Vintage Cars: 1961 Corvette restoration., electronic fuel injection, corvette restoration

Question
Hi Don,
  I have this 1961 Corvette with out an engine and I am in the planing stages of a restoration. I have purchased many books which have answered many of my questions. But, I am still wondering about what engine to use. This car when finish will be a daily driver so I would like a little power with some sensible gas mileage if there is that sort of thing. I was wondering what engine you would reccomend? Also I am planning to at some point to take this car cross country, a long time dream.
Thanks,
DaveJ

Answer
Dave,

What a neat project!  Well, for one thing, your 61 would have come probably with a 327 V8.  The BEST version of the Chevy Small block in my opinion, but pretty hard to find.  

If you want original, try to find one with a date code close to the build date of your car.

But it sounds like you aren't going to worry that much about how correct the car is, you just want to have fun, and that is OK too, even for a guy like me that loves pure stock originals.

The nice thing about Chevy's and the Corvette, is that there are a bunch of options.

If the car was mine, I would consider a very mild 350 v8 with electronic fuel injection and a 5 or 6 speed overdrive manual transmission.  If you want an automatic, then get one of the newer overdrive four-speed units with lock-up torque converter.

Heck, you might even consider what one magazine did with a 55 Chevy.  Take a 4.3 V8 from the last few years of the full size Caprice.  IT is 265 Cubic inches and you can mount all sorts of fuel injection units from factory to aftermarket.

Check out this item on E-bay:  Item # 110134054607   

Just past those numbers into E-bay.com search.

I can't give you all the part numbers and years/options etc to do the swap, but keep plugged into the Corvette groups, and check with the street rod crowd.  I bet there is a book about Engine swaps out there too.

this project is what some call "Restification" which is a restored car that is updated and modifed for performance and durability/safety.

You might consider a four-wheel disk brake conversion, and upgrading the suspension at the same time.  But if it was me, I would keep the outside mostly stock.  Go easy on the wheels/tires too.  Some people love the huge wheel look with rubber bands for tires, but they ride bad, and are bad for fuel mileage, and the tires get lots of punctures and the wheels get bent out of shape a lot.  Stick with 16" or maybe 18" wheels at most on a car like this.  Actually 15" stock type wheels is what I would choose.

Good luck!

Don