I'm in the process of rebuilding a 401 from a 63 Lesabre. What's your experience with e-bay sellers, i.e. Clegg Machine, Oldparts, Falcon, etc? Obviously budget is somewhat of a concern, but buying poor quality parts from a poor vendor is more of a concern. The build is a stockish rebuild of a severely abused or lack of maintenance original engine. Any and all input is greatly appreciated, and thanks in advacne.
If I was to do it all over again, I'd use one of the sources available here on the board like Tom Telesco, to name one. I've learned a lot from these guys since then. The biggest thing I learned is to pay the money and get quality if you want it to last. I used Falcon Global, the parts were "ok", nothing special, and the rebuild was dead stock. They goofed up my order and processed it late, I wound up rushing the job and paid for it when it came apart (literally) about 1200 miles later. One major complaint, they (like so many other discount outfits) used Chinese made jobber stuff of indifferent quality. Caveat emptor...
I would strongly recommend NOT using a generic "kit" for nailheads off of Ebay. If you search the forum there are many horror stories. This engine needs quality replacement parts.
Thanks guys. I will contact Tom. I have also contacted Carmen Faso and am awaiting some pricing. I contacted Clegg Machine from ebay and the tech department guy was not pushy and he was knowledgeable. I was mostly concerned about support as this a stock rebuild and I would guess that normal name brand parts would be more than sufficient i.e. Clevite, Sealed Power, Melling, Hastings etc.. Correct me if you disagree. I'll avoid Falcon, as I've heard of others with similar issues. Thanks
Hello JW-I would also go with Carmen/Tom T. Also, 6-8 years ago I was able to source at decent pricing from Northern Auto in Sioux City. Read Tom T's posts for the nailhead specific info. I've only opened one nailhead that didn't require boring and I wonder if the Sealed Power pistons are still around? Get back here as to how the parts gathering and build is going. Good luck!
Can't really go wrong with Carmen or Tom. They will both steer you in the right direction. Just be ready to open your wallet when it comes to buying main and rod bearings. That is unless you get away without having to turn the crank. The standard size isn't bad, but the .010 bearings are a huge jump in price. But you only have to do it once unless something goes sideways. Each Nailhead guru has a little different opinion on how to address things. You can trust info that comes from both Carmen and Tom. They have both been working on Nailheads for a long time. They have forgotten more about them than most of us will ever know.
I got my last stuff from Nothern Auto in Sioux City too. That was a few years ago though. I know about them since I used to live there. They had great pricing.
I spoke to Tom and Carmen. I am getting a plan together for the parts. But I've come up with some questions and I didn't want to start a new thread (unless a moderater says I should.) Both Tom and Carmen mentioned that all of the 2 barrel 401's were 9:1 compression - why? Is there an issue making a 2 barrel motor 9.5-10:1? Did the 2 barrels use a different piston? Some, yes some, of the pistons have cast into them Buick 1185486 on them. Can anyone identify them for me? They appear to have about 1.945 +/- .002 pin height, but I don't have anything presently to cc a domed piston, but if none of you can help identify the cc, then I guess I'll have to invent one lol. With my calc's they appear to have been about .015 in the hole. The head gaskets I took off, which weren't original, are a Felpro 7922-1 mls, which are not composite, appear to be about .032 for a quench of approx .047. I'm good with that quench distance - what do you guys think? I've discovered a non original cam, several replacement pistons and a cut crank. And whomever did the work didn't rering every cylinder as the Buick pistons' rings are wiped out , but the unlabelled pistons' rings are in good condition. Basically, a chinese rebuild/repair was completed in the past. And the passenger side head doesn't have a reuseable valve, guide, seat or spring on it. But all of the rockers and pads on the rockers are in great condition implying they must have been changed at some point. Hopefully someone has info. Thanks in advance - Jim
Well I must have got lucky with Falcon Global then. My kit consisted of Mellings cam + Durabond bearings ( Melling ) Clevite crankshaft bearings Cloyes timing gears and chain Hastings rings Elgin lifters Best gasket kit The only no name part are the oil pump gears. I could not go past the price for the kit + shipping which was with the Ebay global shipping program which works great for us seeing as USPS don't do economy shipping overseas anymore.
Did you check to see if the gears were PM or billet? The PM's don't deal well with any grit. I've sent back some mellings that were Powdered metal.
actually I think they are forgetting the wildcat 410 it was the higher comp ratio and 2 barrel. that's what my nailhead in my 66 is from a 62 lesabre. they may have dropped it in 63 idk.
