[JimNNN]

Hi all, I just bought a fairly nice, all original '54 Mainline Tudor,

I don't know if "fairly nice" means it's just structurally solid or if it means it's a complete functioning car (or would be with a reasonable amount of sorting.) Hard to tell from the pic which it is.

If it's the latter, I'd personally keep the original drive train to keep the car "all original". If the six is seriously non-functioning or real worn out, however, the FE sounds like an interesting swap. I've been told that the 239 Y-block in my '54 would be hard to get the the correct parts or expertise to rebuild, so I may be in the same boat some day.

One question though: Would the original rear end in a '54 Ford be strong enough to handle a 200-300 HP FE or equivalent engine in the long run?