8BA In a 33

SJCormier

SJCormier

Junior Member
I have a 33 Tudor sedan that has an 8BA which was installed by a previous owner. Other than the engine and the electric radiator fan the car appears to be pretty much stock 33. I’m not entirely certain but the transmission appears to be correct for the car as well. I’m not terribly pleased with the way the engine transplant was done. The crankshaft pulley has just a hairs clearance from the front cross member. Just changing the fan belt would require at least unbolting the front motor mounts if not pulling the engine altogether. Also because of the lack of clearance the u-bolts for the front spring were simply replaced with regular bolts going through the holes in the cross member that don’t fit well. It’s pretty sketchy to say the least. Is the 8BA slightly longer than the 21 stud? Should other components have been used during the swap that would have provided the proper fit?
 
Old posts from Bruce Lancaster say the 8ba is 1 1/2" longer due to the front accessories. This can be shortened up using a front mount dizzy, and heads and pumps from a 59a series motor.
 
The 8BA can be modified to fit early type front accessories but it requires a cam change to early style with early gears. The crankshaft would need shortening of the snout to fit an early pulley. Early heads can be fitted but some ports would need to be plugged and caps for water pumps installed. The 49 thu early 51 Mercury oil pan may already be on the current engine unless it has a truck pan and half bell.
 
8ba doesn't fit well in 33-34's.
I had to move my firewall back to get it to fit, and then getting a belt driven fan to fit is a whole other thing.
You can swap out all the front stuff and distributor, ot just get an early engine to put in it.
 
59a motor in my 34 fits fine. uses the stock fan and stock radiator, and the 8ba can be made into the same size
 
The big issue with a standard 49-53 engine in an early V8 is the location of the fan-belts - necessitated by moving the distributor to the side of the engine - versus being driven off the cam in front. The best situation is to reconfigure the front of the 8BA to look like an earlier engine (pre-49), but that really needs to be an objective when the engine is built as the components have to change (the cam being the biggest issue). There is no problem with the crankshaft snout - but the cam, timing cover, distributor, water pumps, crank/cam gears, fan/generator setup -- all needs to be specifically setup for your 33-34. When done correctly, everything fits extremely well!
 
Zax40 said:
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Unless they are to large (pixels). You can usually fix that by emailing them to yourself before posting them, which has always worked for me. Some of the guys here have posted excellent detailed instructions on how to do it right, but I usually take the easy way out.:D
 
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