Hi everyone,
I've been trying to convince my wife that a Buick powered street rod would be just the thing to brighten up her life, but so far she remains unconvinced.
I'm 66, retired, but working part time, and spent a great deal of my younger days building cars. Mostly Corvettes for SCCA racing, but eventually got priced out of that game. No regrets, some of the best times of my life then. While I would love to get another car to build, I really don't have the room I once had, and would probably have to buy one. I think I can live with that.
In the meantime I've started to learn some new skills building 1/8 scale hot rods. I built up a SBC, and a Muncie out of styrene just to see if I could do it. Now I'm moving to brass, and much as I love em' I'm just a little tired of seeing the small chevy in just about everything, I'm also becoming obsesed with the Nailhead engines. Those vertical valve covers are so cool looking.
So, what does that have to do with anything, and why are you here? Well, I've spent several months getting engine photos, and searching for some dimensions. I learned a lot about these engines, and did a lot of head scratching before I realized the crankcase is not centered on the crank centerline. I went to the HAMB, great bunch, but they are all over the board, and your post can be lost on page 3 in just a few hours. I did get some information, but I don't think its very good. It was some photos with metric dimensions I had to convert to inches (easy enough), but I just don't believe the deck surface is over 25 inches long. Just looking at the bore I'm guessing it's more like 20 to 21 inches. The only thing I know for sure is that a 401 has a 10 inch deck height. Hardly enough to start drawing plans with. Then I finally notice Team Buick. If you don't know then who would?
I would like to ask if you could help me in getting some real dimensions so I can start building this engine. I'd like to stick with the 401, but if another engine is more plentyful that will be fine. The more the better, but if I only had the length and width of the pan rails, and deck surface I could probably guess at everything else. I use the gaskets as templates, and if I know a few sizes it's just a matter of getting a photo of the gasket set (which I have) and scaling it to size.
I wish I could contribute more to your forum, but maybe someday I'll convince my better half that it's just too much fun to pass up, and I'll have a Buick in my garage also. :shifter:
Thanks in advance.
Bill
I've been trying to convince my wife that a Buick powered street rod would be just the thing to brighten up her life, but so far she remains unconvinced.
I'm 66, retired, but working part time, and spent a great deal of my younger days building cars. Mostly Corvettes for SCCA racing, but eventually got priced out of that game. No regrets, some of the best times of my life then. While I would love to get another car to build, I really don't have the room I once had, and would probably have to buy one. I think I can live with that.
In the meantime I've started to learn some new skills building 1/8 scale hot rods. I built up a SBC, and a Muncie out of styrene just to see if I could do it. Now I'm moving to brass, and much as I love em' I'm just a little tired of seeing the small chevy in just about everything, I'm also becoming obsesed with the Nailhead engines. Those vertical valve covers are so cool looking.
So, what does that have to do with anything, and why are you here? Well, I've spent several months getting engine photos, and searching for some dimensions. I learned a lot about these engines, and did a lot of head scratching before I realized the crankcase is not centered on the crank centerline. I went to the HAMB, great bunch, but they are all over the board, and your post can be lost on page 3 in just a few hours. I did get some information, but I don't think its very good. It was some photos with metric dimensions I had to convert to inches (easy enough), but I just don't believe the deck surface is over 25 inches long. Just looking at the bore I'm guessing it's more like 20 to 21 inches. The only thing I know for sure is that a 401 has a 10 inch deck height. Hardly enough to start drawing plans with. Then I finally notice Team Buick. If you don't know then who would?
I would like to ask if you could help me in getting some real dimensions so I can start building this engine. I'd like to stick with the 401, but if another engine is more plentyful that will be fine. The more the better, but if I only had the length and width of the pan rails, and deck surface I could probably guess at everything else. I use the gaskets as templates, and if I know a few sizes it's just a matter of getting a photo of the gasket set (which I have) and scaling it to size.
I wish I could contribute more to your forum, but maybe someday I'll convince my better half that it's just too much fun to pass up, and I'll have a Buick in my garage also. :shifter:
Thanks in advance.
Bill
