100% first time around...although it does not mean i'm smart, it means i have no life and spend too much time around internal combustion engines. Kinda like being the CEO of the lemonade stand...big title but in charge of nothing. Hahaha
I am with *saltflats on the cam and the gal. The cam will be Ok but that gal is gonna get really wore out really quick. I like the numbers on the cam shaft well enough if that is any help, looks like you are headed in the right direction with mill. *we both probably just don't dig the hype on the cam shaft.
Yep the religions with multiple wives have it over the ones with multiple husbands. It would be like having 3 roosters in the chicken yard.
Ok Blowby I took the the test and didn't know there was going to be one. So I scored 60% not so good but I can read a spark plug and put timing in till the MPH drops off and pull some back out if that counts.
Re: comments on 409 truck engine durability Worked for a while at a chemical plant. One of the local truck lines hauled muriatic acid out of there. There were no weigh scales between the plant and wherever they hauled it too, so they loaded that truck down. Seems to me it ran about 76,000 lbs if memory serves. Mountain roads all the way, so that Chevy 60 cab over worked damn hard. It was a tandem, 409 with 5 and 4 trans. The truck had two cheapy glass packs, right beside the saddle tanks. The first thing Acidman did when pulling in to fill up was drag 2 hoses over and put one on each tank because that poor old hog block was working so hard that the fuel tanks were real warm and vapour lock was a big problem. They only got about a month out of the glas packs before they died. One day, when I was off shift and heading to the city my beater got high centered in a snow bank. Soon, along comes acidman and I waved him down. While we were grinding our way back to the city we were traveling pretty slow with all the hills, and weight. One of the really long hills we were down to almost the lowest gear combination, with his size #13 planted firmly on the floor and after many minutes I began to realize that the engine sounded like it was turning pretty fast. I looked over at the dashboard and saw the tach pinned at 5000 RPM. Chevy used a spinner governor to control max RPM, but when I asked acidman about it he just laughed and said "we fixed that shit long ago." That poor old 409 lived for quite a while but finally he sprinkled it by gearing down a few gears too much to use compression braking on a long hill. With that much weight, you don't get no stinking compression braking, buddy. Popped a couple rods out through the pan. I once saw a single axle tractor that the driver had got so hot after the coolant leaked out that you could wiggle and rattle both rocker covers on the 348, 'cause the valve cover gaskets were toasted. The heads were junk but it still turned over. Hog blocks are pretty tuff.
I got 60% also. Not bad considering I've never had, nor worked on one. I just find them intriguing for some reason. Someone asked earlier about rod bearings, I did read that some had rod bearing problems.
According to the 1958 SAE paper about developing the 348, one bore notch was needed for exhaust valve clearance, and a 2nd notch was added to lower the compression from 9.5 to 7.5 . They say back then they could not have taken the 283 to a 4 inch bore without going to siamesed cylinders.
of the three years for that body style I still think that the '63 is the best one. granted it is a personal opinion. @cavman A quick question is there a reason for running the 348 heads other than that is what you have? I am adding to my mental encyclopedia here. ya just never know when you are going to land a W motor to play with.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Big-Block_engine What long tube cast-iron flat four headers are these in the one pic?? I assume there is a matching bolt-on bottom flat four set too that goes with them. Are these on a real Mark II engine?? pdq67
Thanks. I had a couple of buddies (they were twins) when I was in high school that always had something with a W motor. They preferred 348s for some reason not that they couldn't have had 409s. They always claimed that the 348s breathed better and I wondered if that was why you chose those heads. Anyway thanks.
I have had a half dozen of each, or so. I had a '56 Belair with a 348 early on, and liked it well enough, but in a heavier car like the '58's and newer, the 348's seemed sort of "lazy" if you will. The '09's didn't. Torque, perhaps?
You may be old, but You musta spent most of your years living fast in the left-hand lane, leavin the rest in the dust!! i'm hoping that this 409 will have some torque too
Back in the day, like so many of the rare, sought after parts of today, the "W" motors were just motors. Not everyone wanted one, not everyone liked them. The ones I had back then more or less just fell into my lap. I do remember they were pricy to build even then. The old guy at the machine shop referred to the valves in my 425 HP as "sewer plugs" what-ever they were. Sodium filled valves weren't cheap even in 1968. The '55 sedan pictured had a good one in it..the one with the two piece intake. I sold the car, and the engine in '74 or '75 for less than I've got in my engine today. MOTOV8N.....you'll enjoy dropping the hammer on your's.
It's in pretty rough shape... It's a non-SS split bench, but i think it'll be a good place to let this W unwind!!
Looks good to me considering some of the stuff i start with And im an odd ball, i prefer a non SS bench car over a SS. Especially with a 4 speed. Looking forward to seeing yours come together. Tony
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