To Matt Martin of Centerville Auto Repair- Centerville California

If I recall correctly, the guy with the '62 posted his engine for sale in several places and on one venue (no need to name) someone asked technical questions about the build, and several folks responded, Matt was one of them, and gave his opinion. "62 Guy" did not like what was said, and puffed up like a blow fish and replied as expected of a blowfish in full on blowfish mode.

Then "62 Guy" started posting "his story" (spelled drama) on several sites, and pointed back to Matt as being some a-hole.


Basically, IMO, "63 Guy" stepped on his dick, and Matt and others pointed and laughed.
Sort of a "don't start none, won't be none" thing.

It's car stuff. People do what they want and what they like. Some do it better than others, and if you ask in public, expect to get responses that pet your cat backwards.

Or avoid all it and ride the bus.

 

I believe it was Dennis Manner who said the 332hp 401 was probably the true output, as it was labeled as 340 hp. He mentioned again I think everyone was fibbing about HP numbers so Buick played the game and rated it at 340 hp.
I'm only throwing facts here of what I have read as even though I had collected a huge amounts of parts to rebuild a 425, I never got around to it and I probably would of done a butcher job as this was in the early 80's and I was young and no good forums like this to learn..
Again this is from I have read but I will say on a cold day my all stock 325 hp 66 Skylark GS would run toe to toe from a rolling 20 to 30 mph with a base 389 or base 400 GTO for a 1/8th mile or maby 1000 ft. with 90,000+ miles as my silly dyno. Chose to put rolling because of the 2 speed and I changed tires out back alot and some would just spin even with the 2 speed and posi.
I'm seeing 400 hp is doable but with alot of work.

I can't takes sides because I do not know enough and both builders involved have a passion for Buicks and are Masters..

One article here from 1964 were they tested a Wildcat with 900 miles and it was running very tight, almost to the point of stopping. 3,000 miles later they re tested and it was much better.
From this book.

 

Here is a 401 with 9.5 to 1 com and a mild cam with 2 500 AFB's. Its from Hemmings Muscle Machines,
329 hp at 3900 rpm and 500lbs.

 

don't make sense to me. 500 TQ seems high. still coming in at near stock rpms, and more then that 329HP coming in at a very low 3700 rpms , where stock is 4400 rpms.

 

I thought the same thing, hp dropping after 3800 means something isn't right. Maybe it's the tune or it needs more carb.

 

Yup, the article claims they didn't have enough time to tune and saw more HP potential. Isn't 2 500 AFB's still not enough carb?
I have the Hemmings Muscle Machines issue somewhere and if I can't load the build article, I will give the build specs such as cam and other things..

 

It's Hemmings Nov 2013 issue.

.030 over stock replacement cast pistons said to have a smaller dome and doing 9.9 to 1 comp. To run on 93 octane.
PN-91-000-5
CompCams Hydraulic flat tappet cam
.461/.471 lift
and a 110 degreed lobe seperation.
Dolph/ Sealed Power hydraulic lifters PN HT-896
Felpro .049 head gaskets.
The headers used were custom shortysI believe but the front passenger side had a 90% bend and ran across the whole block which seemed restricted to me.
This motor was going in a 65 Riv.
I'm not reading of any head porting..

Is this a Cam thats designed for more torque?

 

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All the cam pn tells us is that it's a custom grind. Are the duration specs listed in the article?

 

two 600 would help a lot mostly after 4000 rpms. another thing a stock 401 was only around 9.75 compression with .015 head gasket. there saying 9.9 with .049 head gasket smaller domes and cast piston that were out there always sat more in the hole than stock for even lower compression. got me wondering.

 

Yeah, probably lucky IF he has 8-1 AND, 9.75-1 stock is the BEST I've ever measured & that was with the piston in the "Hole" .040" & not the more normal .055" in the "Hole".

Tom T.

