Recent content by TLByrd

I'll check with the machinist to get his input. If by some miracle, he says that the block is perfect and the pistons are still usable, am I missing out on some horsepower gains by keeping the heavy pistons and short rods? Or are the light pistons and longer BBC rods mainly for reliability at...

My real reason for wanting to keep the pistons is sort of crazy when you consider all these new parts that are going in/on this engine. I wanted to keep the stock rotating assembly because this engine was in a local '55 Chevy drag car in the '60s. I wanted the short block to sort of retain the...

I bought a '63 409 short block and I'm building a street engine with it. Edelbrock heads, two 4's, hydraulic roller camshaft....and the stock forged pistons which are 11:1. The block was in good enough shape to keep the standard bore and I hoped to use the re-use the stock pistons. However, we...

We're making progress on the engine, and I spent some time cleaning the crankshaft this past weekend. I took a couple of close pictures just for reference sake, but I figured I would share them. For some reason, the crankshaft casting number is pretty much gone, aside from the "72" on the end...

I know it's short notice, but just wanted to throw this out there for any of the folks from TN, GA, AL or NC. This is a very, very good Cruise In, and it's held at Coker Tire and Honest Charley Speed Shop, so you get to go inside and roam around. The cruise in is this Saturday, April 6th, from...

Got the block back from the machine shop a couple weeks ago, and it's all good! They checked for cracks, installed new cam bearings, freeze plugs and spent a lot of time cleaning it. This thing seriously looks like a brand new chunk of iron, so I'm ready to start reassembling the bottom end. All...

That article makes me worried about my combo, but I also know the frustration of using a chassis dyno for this sort of thing. I think chassis dynos are great for seeing "before and after" results, but there are so many factors that go into getting that horsepower number. You have to consider...

Block has been sent to the machine shop. Hoping for a good report! We tried the acid trick to see the stamping numbers and nothing came up. As for the crankshaft, it has not been precisely measured.

We disassembled the short block last weekend, and everything looks great. Journals has VERY little wear, rods look good, and pistons look good. We're going to try and keep it all standard, so we can utilize all of the original parts to keep the history of this old motor alive.

The short block is the only 409 stuff we got with this deal. But we did get a set of 348 heads (I don't remember the numbers, but they are definitely 348), a 348 aluminum single-4 intake and a pair of exhaust manifolds. It also came with a 348 oil pan.

So far, I've learned a lot about identifying 348 and 409 blocks from this website, but I still have a couple questions regarding my engine. Here's some background info: The engine was allegedly built by Dyno Don (no way of confirming that, obviously) but I do know it was in a '55 Chevy drag car...

Now that sounds awesome! I have plans to buy a couple sets of accessories (valve covers, air cleaner, etc.) to swap out, so I can make it look like a factory-installed piece, or change to a modified look with finned valve covers and all that. For the factory setup, I thought about fabricating my...

Barry, I'd love to see some pictures of your '63 if you have any. A lot of people don't understand the mis-matched tire and wheel combo on the Corvette, but it totally makes the car for me. I recently got a pair of 7.75/800-15 M&H slicks for it, and that definitely helped it. I've always wanted...

I've been a car guy all my life, but I'm just getting started with 409 stuff. I have several project cars, and just had a shop built behind my house so I can spend a little more time working on them. I came here to learn more about W-motors so hopefully I can build mine into a pretty strong...