43 years ago, I was working on a car for some friends, and got a few parts at a junkyard. I noticed they had a complete 396 laying in the core engine pile, and asked about it. Cost was $60, so I decided to buy it. A the time I was about to begin my senior year in high school. I didn't have a job, but made a few bucks fixing cars for people in the neighborhood, and family friends. My twin brother did get a job that summer, at the first computer store in Tucson. He was flush with money. The plan was to rebuild the 396, and put it in the 59 chevy truck that my dad had bought the year before. I had overhauled the 235 in the truck, but wanted more. I took the engine apart, and found a few interesting things. It had a cast iron, dual point distributor. I gave that to a friend, I wish I had kept it. It also had a gear driven, reverse rotation camshaft. I saved the gears for a while, but they're gone now. It was the 325 hp engine, with the Quadrajet intake, but had a rusty AFB carb, with an adapter. There was some rust in one of the cylinders. About this time I bought the book How to Hot Rod Big Block Chevys. It was published in Tucson, where I lived at the time. Reading that book convinced me that I ought to leave the engine stock, but add a mild cam. I took the block to the machine shop to get bored. They found that it already had a sleeve in cylinder #8, and that the rust would require a .060" overbore to clean up. Early in 1979, I somehow convinced my brother to spend some money on the project. We put in an order to JC Whitney, and bought $200 of pistons, bearings, cam, gaskets, etc. I also took the heads in to get a valve job (requiring a few extra parts due to rust and wear), and got the crankshaft reground, and the rods sized and assembled to the pistons. I don't have the receipt for the crank, but I do remember picking it up from the machine shop. With all the parts on hand, we put the engine together. I also had to find a bellhousing, clutch, flywheel, exhaust manifolds, and a floor shifter, and make a generator bracket, and front motor mounts. On a nice Friday morning in March, 1979, I pulled the front sheet metal off the truck, pulled out the six, and started my first engine swap. My dad got a few pictures on Saturday morning, as I was working on all the little things that make swaps take so long. Late that night, we took it for a test drive. The old 3 speed transmission made some new noises, with all that newfound torque, but it ran good and sure had a lot more power. Next, we'll move forward in time a few decades....to the present.
Great share… don’t know what I am more impressed with…all the work done to the 396 and the swap or the fact that you still have all the receipts… gonna have to be the fact you still have all those receipts
A quick rundown on the intervening years....in 1979, the truck got a 4 speed, 3.73 posi rear from a later truck, headers, Qjet carb, and a pair of open chamber heads (which didn't make any real difference). I started racing it that summer, going out to Tucson Dragway almost every weekend that I had enough money. I also got a job at the junkyard, and started school, in August. By then it needed a new clutch, and 2nd gear was getting bad again, so I put a used TH400 in it. In 1980, I put on an other set of heads, which are closed chamber, with larger valves. These heads are on the truck right now, on the 454 (which we'll get to in a minute). Also I broke the rear, and put in some 4.56 gears, and added some used slicks. I put in a slightly bigger cam, and went to a Holley 750 and aluminum intake. Also it got an alternator, and HEI. It got down to the low 14s, and had hundreds of passes on it by then. 1981...I met a girl....and things on the truck slowed down...eventually got a job, got married, had kids, etc. In 1990, I pulled out the 396, and replaced it with a blown LS-7. In 1996, I got a 55, and put the blower motor into the car. I overhauled the 396, and put it back in the truck. It had spun a rod bearing, most likely do to a cracked oil pump pickup, so I resized the rods, got a different crank, but put the same pistons back in, with a hone and a valve job and a fresh mild cam. In 2005, I crashed the truck, and at that time pulled out the 396, and put it on a stand. I put another 454 into the truck, and have been driving it for about the past ten years.
I've been cleaning the block, and getting parts together. I ran a hone through the bores, and measured them with the dial bore gauge. The old cast pistons show about 5 thou clearance on the skirt, and yes, there was some rattling going on. about 15 or so years ago, I did some work on a 396 for a friend, and ended up with a set of .060 over forged pistons. I also had bought a set of pistons and rods for a 427, and sold off the pistons instead of using them, so I have a set of resized rods. The forged pistons are not worn as much as the old cast pistons, so I plan to use them. They show 3 thou clearance at the bottom of the bore, and about 5 at the top of the ring travel area. Which is fine for tens of thousands of miles, in my experience.
A few pictures of the block, taken today. Casting date, Nov 2, 1965, as best I can tell. But it could be anything the first week of November. A little bit of cross hatch after running the hone through the bores. Numbers. Tonawanda, Nov 4th, IV is a 325 hp engine with TH400, R means it came with a Rochester carb, not Holley. 6L means it was installed in a 1966 model year car in Los Angeles. A few pics of the block. The rust pits. They haven't really hurt anything for the past 42 years, so I'm leaving them alone.