 

No more cam specs than that. This build is more for showing the Nailheads design.
I know .010 was taken of the block deck and said to use these thicker felpro gaskets to make up for the deck loss and heads being surfaced but they never mentioned how much were taken of the heads.
I believe like Telriv and all of you know these pistons were the typical replacement and offer even less compression, plus I think they took even more off the top of the dome. No testing of the compression was done and i'm thinking its a guess.
I have a few pics and hope they are readable and a couple are sideways as I couldn't fit the wording in the screen.
Most of the cam talk up top is about GTO spec cams from a 389 and how much bigger the stock Nailhead cams are.
A stock dual quad intake was used.
This engine went in a 65 Riv GS clone for a semi pro bowler.

This was a side build from a small article about Nailheads by that Steve Magnete guy that does the Mecum auctions.
He mentions a 65GS post might do 14 sec 1/4's if it was finely tuned and had a 4 speed and 3:73's but on any Saturday night anyone with a 401 GS better choose their race wisely or face humiliation


View attachment 500449

 

Steve is much more than "that guy from Mecum". His career is quite impressive and he has a vast knowledge of cars and engine building. He has quite a resume.

I'm sure he is well aware of deck heights, compression ratio and pin heights.

You guys are trying to dissect an article that is a written in a very elementary way. Not every engine article delves deep into every single measurement or machine process. Further you all have no idea what the goals of the build were. I'd guess confidently the owner wanted a stock type rebuild that ran on cheap gas and probably wasn't concerned about losing some HP to get there. Clearly it was not a max effort, or even a high effort build. It was probably only put on the dyno for the break in.

 

Steve really had nothing to do with the build, just a little short article about Nailheads at the beginning.
I only know him from "oops Mecum" but I realize his knowledge and years in the business. He always brings up the 71 W30 that he should of never let go.

Yup was built for 93 octane at RAD Auto Machine and very vague on details.
It was for a 65 Riv GS clone like I had mentioned.

 

i dont think they were aware of deck, comp, pin heights after calling it 9.9 compression. if it's really true that's a great build. 500 TQ at 2900 rpm's. 329 HP at 3700 rpm's we can carry that out to 4500 rpm's by doing some improvising. one of my 401 builds was 317 HP at 3700, and 355 HP at 4500 rpm's and 458 TQ at 3500 rpm's. so say they put 2 x 600 carbs and some tuning, they were 12 HP a head of me at 3700 so lets give them 15 HP more at 4500 then mine. that's 370 HP. that's a great build for a quick cheap nailhead build. i was't knocking the numbers just the accuracy of the numbers.

 

I'll just put this out there. My '64 Riv. with over 180K on the rebuild back in the 70's which by compression test readings had only 135-145 pds. cranking compression when done & broken in. When new had about 185-190pds. cranking compression. I know this because I've owned the car since new when I was 18. In the beginning it averaged about 15.4 Much faster than the 16.4-16.8 was road tested at back in the day.
Latest was a few years ago & after 180K + is now at 125-135pds. It has been good enough to propel this 4413pd. car with me in it & a 1/2 tank of fuel to run the 1/4 best of 13.902@98MPH. Has even pulled the left front on occassion. I have photos & videos of it for proof.
Good enough for me.
Back then I had NO IDEA what I was doing or the machinist. Although he was the best in the area at the time & has proven that his work is excellent as today this engine has over 200K on it, BUT getting long in the tooth.

Tom T.

 

No just facts....
And he's still MIA


nailhead matt
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Member Since:
Nov 13, 2020
nailhead matt was last seen:
Nov 16, 2020

 

The aftermarket changing pin heights and the factory deck heights being all over the place is no secret to any engine builder. This is an issue that plagues any engine of that era. This is not exclusive to Buicks. Besides if they took the time to order a custom cam they must have known/set the compression ratio.

 

then tell me how they get to 9.9 compression. an other thing what's wrong with owning a hemi lol

 

I can't tell how/why its not 9.9:1, and neither can you. The required info isn't in the article..