Learning 409's!!!!

[60biscayne]

:rofl Greetings. I am the new guy on the block. Last year my son and I bought a 65' vintage 409 short block, in pieces. We have slowly been reading up on these motors, and aquiring parts, we bought a 60' Biscayne with 38,000 original miles on it, from Texas, and are going to use this car for a "Test Mule", hopefully. We hope to build the motor this winter, it still is the original bore, with very little ridge at the top of the cylinders, and the crank has never been ground. THe bores and journals still look pretty darn good, but I have some measuring yet to do. We still need some small stuff to finish the build, such as head bolts, (especially the short ones), THe flat dust pan that goes onto the bellhousing, Headers, eventually, alternator brackets, or suggestions as to what to use. I'm also looking to buy a junker 348/409 distributor, just to make an oil pump primer/driver out of, so the distributor doesn't have to be pretty or functional, I just need the housing with the shaft in it. If anyone has any tips, suggestions, or any of the above mentioned parts you would like to sell, please give me a shout. Thanks alot! Brian and Andrew.

[JimKwiatkowski]

Brian & Andrew,Welcome to the site,it sounds like you have a nice father and son project going :) Here's a couple links to get your parts.Show Cars sells a priming tool for 348-409 engines.

Classic Motor Co. (Phil Reed)
PO Box 14398 10520 River Road
Kansas City, MO 64152
Phone: 816-587-1109 Fax: 816-587-6809
philreed@sound.net

www.show-cars.com

[Tom Kochtanek]

That sounds like a great Father/Son project! Wish I could get either of my two boys interested in these vintage builds...

Sounds like you're off to a great start with the short block. I'd recommend your consideration of a new set of bolts for the heads, but I'm no expert. Do you have a set of heads picked out, or are you still looking at options?

Some of us are able to locate parts using Ebay, and there are plenty of "aftermarket" places to shop for parts. I'm guessing some others will chime in here and suggest addition places to shop and vendors to buy from.

Keep us posted as your project progresses. We've got plenty of opinions, they're free, and worth every penny :).

Enjoy!
TomK

[60biscayne]

:brow HI Tom Thanks for the welcome! I saw somewhere on your personal info, your B-Day is Jan. 21, 51'! Mine is Jan. 19, 1953! Funny, yep, another B-Day coming. Thanks for the welcome. What car(S) do you have?? My first real car, I got when I was 19, it was a 61' Biscayne, with a 283, 3 speed w overdrive. Factory 3:70 rear gear. That car was quick in 1st gear for a 283. ANyway, Andrew,( my son), and i picked up this 60' last spring, 6 cyl. 3 speed, 38,000 miles, from Texas. Someone had discovered in a peacock Coop, covered in about 5 inches of you know what. LOL!!! THey cleaned it off, and someone then drove it up here. It still has the original spark plugs, wires, most of the hoses on it!! Runs like a champ. By some miracle, the chrome and paint are all still pretty good. The interior is dry rotted, tho. But the peacock droppings etched the rear glass! Wierd. I'm having a heck of a time polishing the rear glass with an Eastwood kit. Very time consuming! In the spring the old 235 is coming out, and we hope to have the 409 done by then. I bought some decent 817 heads locally for $500 last summer. We just didn't want to spend the $$$ on 690 heads. Then I found out the hard way that only certain intakes will fit the smaller port heads, 3 intakes later. I even had a Checy casting # Book, which didn't tell me everything. Oh well, live and learn. Talk to you later, Brian.

[Tom Kochtanek]

Brian mentions: "HI Tom Thanks for the welcome! I saw somewhere on your personal info, your B-Day is Jan. 21, 51'! Mine is Jan. 19, 1953! Funny, yep, another B-Day coming. Thanks for the welcome. What car(S) do you have?? My first real car, I got when I was 19, it was a 61' Biscayne, with a 283, 3 speed w overdrive. Factory 3:70 rear gear. That car was quick in 1st gear for a 283."

Interesting! My wife nearly shares your same birthday, hers being the 24th of January in 1953. You "youngins"! :).

My first car was a '61 Bel Air with a 283 three speed as well. The one I am working on now is a 1962 Impala SS, and I removed the 283 PG and replaced it with my first 409 build with a T-10 behind it. I am in "reassembly mode" and hope to finish in the coming months :). I have a couple of Bel Air projects lined up after that, one a 1961 and the other a 1962. Both are long term body off projects and are "Sport Coupes". Your "barn find" sounds just like the kind of project I get started with!

Enjoy!
TomK

[SSpev]

Welcome Brian. Just a thought, if you want a back glass I have one in a 60 Bel Air. Cheep:deal . I have a few other parts, but I doubt anything you would need for a low miles car. Just got to wait for the snow to melt. We go the same mess in Indiana as you in Ill.

[60biscayne]

:dunno Hi Tom. Thanks much for the offer on the Belair rear window, but I think I'm gonna pass. 1st, I heard they are a bear to R&R, because the rubber around the glass gets so hard with age. 2nd, I'm gonna try some new tactics on speeding up the glass polishing. Like using my Milwaukee Buffer with Eastwood's glass polishing compound. That buffer ought to work alot faster than the little 2 in. pad Eastwood gives you to put in an electric drill. Experimenting, we'll call it. Sounds like you've got some neat projects! A guy's gotta keep his hands busy, you know, and playing with these cars will keep you young!! Right? Ha! Talk to ya later. BB.