Darn Squirrel yr receipts go back a long ways and in saving them, Im only 50 , Same Here on Years of receipt , ( but my receipts and serval stack are all over the place between 8 building / sheds/ shops) I was around older family , no one my age 10 ish , I bought a 66 chevy II , family own car since new, with 3 on tree , fist speed part was home made , straight 6 cast iron intake , we cut hole one each side of original carb location added 2 more carbs , making 3 carb set up . I remember Polishing the crank with Emery cloth and shoestrings,( quite a few over the years) Lot of parts where hand me downs, junk yard visits, I believe first New speed part I actually Bought was a aluminum Intake straight 6 & Headers, then a Hurst shifter in floor, (a lot of grass cutting) 12ish was a X drag Vega , & purchased a New Magic HP In a bottle , (RPM Nos ) & Has revolved into big stash of parts, After talking to you after your 21 drag week , Im @ point to go back to simple Set up like your chevy II engine ,in my stash of BB , I have a 67 427 4 bout vett after Market square ports ,hp round ports ,Steel cranks , H beam & Aluminum rods, blowers from , Centrifugal ,177 6-71 through 12-71s. This H--R drag race is a disease/Vice for some of us . Squirrel and Mad Mikey, I am curious I know U2 Street Drive end Drag your cars, hard on them , back in the early 90s We ran a 355 sbc with blower, street & drag, 7,500 rpms with 10 psi we would change rod bearing @ 3,000 miles increment then @ 6,000 miles main bearings , are you watching & doing same ?
I don't have bearing problems with the 427, it usually gets into the next gear by 6500 rpm, and only sees 6 psi boost.
It's an oddball, hard to find info on it. This picture contains about all I know about it. From the "how to hot rod..." book. I did take the gear off the distributor, and had it for years...but I don't know where it went.
Cool thread Jim, ever figure out why Chevy didn't use dowel pins on the early 396 timing covers? Had a couple over the years, kinda weird...
Probably to make it easier to get the cover on and off, and then have the seal leak because it's not centered
@squirrel Did you ever measure, or know what the cam specs were? I expect it was a marine grind for a counter-rotating engine.
It did seem to be a stockish hydraulic cam. A bit of research shows part numbers for the two gears, and there was an L-88 cam made for the gear drive, as well as the normal chain drive cam. The truck parts book (for medium trucks) shows the gear was used on all of the 366-427 tall deck engines through 1967 or 68, then they went to the chain and sprockets.
Great history/record keeping. So, is that the '58 in the background?..How about a full picture of it?
The 59. When I took it to the races in Tucson Jan 2020, the Zip Tie Drags. Ran low 14s with the 454. It also has 3.54 rear gears, slippery radials, and the fuel system isn't quit up to the task of going faster. If I shifted early, it went slow, if I shifted later, it starved for fuel. So shifting at 5000 rpm, 14.09 was the best it would do.
Low 14's In that truck is pretty good! Automotive magazine tests from the late '60s showed big block muscle cars ran times like that. Hell, stock, that 325 HP probably wouldn't have been that fast. Mechanical pump?
That’s right at I ran, oh so many years back with my ‘57, 454, TH400 w 3.08’s and L60 rear tires. Well, ya would have gotten me by .02. I’ll have take a look later, but stock Vette fuel pump and I’m almost sure I put 3/8th line from tank to carb, but may have been 5/16th. I wanted to put a 3:38? I think it was , gear, but never could afford it back in the day and didn’t have the juevos to try it myself back then. Besides, I think pops was tired of helping me change rear ends, he’d driven for 7 years with a 10 bolt 3.08 from a 55-9 GMC without issues. I broke it twice in 3 months, hence the 12 bolt that’s in it now.
Great story love the history nothing like a family truck and a junkyard motor. Plus having real track time. How far a drive was it to the track back in the day? I have a seminar story old school 383 400 crank 350 block sitting in the garage thinking about bringing it back to life.
Great story Jim, you have alot of irons in the fire, Huh? I'm sure it's fun to look at those old receipts- brings back good memories.
I wish I saved all my old receipts. I have a couple of 396 engines salted away. One came out of a '69 Caprice and has never been apart. The other is a '66 I had in my stock car. I swapped it from my cousin Steve for a good 283. I put a rebuilt set of 781 heads on it, an L88 Chet Herbert cheater cam, modified points distributor, spread bore Holley and a medium high rise intake. It pulled great at Islip and I never ran it past 6,300. Ultimately it spun a main bearing in spite of taking care of it. It sits on an engine stand, waiting for the right project. It needs a crank, maybe saveable, pistons, rods and the heads freshened up. I was thinking of turning it into a 427, but leery of the over-bore required. The best I could do with a .060 bore would be a 421, a 408 would be easy.
I was living at home on the west side of Tucson, and the strip was on the far east side...so it was quite a journey out there! all the way across town, 22 miles, usually a 45 minute drive. Gas was close to a buck a gallon, and I was making $2.75 an hour at the junkyard, so eating was optional.
Interesting reading....I got a license in 1964 and always messed with car and bikes...But no receipts or photos other than the last 10 years... It's like I came from another world. There were several drag strips, the closest were English town or Island in NJ, about an hour and a half ride..Nearest speed shops were also a ride...
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