I am not familiar with the 2 barrel setups. I guess my first question would be, do you want a 2 barrel 401?? If you want to keep it as factory as possible then I get it, but if you want to upgrade to a 4 barrel setup then the point is moot anyway. Standard 401 square bore intakes are easy to come by and relatively inexpensive. As for the head without a reusable seat, I am sure both Carmen and Tom told you what to do with that. Which isn't much. No have you had an engine shop look at it and determine that they cannot save the seats? If not that would be my first step. If they cannot, DO NOT have hardened seats put in that head. Is it possible to do it? Yes. But unless your engine guy is very knowledgeable and very good, I wouldn't attempt it. If the engine guy is a Chevy guy, forget about it. To put hardened seats in the Nailhead...head, the hardened seats have to be very shallow. This presents a problem with getting them to stay in place and not want to walk themselves out under use. If you go deep like in a Chevy head, you will find yourself in the water jacket. See picture below from my car, it filled #5 full of water. Looking at the head you could not see it. It wasn't until I had my guy cut the seats out that he found this. Overall, my main suggestion is don't go cheap on this rebuild unless you absolutely have to. Nailheads aren't cheap to rebuild, but if done right they are bulletproof. So do it right and do it once.
Which was why I used them at the time. The kit they offered had a lot of reputable names in it, but upon further inspection, well, let's just say some were subbed out and others were dubious as to their true ethnicity. I had reasonably good luck so far, but the lifters were Chinese and they did fail; - there were 3 different sizes in the kit, and the rocker shafts, although a supposedly perfect stock replacement, didn't quite fit right and wound up coming apart at highway speeds. I got very very lucky; the whole episode cost me a busted rocker shaft, 3 destroyed rocker arms, a snapped rocker bolt. The car made it 300 miles running on 5 1/2 cylinders at 60 mph and it did 22 mpg doing a very unexpected and primitive version of GM's cylinder shut down sequencing. (By that point I didn't care anymore, I just wanted to get it home, I thought I'd hammered the engine to junk by then.)
Do you mean the rocker shaft broke in half :eek2: Did you install them in the correct position ? That's bad. What brand of lifters were they ?
The 2 barrel setup is original. The owner is concerned about keeping the block numbers matching as it had to be sleeved, which isn't cheap. He might have me swap it to a 4 barrel, but that is his decision, not mine. I do agree that 4 barrel intakes are relatively cheap. I'd love to hear from someone that give me 1st hand driving experience of the difference between a 2 barrel vs 4 barrel motor - especially with a Dynaflow. I am not intending to put in hardened seats, but many seats need to be replaced. The stem protrusion and valve recession is really bad - several are recessed well more than .200. I have a lot of faith in both machine shops that are working this. But neither Tom nor Carmen were clear with what to do with heads other than don't put hardened seats in them. Tom mentioned that he likes to cut the seat differently to keep from having to change them, but I'm past this point with the one head for absolutely sure. You mention to not go cheap on the build - I'm not. Crank has been straightened, cut and balanced. The block has been sonic tested and sleeved in two holes. The heads have been magnafluxed and pressure tested. I'm not cutting any corners. Hence my questions about pin height and dome volume (which I'm yet to get any answers for so I'll be measuring them I guess.) Please share any experience that you have that I'm looking for.
This horror story keeps me thinking that I'd much prefer to stick with a local supplier selling me American made parts. If it costs a little more, then so be it. If that would've happenned to me, then I would have been a might bit disappointed and would not be scaredto voice my opinion about my experience.
Sounds like you are on the right track. What Tom was talking about on the valves is that he installs a larger valve if he is able to save the seat that way. Cut the valve seats big to accept larger than factory valves. There you have a couple choices, you can pick out some larger Chevy valves to put in their place, or do what Tom likes which is to take Chevy valves and cut them down to slightly oversized stock. That way you save as much of the seat as possible. I looked into this option as well during having my heads done, but the option just didn't become available. There was always that 1 seat that would keep me from using the head. I went through 5 cylinder heads before I got a set that was able to be fully rebuilt. I even tried putting a hardened seat into one of them, but there just wasn't enough metal there to get the job done. The seat failed pressure testing and my shop didn't feel comfortable going any deeper for fear of hitting the water jacket. My shop has successfully installed hardened seats in multiple Nailheads without failure so that is why I let him try.
I know everyone is afraid of it but thousands of seats are replaced everyday that are cut right into the water jackets with industrial and diesel applications. They have to hold up to much more abuse and longer life with a really expensive warranty. Those shops generally don't want to even look at an automotive casting though. We used blue loctite on the 1% that failed the pressure test and some proprietary goop squirted into the head and pressurized for 20 mins. Off they go for another million miles or unsupervised irrigation duty. That being said, I would look for more castings as they are still relatively cheap.
