The Bookends Project

[Richard Fox]

We have a great 67 Camaro with a custom blue paint job with black interior and the engine compartment is basically black, chrome and blue. Slick skinned with little chrome and just one logo.

Now we are adding a 65 Nova painted the exact same blue with black interior and the 409 engine will have the same basic engine compartment appearance. Should be a hoot parking them together.

The photo of the 409 shows the general paint for the engine bay but the heads and intake will modified with Edelbrock Endurashine/black products.

The 409 build includes Chassiswork front clip, huge brakes, T56 6 speed, Ford 8.8 rear, Rolling Thunder cam, dual 500 carbs, twin radiator fans, custom headers and exhaust with side cutouts.

More photos as the build continues. This will be one sweet little sleeper.

 

[Tom Kochtanek]

Nice builds! We look forward to hearing more about that ongoing project with the 409. Sounds like you've got a lot of things lined up to happen in the near term. Things like that take some of us FOREVER!

Welcome aboard!

TomK

 

[Richard Fox]

Thanks. Threw up another photo of the side of the Nova. I lucked out with a great body/paint guy in Reno named Jerry Price. He and I worked on the Camaro and I 'talked' him out of the 65 Nova. Once we are ready there will be a final firewall flush on the Nova and then both cars get another shot of paint and coats of clear so they perfectly match. I am going to be broke.

 

[Jim Sullivan]

Great looking cars!

 

[IMBVSUR?]

Very nice cars. Looks good. Keep us posted.

 

[Richard Fox]

We are preparing the block for a repaint to black. I threw up another photo (dash.jpg) showing how we eliminated the 65 Nova's glove box and slicked the dash and worked in 3 openings for gauges - note the 409 beast in the background ready for paint stripping. After block is ready we'll put on a couple of coats of high heat silicon based gloss black heat rated paint.

 

[LMBRJQ 60]

Looks real cool Richard

Cant wait to see more

Steve

 

[Richard Fox]

While stripping the paint on the block we found an interesting stamp on the block (see Thunderbolt image just loaded) showing TOII4QG and Thunderbolt .030 on it. The casting number verifies 425 with a casting of 3880814. Any clue as to the T numbers and Thunderbolt .030 stamp??

 

[Don Jacks]

The QG indicates a 340 horse 409 ,The Thunderbolt part was likely an engine rebuilding company,with the .030 being the amount of overbore.

 

[Richard Fox]

The QG indicates a 340 horse 409 ,The Thunderbolt part was likely an engine rebuilding company,with the .030 being the amount of overbore.

Scratching head. How could the casting indicate a 425 HP block and the QG indicate 340 HP - that's a huge difference?

 

[62impala409]

The "814" casting was the block generally used for the '63 production car and truck engines. That block was the base casting used for all the different horsepower engines that year. Pistons, cam, intake, and heads were the difference in horsepower.

 

[64ss409]

QG is 340 hp with Power Glide. Assembly date Jan 14. Very nice cars!!!
http://www.348-409.com/suffix.html

 

[Richard Fox]

QG is 340 hp with Power Glide. Assembly date Jan 14. Very nice cars!!!
http://www.348-409.com/suffix.html

Thanks guys for the input! We verified the pistons are aftermarket and with the new heads, dual quads and nasty cam I have a feeling she'll be over 340 HP

 

[63 dream'n]

Looks a little bit like this........

 

[64ss409]

That one was 2 days late for the National Holiday???

 

[Phil Reed]

That one was 2 days late for the National Holiday???

that's right Ronny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Richard Fox]

Today was paint stripping day for the 409 block. Aircraft stripper, brush and wheel pulled off orange and blue paint (photos updated). That stripper definitely stings .

After the block outgasses the paint stripper for a couple of days, then comes cleanup with lacquer cleaner, soap and water, hydro blasting coolant channels, then 2 coats of high temp primer and 2 or 3 coats of black high temp and thread chasing.

 

[Richard Fox]

After the final engine paint hardened up nicely we mocked up some of the bling/performance add ons (see new Mock Up photos above) including the Edelbrock heads, valve covers, the Edelbrock Endurashine dual carb intake and air filter. The fancy carbs haven't come in (dual 500 cfm) and we didn't have the timing cover or oil pan on. Helped on visualization for Bookend treatment of the 67 Camaro engine bay. The angle on the intake is offset by the few degrees once the engine goes in.

Love those exhaust ports - could stick a huge hot dog in em. Edelbrock had a nice larger spark channel in the heads also.

The heads have 220cc intake/115cc exhaust and the Rollin' Thunder cam has duration @ 0.50 of 230 int and 234 exh with lift of .616 int/.628 exh and lobe seps of 112 degrees. The vac is 10" at 1000 rpm but it will be relying on a hydraboost braking system with external reserve to help with the rack n pinion power steering.

The oil pan and a ratty timing cover will go on along with a ratty intake manifold (to keep nice stuff from possible weld splatter), cover all openings and next week we mount the engine with the T56 tranny in preparation for transport to our header/exhaust builder.

Hood clearance should be interesting later on.

 

[Richard Fox]

Well, after waiting MONTHS for Edelbrock to ship the specific pushrods for their cam/heads combo I blew a gasket! Fortunately I know the manager of the Summit Racing store in Reno. After explaining that Edelbrock was constantly delaying the push rods he immediately brought in two of his buyers and ALL of them got on the phone to Edelbrock with the goal of finding a replacement set that Edelbrock would honor as warranty. DONE! Edelbrock was busted and they knew it. They were outsourcing the pushrods and their supplier blew it. Summit was so good I told them I wanted two sets of the ProComp equivalents and they only charged me for one. Now we are using a 16 circuit wiring harness and wiring the Nova up. We had to move the clutch pedal rig as it was conflicting with the new hydraboost braking system. But we are back on track! Thousands of dollars of work held up for months for $100 worth of frickin pushrods.

 

[Richard Fox]

Good grief. Update. Bookends is still alive. She's been fighting us but getting there. Two shots from yesterday showing engine bay (we are going to have to change puller fans to pushers due to clearances) and custom main gauge cluster so I can keep an eye on engine temp. Losing the parking brake as it's a knee knocker.