To the OP. We don't really want to be nay-sayers to your proposition. We are just trying to let you know (from our experience) that reducing a car's weight is not as easy as it sounds. We just want you to know what you are getting in to. I, for one, would love to know how you do it so please, keep us posted on your progress.
Aluminum blocks do show up every now and again, so keep looking and your patience should bear fruit.

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-MattMan
LEANED & MEAN

Just because I'm "new" here doesn't mean I'm new to to the hobby. I've built lots of cars and trucks and even got my 68 Dart 225/ running great without any help from here. It's really a simple engine and car to work on. Try milling heads and deck on a Ford FE and trying to do an intake manifold swap on that. I guess trigonometry isn't that complicated either. I'm not asking for help achieving my goal and I don't really care if anyone thinks it's even possible. I know what I'm getting in to. I build machines much more complicated that these every day at work where I don't have the benefit of a factory service manual or any literature, usually just an assembly drawing if I'm lucky.

Back on topic, I have found a lead on a block from somewhere other than this site and I should have word on it Monday. I'll let you guys know if it pans out...

Yep. I've been using a U1 lawn and tractor battery for years.


The keep point is with the old cars, when they're off, they're off. There's no parasitic drain on the battery.

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

In one of my random thoughts, I built a tube frame for a Metro and converted it to mid engine using a Honda K20. It'd be kind of like a pickup truck in the back. The Metro is a better Mini Cooper than the later model ones in that its actually light. It just needed better styling, better suspension and some oomph. https://tinyurl.com/ybv9dkue The Metro is a dependable car, but there isn't much to break on them - other than the passengers.

Yeah, and the many others who didn't, aren't around to tell about it. They're the ones buried under the red line.

(Next, who wants to see "Whether I use a seatbelt or not affects only me!" shot down?)

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Statistics are valid, but they're just numbers. People can, and do, fall on both sides of the mean. Id rather be alive and in violation of the numbers than be right and dead.

It's gotten to be pretty normal for people to think 'on the surface' of any topic and accept it as gospel. Seatbelts are one such topic. From the way we've been schooled (brainwashed?) you would be lead to believe a seatbelt is an On/Off switch between life and death. In fact, they improve your odds a little but that's all. you can still die with a seatbelt on, even though no one ever wants to admit that. A visitor from Mars would think that anyone without a seatbelt is as good as dead, and anyone with a seatbelt is unable to die. It's not that black and white, not even close.

What's more is how the average smart person will recite the merit of seatbelts but ignore the massive percentage of accidents deaths that involve head injuries. Why isn't every person in a car wearing a DOT approved helmet? Why, that would be ridiculous, right? I think it has far more to do with hairdos getting messed up and the sheer inconvenience of it all. Think of the lives we would save if it weren't for hairdos and inconvenience! No one has a leg to stand on when they are reciting the seatbelt gospel if they don't wear a helmet, too.

In life, you pays your money and you takes your chances....

Wearing a bicycle helmet would probably save many lives.

Without question. But - like seatbelts - it has a strong emotional component. People don't want to wear helmets, so they ignore the facts. But they have been trained that 'seatbelts save lives', so they accept them as a guarantee, and a platform from which to anchor their identity. "I am smarter than those who do not wear seatbelts, because I wear a seatbelt."

So let's run through this. My odds of surviving a car crash are better if I wear a seatbelt, so as a rational person I wear a seatbelt. My odds of surviving a car crash are better if I wear helmet, so as a rational person I don't wear a helmet. See the logic? lol

I wear seat belts because I held a buddy in my arms while he died from getting thrown out of a car not wearing a seat belt.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Even with seat belts it can sure bruise the chest. I felt pain taking a deep breath for a week, and I was in a car that was stopped as it was hit in the rear. Some very short people have been decapitated by belts. I'd like an improved seat belt system.

Years ago, I was forced off the road at about 60 mph, into a plowed field. I am convinced I was able to get control back because I was wearing a seat belt, which kept me from being bounced from behind the wheel.
PS: I was in a 1949 Merc convertible

Boy, did this thread get off the rails

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Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 170 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170
64 Valiant 4dr 225

Luckily, no one was harmed because we were discussing seat belts.

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-MattMan
LEANED & MEAN

I have a few aluminum block SL6 engines. Send me a PM if interested.
I have been known to lift engines, using a seat belt.
DD

But you should only lift aluminum engines with a seat belt!!

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Rob

I’m Mater
The Kentucky Poser

There! That is absolute proof that seat belts save lives. DD has save the life of that engine.