post?

I THINK small block lifters are the same. That's how they're listed in Jeg's and Summit. The tie bars are the part that is different. CNC Dude has the whole low down on what can be made to work and all the prep needed.

Thanks I got whole new set coming from Crower, next problem if I want to change sticks no one has a blank. Would really like to get away from the bronze gear on the distributor. Only cam I have found is a couple of mild street cams.

I'm bringing this thread back to the top.

Impala!! If you're still out there, bring us up to date!!

I've been doing research on these little fellers and have found a couple of roller cams that I can't use on my street engine!! Drop me a PM and I'll fill you in.

Haven’t been here for awhile and the car was on hold, Car now has a isky Hyd cam to replace the old roller, while i was at it a new Holly Ecu was installed as well as a crank trigger. Just starting to tune the car, but will post results as soon as i get some run time