Being new to this board I have read many of the post on here concerning how to tell if a certain 63 Chevy Impala was a real 409 and what constituted it.
Here is something I ran into and did not see a comment concerning this and would like to run it by all of you.
I pulled the 409 engine out of my 63 Impala. Was sold to me under the pretense it was a factory 409 car. Well the engine ended up being a 64 409 that was cast in April of 64 that someone date coded the front stamp with a Jan 63 code!
Anyway after reading and searching I thought the front coil springs would be a good give away but they had been replaced by a TRW spring. I know it was a factory V-8 for sure, but here is what I found.
I purchased two sets of front engine mounts, one being for a 409 one being for a 327. Looking at them the 409 mounts were beefier but the spacing between the ears were less than 1/8 of an inch from the 327 mounts. But when I placed them over the mount bolted to the chassis the 327 mounts fit nicely with less than 1/8 of an inch of slop. The 409 mounts once placed were giving me about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of slop. So apparently the chassis mounts were different from a big block over the small block. Looking at part vendors catalogs, they only show one chassis mount available, and I am assuming you must buy the small block engine mounts in order for these to fit correctly. Anyone else run into this in the past??
JBaker
Here is something I ran into and did not see a comment concerning this and would like to run it by all of you.
I pulled the 409 engine out of my 63 Impala. Was sold to me under the pretense it was a factory 409 car. Well the engine ended up being a 64 409 that was cast in April of 64 that someone date coded the front stamp with a Jan 63 code!
Anyway after reading and searching I thought the front coil springs would be a good give away but they had been replaced by a TRW spring. I know it was a factory V-8 for sure, but here is what I found.
I purchased two sets of front engine mounts, one being for a 409 one being for a 327. Looking at them the 409 mounts were beefier but the spacing between the ears were less than 1/8 of an inch from the 327 mounts. But when I placed them over the mount bolted to the chassis the 327 mounts fit nicely with less than 1/8 of an inch of slop. The 409 mounts once placed were giving me about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of slop. So apparently the chassis mounts were different from a big block over the small block. Looking at part vendors catalogs, they only show one chassis mount available, and I am assuming you must buy the small block engine mounts in order for these to fit correctly. Anyone else run into this in the past??
JBaker
but they fit.
