I have the opportunity to pick up a Complete Chevy 427 Tall Deck motor for $300. I've done a little research on these motors, and from what I can gather, these motors do great with a larger stroke crankshaft, or are a good subject for a blown street motor due to the lower compression. I know summit/jegs sells an intake spacer to make a regular big block intake work on the tall deck. What's everyone's opinion on this motor?
Should be steel crank for sure. We built a 505bbc for a bracket car. .100 over , .250 stroke crank. I believe there are intakes available without have to use the spacers. Those peanut heads are junk. The rods, and pushrods are .400 longer.
Sounds like some resale value at that price. It would be a heavy engine. What would you be using it for
It would be going into a strip/street 56 Chevy gasser. It seems like $300 is a good deal from what you all seem to say.
With Dart 320's and 13.5:1 ours put out 810hp, at 6100rpm. I would jump on it. Sonic test the cylinder walls if you bore it very much. It WILL have 4 bolt mains.
Yes! For $300 grab it! I have one in my motor home. Remember it has a 4-ring piston and thick wall castings. Very good for an inexpensive mid-rpm street blower motor. Some of them have closed chambered heads (100cc) others have open chambers (119cc). Most have small valves and round ports. I've found that the 427 is not the torque motor everyone thinks because of the 3.760" stroke, and the 4-ring pistons are cast and heavy. Everything you use for a 454 will fit right in except you need .400" longer rods and 454 3-ring pistons. The 427 is internally balanced and the 454 is externally balanced. You will need manifold spacers for an aftermarket oval port intake manifold. All the aftermarket tall deck manifolds have huge rectangle ports - Not good for the street. If I were doing it again I'd make it a 489 cu. in. then I'd get the torque I desired.
Check the numbers to make sure its a 427 and not a 366. Exhaust manifolds look more typical of a 366 to me. Lots of people have been stuck with 366's by people who claim they're a 396 or 427.
Metlmunchr said it best. If it is a 427, that baby can swallow up a long stroker crank! Like close to 600 cubes if you want to invest in a stock block. Get the BFH out to clearance the '55s firewall.
If you want to build a big inch BBC, start with a short deck, large bore block. The tall deck truck motors are not really very useful for hot rod motors, I would not waste money on it if that's what you want to build. You'd be better off with a 70s-80s 454 pickup truck motor. But if you happen to have an old school bus that needs a motor (like my 58 GMC), then it would be fantastic! I'd jump on it myself, because I do have an old bus. I also have a few hot rods with big blocks in them, all short deck blocks.
Squirrel is giving you good advice. I've got two complete tall deck 427's and have looked into what it would take to build one of them into something more than a rebuilt truck engine. It would get real expensive and even though I've got nothing in the ones I've got, I'd still start with a short deck engine rather than building one of the tall decks. For example, one of the basics would be to replace the heavy 4 ring cast pistons. Two ways you can go with that. Special aftermarket pistons with the right pin height for a tall deck. About $1000 for a set of pistons and rings. Or you can change the rods for aftermarket ones that are .400" longer than stock and then you can use a wide range of pistons made for short deck blocks in either a forged or a hypereutectic piston. A set of overlength rods will set you back from $500 up to whatever you can stand to spend. Either way you go, replacing the pistons is going to cost you a minimum of $500 more than it would've cost if you'd started with a short deck. At that point, your $300 starting point is really $800, and well into the range of what you'd pay for a good short deck motor. Next comes the peanut port heads. Totally useless for any sort of performance. So you hunt up a set of used heads and go thru them, or spend $1400 to $2500 on a pair of aftermarket heads. With either choice, you've spent a minimum of a few $hundred more than if you'd started with a short deck motor. Of course, if you start with a short deck motor, its probably not going to have the ultimate set of heads on it, but the worst ones you'd find are far more workable for performance use than any peanut port tall deck head. Then there's the intake. As someone else mentioned, all the aftermarket manifolds made to fit tall deck motors are race models. So you buy a streetable manifold that's made to fit a short deck motor, and add a set of spacers to make it fit a tall deck. Spacers are $150 to $200. At that point, you've paid a total penalty of at least $1000, and likely more, just for starting with a tall deck motor that seemed cheap at first glance. Even though my own starting point for building one of these engines would be $0, the cost still doesn't make sense as compared to starting with a short deck motor.
I like what you all have to say, its got my mind turning. Let's say I want to use this as a blown motor, .100 or .125 bore with the stock crank and rod, but change the pistons to fit the new bore and to get rid of the 4 ring "bricks," and change the heads. Keeping the compression low but the cubes big, so you could have a nice blown torque monster of a street motor.
The big advantage is rod angle. When I drag raced injected gas we ran a few 496 inch motors, Then switched to a 400 tall rodac, I never played with blowers, But Frank and Lena Williams were first to break 200 mph with injected 496 at orange county. Gene Adams & I talked about it several times.
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My thought is that you would want a tall deck block to swing a larger stroke crank otherwise I would use the short deck.
It's not a lot of money that I have at the moment, it's a lot of time and a few extra parts. If it takes me a few years to put something together it's no big deal. I've got a small block that I'm putting in the car this winter. Plus with all the extra parts laying around and trading I do, that will save me some money. I've got two 671 superchargers on the shelf right now. One of which has a Hilborn 4 port injection. Now what combination makes the 496? What's it bored over and with what kind of crank?
That's a 427 with a 1/2" stroker crank and .060" bore. Although we call it a 1/4" stroke 454 crank these days. 4.25" stroke, that is. Stock 427 is 3.76", 454 is 4.00" stroke. easy to do with a short deck block. You gotta buy new pistons and the crank anyways, might as well do it with a standard setup that doesn't require an oddball intake or distributor.
Personally, I would go with the longer rods and use off the shelf (less expensive) 454 pistons of the desired size. Put your money in the rods and aftermarket heads. BBC's like longer rods and big heads for rpm's. You will be much happier later if something goes down.
I bot some really nice used "tight tuck" headers thinking they would fit my 454 , they must be off a 427 because they don't EVEN fit ? The engine I got them from looked like a 396-454-in a 34 Ford full-fendered coupe Can anybody think or offer an opinion of what they might fit, w/o pictures?
I did notice that with all this talk about intake spacers. No one mentioned the fact that a regular chevy style distributor will not work when spacers are used. An aftermkt distributor with a slip ring adjustable mount or a custom made unit has to be used. The distrib mount raises with the intake manifold. I have also welded a ring to the underside of the manifold and cut the original distrib hole .385" deeper.. Spacers leak.. As stated ^^^^ Tall decks ( 10.200") are not a "budget" build.. Have built over a dozen over the years and ran a couple myself in an early funny car (60's) type drag car.. Still have a tall deck blower manifold somewhere in one of my barns.. I have bored these blocks 4.440" and still had .125" or more wall left. Filled with blok rock.. Have bored several drag motors to 4.375" and no problems.. The backup motor for my Studebaker gasser is a .125" over (9.800"deck) , old war horse, veteran of many wars, 454 block.