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Many people that restore trucks today prefer the original look
with the modern ride or feel. However, there are a few who
desire the exact original. Many trucks that are found in salvage
yards have been stripped or have mutated to the point where
their true identity is unknown. I've seen 1955 Chevy trucks with
1957 grills, 1948 Chevy trucks with the gas tank in the cab, etc.
When Chevrolet began building vehicles, they were powered by
a 299ci, six-cylinder engine. These automobiles could reach a top
speed of 65 mph without taxing themselves, and accelerated
from zero to 50 in an astounding 15 seconds. By today's
standards this isn't too impressive, but at the time Chevrolet
was one of the fastest vehicles on the road.
In the early years, there was a great deal of research and
development dedicated to coming up with a powerful engine
that could be produced for a reasonable price. Chevy's first
V-8 engine was released in 1917.
The 90-degree overhead-valve design debuted in the D-series,
the last of the original long wheelbase cars. The eight-cylinder
lasted only two years, as Chevrolet dropped these large
power plants to develop four-cylinder versions. It would be
1929 before a six cylinder reappeared, and a V-8 wouldn't
be available again until the introduction of the legendary
small-block in 1955, 36 years later.
Many of the higher-horsepower engines were actually power
packages added to the base engine. Engineers knew that the
standard -equipment engines benefited greatly from a little
better breathing. The answer was to offer special packages
that featured bigger carburetors
(or multiple carbs, or fuel injection). The dual-quad carburetor
setup (also immortalized in the Beach Boys song "409")
was part of a power package designed to beat the competition
in the horsepower game. At one time there were 158 different
versions of the
small-block being produced by Chevrolet -that's a lot of
different ways to get power.
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