Well, there are many reasons for putting a particular engine in any build. If you like a Ford in a Ford, Mopar in a Mopar, or GM in a GM, that's fine and it may seem logical. However, consider this: it was the small block Chevy that finally supplanted the venerable old flathead Ford back in the late '50s. I know because I was there. The flathead was as common then as the Chevy is now. Just look at any of the old hot rod and custom magazines from back then. Yes, there were Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Buick and Chrysler Hemi engines in use back then, but they never got the foothold of the Chevy because of their size and weight. When Rod & Custom Magazine put a 265 Chevy in the "Dream Truck" in October of 1954, hot rodders across the country took note. It was small, relatively lightweight (compared to the others), and easy to work on. It fit in that '50 Chevy truck without needing to move the steering box or make firewall modifications. Even more notable, a bone stock 265 with 4-barrel carb put out 215 horsepower; it took hundreds of dollars of parts and machine work to get that kind of power out of a flathead Ford. It wasn't long before the Chevy found its way into sprint car racing, too . Punch the '57 and newer 283 block out a full 1/8th inch, add fuel injection, and you have 301 cubic inches of screaming 400 plus horsepower at 7000 rpm (still the dominant engine in sprint car racing, but now 410 cu. in. and 800 hp). The flathead with its 3-bearing crankshaft may self-destruct at anything over 5000 rpm. The handwriting was on the wall - if you wanted reliable performance forget the obsolete old flathead with its tendency to overheat and crack valve seats. Spend all that speed parts and machine work money on a modern small block Chevy. The rest, as they say, is history. The small block Chevy blew the old flathead "out of the water" which makes the Chevy the most traditional hot rod engine after the flathead.

Ironically, the Y-block Ford was introduced a full year ahead of the Chevy, but didn't catch on as quickly. The Y-block was produced for only about 8 years, the small block Chevy for about 50 years. The Y-block Ford was replaced by the modern small-block Ford. The original small Ford started at a diminutive 221 cubic inches, then went to 260, then 289, and finally 302 (The 351 Windsor is a different casting). The 221 and early 260 have a different bell housing bolt pattern than the later ones. All Chevy V-8s, small block or big block, from 1955 up have the same bell housing bolt pattern (not LS engines). There are at least 18 different water pumps to fit the small Ford. Chevy has two - long pump or short pump.

Engine choice is a matter of personal preference. Sometimes cost or availability (or both) are considerations, sometimes it's the builder's familiarity with a particular brand or model. In my case I use Chevys because I raced them for years and I know how to assemble them. Also, I like to look at all of the different engines I see in hot rods and I prefer to see something that doesn't necessarily "belong"; to me it shows ingenuity. I love to see a big block Ford or a Hemi in a GM product. I once put a 350 Chevy in a Volvo 780GL sedan! What a sleeper...