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HOW MUCH H.P.'s DID THE CHEVY 265 HAVE

13K views 11 replies 10 participants last post by  edgewoodrx 
#1 ·
I have recently purchased a 265 Chevy motor from someone who told me it was a stock 350. The motor was unused (never ran) When I tore it apart to check bearing clearance, mic the crank and check the cylinder bore, I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was bored .060 over, had a balanced steel crank, NEW cam and solid lifters, NEW "ROSS" high dome forged aluminum racing pistons, and splayed 4 bolt aluminum main caps. I also got a pair of heads with it but they are small port and I won't be able to use them because I think this motor will blow them right off (HA HA HA) Does anyone know what the factory horse power was on this motor? Also, does anyone have any guess as to how much H.P. it may have according to how it is built? I was going to use this motor in a boat but I think it will have compression up the ying yang. Does anyone have any estimates as to how much $$$$ may have been put into this motor including machining, balancing, and total cost of parts? I paid $250.00 for it believing it was a 350 but I think I may still have gotten a hell of a deal. Would a set of LT-1 aluminum Corvette heads (53cc chambers, 175cc intake, and 68cc exhaust, reverse flow cooling) work on this motor? And one last question, WHY would ANYONE stick THIS much time and money into a 265 :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:??????? Any replies will be appreciated. THANKS.....GOOD LUCK.
 
#2 ·
The 265 was made from 1955 to 1956, the 55`s had no oil filter provision, they also didn`t have side motor mount provisions, they only had them in the front. I see the exact point your making, why bother to hot rod a small journal 265? are you sure it`s a 265? there were 2 other small blocks in the 260`s, the 262 and the 267, neither are worth hot rodding. The LT1 heads won`t work on the first generation engines, the LT1 used reverse flow cooling, while the heads will bolt on, none of the coolant passages line up. If you have a 265 I would think a collector would want it, if it`s a 262 or 267 they make good economy engines and boat anchors.
 
#7 ·
265's made 160hp with the two barrell from the factory. If you opted for the power pack (dual exhaust - 4 bbl) you could get 180. They have spindly looking crankshafts and I couldn't imagine using one in a car that didn't come with it to begin with. I have one bolted up to a powerglide in my shop at the moment. It has the dealer optioned oil filter on top too. I think one day it will make a nice coffee table after I clean it up and paint it...(and remove the oil filter)

btw - if it is a 265 it will also be missing the bosses for a starter motor. GM mounted the starter to the transmission until 58 or 62. I forget which exactly but its one of those two.
 
#9 ·
I raced a 57 chev with a 265 2bl and 3 spd for a couple years. 162 hp. It fit the class at the time pretty well. The car that could beat me was a 59 chev 283 185 hp 3 spd. They had more rear over hang and more traction. These were pre slick days. I spent a lot of time on the distributor machine and o'scope getting a perfect ignition. This was my "secret" so to speak. It actually ran 86 mph with my fender well headers which was right with the best of them back then. The 59 wasn't any faster but if I didn't get a good light he would get by a couple feet. I still held both ends of the record however, I just couldn't run it every time. As I recall I ran a couple high 15's for the record with it but most of the time it ran 16.0 and 85-86. It was pretty good in it's day.

The 265 was not a real good motor to make a lot of hp as noted above. It was used in the lower gassers but was a bit of a bullet. They would run 7500-8000 ....a few times and that was it. the 283 was much better and the gasser guys really reved them up. Many ran 8500-9000 all the time. I think they were around 400 hp or so but very peaky.
 
#10 ·
STATUTORY GRAPE said:
I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was bored .060 over, had a balanced steel crank, NEW cam and solid lifters, NEW "ROSS" high dome forged aluminum racing pistons, and splayed 4 bolt aluminum main caps[/QUOTE

I may be wrong But I did not think the 265 would take a .060 over bore and I know the only way it could have 4 bolt mains is they were added since the 265 was a 2 bolt main block.

Unless the # prove its a 265 I think you have something else from the SBC family .

Then again I could be way off base ,,,,,,,,

Good luck Brian kc0kfg
 
#11 ·
It's possible to have Milodon 4 bolt aluminum main caps. The 265 could be bored .060 and a few made it out .125....for a while.
You will need some small chamber heads. The best bet would be the double hump so called 'fuelie' head of the era. These can be ported with a lot of work. This is not a big motor so the really big stuff we have today probably won't work very well unless you are going to rev the daylights out of it. They do rev pretty quickly but don't have a lot of torque.

Personally if you are going to use it, I'd look at the small B&M blower to make up for the small size. With a small carb and just a mild cam you could have a motor that gets reasonable MPG and has some "wow" factor and still could make close to 400 hp..
 
#12 ·
Our technology has come a long way. In my high school days I remember 265's being the engine of choice for the local dirt cars. Our 1/4 mile dirt track here in East Texas was dominated by 265 small blocks as late as the early 70's. There was no such thing as noise pollution so the first thing to greet your ears as you pulled into the parking lot of the Greenville, Tx Superbowl was the sound of screaming, open header 265's in modified and "skinny" race cars" running 7000 RPM's.
Anyone remember skinny cars? For you youngsters, they were mostly 55-57 Chevys split down the middle and welded back together. They were rebloted to the original frame and fitted with very wide tires. Very impressive looking beasts of the track in their day. This was before IMCA took over and turned everything into sheet metal clones.

But, I digress. Here's my goofy logic: If a 265 was good enough for 7000 RPM screamin dirt cars, it ought to be good enough for a boat............
Mike
 
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