64 Cuda 451

 
 
Chris Thompson and Steve Wander decided they wanted a Bigblock A-body, but the A-body that was available was a '64 'Cuda.
Well, alot of people said it couldn't be done without huge amounts of work, but here's the proof that it's not so bad.
Although the headers were obviously a bear, the low-deck does seem to fit fairly well into the narrow Cuda....

 
Right off the bat, here's the pic you wanted to see :) Although I don't have much info on this car, I do know it's a '64 Cuda, and that this motor is a 9-1CR 400 with a turned down 440 crank and ported heads. The 2" Hooker headers were obtained in a trade and no one knows what they're from. Judging by the location of the collectors, I'm guessing they're for a 67-up A-body. Looks like they'd be too close together for a B-body. Anyone know for sure?
StreetMasters makes the bolt-in mounts you see here, and according to Steve, except for a little grinding on the pressure relief bolt, everything went together as planned.
In the above pics, you can see the extensive cutting required for the headers. After these pics were taken, the intrepid installers fab'd new shock towers to make up for the loss of the inner fenders. After cutting for the collectors, they actually tuck in pretty tight...plenty of ground clearance. Imagine that:)

 
Again, quite a bit of cutting here, but everything works. Looks like steering is a tad limited, but this car isn't headed for a slalom course anyway...
The alternator was properly shimmed after this pic, and you can see there's plenty of room to shim the fan to the proper clearance. Here, there's about 1/2" between the fan and rad.
So there ya have it. A bigblock in a 64-66 a-body. Compared to other touchy situations you see advertised, I DO recommend you try this at home:) Are Steve and Chris the only guys with enough guts to try this? 
Time will tell....

 
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