pauls63409
11-21-2005, 04:06 PM
My name is Paul Perreca. I live in Delaware County Pa. In December of this year I will be 53 years old. I own a small body shop in Folsom Pa. I have been in business 17 years. Would like to thank everyone who helped me trouble shoot my over flow problem. It turned out to be the clutch fan. I have a 1963 Impala convertible. I bought the car in 1992. It was a 283 powerglide. It was black with a black interior. I bought a 409 QA motor out of Hemmings in 1993 from a guy in Arizona. The engine was laying in the engine compartment of an old Nova and was filled with old engine oil being poured through the carburator. I was told it had been raced and had about 20k miles on it. When it arrived at my shop I tore it down and it didn't look pretty. The cam was wiped and two rocker arms had holes in them. When I poped the pistons out, the rings were welded to the pistons with sludge. The oil pump relief valve was frozen with sludge. I took the block, crank and heads to a local speed shop that used to speicalize in 409's. They did a valve job, replaced two valves and replaced the vale springs with crane springs. The block was tanked and the cylinders were measured to be standard bore which really suprised me. The crank was polished and miked to be standard also and that really suprised me again! I soaked the pistons in carburator cleaner for three days and then gently knocked out the rings one by one. I then soaked the oil pump in carb cleaner, took it apart, knocked the relief valve out and cleaned it thoughly and put it back togrther and tested it and it worked great. I orderd a set of standard rings and bearings. I ordered a Z-11 cam and lifters from SC. Jody Anderson supplied me with two NOS rocker arms and balls. When I fired it up it ran beautiful and has been running great ever since. In '97 I did a body off retoration and that lasted almost eight years. The car is now red with a red interior and white convertible top. I added dual quads, factory cast headers, 2.5 in. exhaust all the way back, a turbo 400 trans with a shift kit and a 3000 stall converter, 3.70 posi, factory dash tack. factory tilt wheel, factory electric seat and a whole load of other parts to make a great 63 Rag. Will post pictures sometime soon. Can also e-mail pictures to anyone interested.