New Owner 1967 Chevy Van Needs Help

Hello everyone, I just purchased a 1967 Chevy Van I actually found it posted here in this site, drove to Denver to buy it, everything seems to be fine, however I have a question, and I will try to explain it the best I can.

I haven't owned an older vehicle for quite some time, I have been driving a 1997 Chevy Tahoe for the last 4 years. This van runs great, great condition, however, when I shift on the column from 1st gear everything seems, fine, 2nd also, and then third seems ok, but when I get to about 55 miles per hour, in my opinion it seems like the engine is running at high rpms.
Now let me say, I am NOT MECHANICAL in any was shape or form, so complicated answers probably won't help me much. It just seems that way to me, it seems as if when I start to go to 65 the pedal is pretty close to the floor also, this concerns me a bit, it is confusing, I have no tachometer, and I really cant tell if this is normal for a 6 cylinder engine.

Can I get some opinions, I live in a very small town with only one mechanic, and I am not getting much help from these kind of questions, I also replaced the celenoid on the starter, because the mechanic said he ordered 2 of them, and neither of them fit, they looked EXACTLY alike, however, the bolt ? hole? patterns, just didn't match up, so he replaced the celenoid instead.

He asked if anyone may have replaced the engine, but I do not know and cannot find out.
How would I know, also he couldn't find anything anywhere in the engine that could show him if it was a 230 or 250 engine.

Thank you for your help anyone.

I am trying to put a picture up,

Bill 

welcome to VV , Bill. and welcome to the relatively slow crawl of the earlies. what you are experiencing is pretty normal for the most part. my 69 is really comfortable at 60 on the highway, but could benefit from a 4th gear. most of these vans were originally designed for inner city deliveries, and service.
mine has a 230 in it, and from what ive gathered on here, you cant really tell if you got a 230 or a 250 unless you look at the crankshaft.
there are many things that you could do to make your van more freeway friendly. if your van has a strong running engine, you could put an overdrive automatic transmission in it. but, you may need to change the rear end gear to make it work properly.
check over the site, and ask all the questions you can. get to know your van very well, and you'll grow to accept and love it for it's differences.
there's a wealth of knowledge on here, and friendly people that are happy to help.
good luck, and see ya around.

Thank you Dave, I understand what you say, well lets see if anyone has done any of those things, perhaps thats a choice for me, just don't want to burn the engine up, but my wife makes me drive slow, and we are taking it about 55 to CA. This summer for a trip.

Bill

when i was a newbie i had the same misapprehensions. seems the L-6's sound like they're revving high but even at top speed w/3 on the tree (80+ mph) i don't think they get muchmore than 4000 rpm. i installed a cheap sun tach to make sure. easy install evenfor an ignorant hack such as myself. i think the 6's were designed for higher rpm's and torque but again i'm a self taught ignorant hack

....check the number of bolts on the rear end cover,,,,10 bolts, 3:36 is for highway,,,,12 bolts you aint going very fast,,those would be 3:73 and 4:10 ratios

Welcome, my '64 is a 194-6 with the 10 bolt non posi rear and at 60 MPH, it revs about 2200-2500 on the tach, I wouldn't take a 50 year old van much faster....so many things affect noise and engine sounds, is the doghouse sealed and insulated, remember, you are used to driving a vehicle with the engine up front, not right next to you, what may be normal sounds really loud and revving.  Plus the rear and trans whines are very audible in vans too...as for the engine, look for casting numbers on the side of the block down by the dip stick, its a 6 or 7 digit number and then look at one of many casting code sites like these to see what engine you have.  A flashlight and mirror will help you read it!
http://www.inliners.org/casting/numbers.html
http://www.adchevy.com/info/6-cylinder-engine-casting-numbers
There are a few 230 and 250's with the same blocks some years, if you have one of those, then you need to look at the head and crank as was mentioned, this was because they used the same block but had different other internals to make the larger engine from the same block...but at that point, it shouldn't matter because I think all the other serviceable stuff like the carb, water pump, starter, etc are the same? any help?

Thanks for the info, I will check that out, it is a 12 bolt BTW.

Billy

mine's a 12 bolt and it'll do 85...

ha! my 67 has 4:11 gears in the 12 bolt and around 50 mph the motor is screaming. i tell people i have a top speed of 47. iv got a pretty thick skin for angry motorists behind me now.

Those six bangers in front of those 4:11's at a highway speed nowadays,are screaming
"Shift !,shift !", but there's nowhere to shift to.
I got beside an old '65 Chevy one day on the interstate.Passed him pretty quick because I figured I'd be dodging pistons coming through the hood.lol

check the spark plug size,,,if you find that they take a 5/8" socket to remove them,,,,chances are it is a newer 250 cu in engine....

,,,you cant always go by the bolt pattern on a rear end,,,,somebody could of put a newer 3:08 or something in there,,,,,,,you need to see the numbers on the ring and pinion or count the teeth to be sure what you got,,,,,and thats the most IMPORTANT thing you need to do,,,,find out what you GOT,,,,,people changed a lot of stuff on these vans to keep them going all these years,,,but whatever someone did to a van, we can make it safer, more dependable and more comfortable.....

My '67 has the 283 V8 and three on the tree and a 10 bolt diff. It also sounds like it's revving too high on the freeway, but that is largely because, as already stated, the motor is right beside you and you can hear it a lot better. IMHO a lot more important is if the motor revs easily and is smooth.

Recalling back to the manual trans class I had a couple of years ago, there is a simple way to tell the differential ratio without having to take the cover off. Without looking it up in the textbook, I reckon it involves jacking up the rear of the vehicle, wheels off the ground. Block one wheel, put tranny in neutral, and then manually turn the driveshaft as many times as necessary for ten full rotations of the rear wheel. Divide the number of times the driveshaft had to be turned by 10 and you get your rear end ratio. So if you had to turn the driveshaft 41 times plus change, the diff is probably a 4.11. Or maybe because one rear wheel is blocked you'd have to multiply the driveshaft turns by 2.

I understand there was a four speed on the tree manual transmission made for Chevy trucks at some point but I don't know how well they'd hook up with the forward control and driveshaft on these vans.

The four speed was a rare option on the early vans, very hard to find. The 4 speed Saginaw can be made to fit the van by swapping tailshaft housings with the 3 speed, the shift rods would give you the 4 forward gears and a cable can be used for reverse.


However, since both trans have a 1:1 high gear, this will do nothing for highway rpm's without swapping in a lower (numericallly) rear end gear. This often means having to buy a different gear carrier as well, this can easily get into $1000 if done at a shop.

Wow. Didn't Saginaw also make some 3 speed manual trannies with electric activated overdrive? If so, and if these are anything like what Chrysler did in the 30's-50's, then the tranny would be a bit longer than the three speed because of the overdrive assembly.

The '67 is revving fairly high at 65 but it will easily go 80 or more. However it will guzzle a lot more gas at higher speeds. It's basically a flying brick. 55 mph is a lot more economical. But I've heard the two speed automatics are even worse on gas. Drag racers like them though.

There's really no need for lower gearing in the thing, though. Usually it will pull off the line just fine in second gear, esp if it's a California rolling stop or a slight downward grade.