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Blower side swap and other Detroit Q's

6.5K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  jim in n.y.  
#1 · (Edited)
I bought 2 more 353's and when I got them home, I realized the one I need to use has a constant speed governor. It's going into a backhoe, so I'm thinking that I need a variable speed governor. A member here has one or more, but they are for the left side and mine is on the right side. So my first question is, can I swap the blower to the other side without other mods? It appears the governor gear drive is swap-able, so I'd just need the governor. I think...
Also, are the governors for the turbo engines, the same as non-turbo engines?
 
#2 ·
The blower can be swap to the opposite side . Biggest thing I would look at would be gear train. Some had fine teeth and others had course. Also when swapping the blower and gov the gear teeth pitch will change. I believe you can just swap the gears on the blower from one rotor to the other to get past this. Don't for get to get the linkage to go from gov to inj control tube. The thing that would stop you would be putting the blower on the side with the starter. I would check to see if you will have room . Might get away with flipping or clocking the stater to have clearance. If you need a more detailed list let me know and I'll wright it up the best I can remember. It's a lot of work. I would run it like it is or find the gov you want for the right side. And as far as I know the gov are the same t vs n .
Adam

And if you didn't know. You will have to remove the gear train and flip the rear timing plate .
 
#3 ·
Somewhere I documented swapping sides on my 4-53T Silver, it is a whole lot of work unless you'll have the engine completely apart otherwise, and will require a few parts. I had several reasons for wanting to swap mine.

You'll probably be better off using the governor housing you want and swapping the mechanisms to suit. Pretty much every governor I've had has needed some repair or part replaced or part missing. So may as well disassemble and check it out and then you're not far from reassembling in a new housing.
 
#5 ·
This engine is already rebuilt, so I have no plans to tear it apart. I have another one that has a variable speed governor, I'm going to use that one to power a sorghum mill, so I guess I could swap the governors. I also have an open governor on another engine, but know nothing about it.