It's true what they say about assumptions..

...They do make an *** out of you!

I recently got into a wicked motor swap project on my car, my engine ****ped out coming home on the first day of a 3 day show. Needless to say I wasn't a happy camper. In a fit of rage I decided its time to pull the old six and throw in an eight. I didn't want to to belly****on motor, I didn't know what I wanted but I was defiantly leaning towards mid to late 50's GM.

I found a few options locally, '61 Caddy with a stuck 390, early '60s GMC firetruck with 401 nailhead... then I remembered a few weeks prior to all this ******** I met a guy at the local Friday night car cruise who offered me a "basket case" 409. At the time I had no interest as he called it a "basket case" and just hearing 409 made me think it would've been way out of my price range. Curiosity got the best of me and I went to see what he had.

I got there and he starts pulling out boxes and boxes of NOS parts that he has been collecting for almost 30 years, Offy valve covers, water pump, 4bbl and tri-power intakes, Mallory dizzy, cam lifters.... In some cases he had doubles on the small parts. Then he showed my the actual engine. When he bought it it was just a block, and rotating ***embly. All the machine work was done on the block, new soft plugs installed, and a real nice coat of chevy orange. The heads has a valvejob done, with new valves installed. So at this point i'm thinking to myself "great, this guy is going to want a few grand for this stuff!"

I asked anyways and he says "make me an offer", Gee I really hate when people do that. I said " I don't want to offend you, shoot me a price" He sat there for a few seconds and says "Hows $400 sound?" SOLD!!! Then we get to talking and as it turns out he needs some help on his T-bucket project, so I'm trading labor for the engine. Deal of a lifetime, right?

Not really! Turns out the heads were full of mouse nests. When I tapped on the valves to see if they were free or not half of one went shooting across my bench. So I took them down to my engine builder. He looked them over and told me they were junk, luckily he had a newly rebuilt pair on the shelf. Same exact heads, so there was a spot of luck.

Fast forward to this past weekend, Motor is back together and ready to fire for the first time. I spent 4 hours with my father trying to get it to pop, we didn't get anything but alot of popping and raw fuel coming out the exhaust...oh yeah, and flames Finally, we checked the compression(I have no clue why we waited to long to check that. Lets just say I ***UMED everything was ok) No compression on any of the cylinders! Great...did I miss a tooth installing the cam? Backed off the valves and tried another compression check. Nothing! Great, its not the cam. Only leads to one thing...rings? Off come the intake, heads, and pan. Pull a piston out....WTF??? No rings???? Boy did I feel like a JACK***!

I ***UMED they were all good because of the quality the block was in when I got it. Why the hell would you have all your machine work done, install the crank and pistons, paint the block, and install new soft plugs AND NOT INSTALL ****ING PISTON RINGS????? I look like a real dumb*** now I know, and I'm embarr***ed to be telling this story on a public forum. However, I am hoping some will learn from my mistake. Don't take somebodies word when it comes to stuff like this, pull it apart and double check everything! I'm lucky it didn't fire, it could've been an epic fail

 

I ***umed this would be another "ID this part" threads ... boy was I wrong LOL

Ouch on all that cranking on a ringless engine what was the final damage?.

 

I got REAL lucky. No damage at all, but yeah REAL lucky. I spent a couple hours today honing the cylinder walls.

I forgot to mention that the connecting rods and main caps were only finger tight. Once again, Why the F#@K would you install brand new bearings, have the cylinders cleaned up, install everything, and NOT put piston rings in it??? An even stupider thing is I had the NOS Hastings ring set in the piles of extra parts that came with the motor. I just ***umed they were extra. The engine came with two cams, two intakes, two sets of timing gears, two timing chains, all the AC Delco tune-up parts for a stock distributor, extra exhaust manifolds.....


And yes, I did just say stupider

 

just think how awesome its going to be when its built right ! all the woes will be gone when you hear it fire off the first time.

 

And your trading $400 worth of labor for a 409 with extra parts, that you should have takin completly apart and check anyway, and complaining why? You do realize if you only got a 409 in core condition for the cost of a set of the Offy VC's you stole it?

Just sayin.....you should still be happy.

Tony

 

Here is how pretty it was before I had to tear it all back down

 

Like the old saying, " A smart man makes a mistake and learns from it, a stupid man continues to make the same mistake over and over." You're a smart guy and I'd be willing to bet you won't make that mistake again. The first car I built I did everything three times, each time it got better. Good luck on your 409, certainly don't see many anymore.

 

Yeah Tony, I know it was a steal. I'm not complaining about the guy. I'm just venting on how much of a jack*** I am for not tearing it all down, so others don't make my mistakes It would have taken all of five minutes to pull a piston when i first put it on the stand.

 

I can forgive not catching the fact that it did not have rings, but not checking rods and mains clearence and torque before you tried to fire it is just plain ignorant.

And that is a damn fine looking motor.

 

What a score! 400 bucks and big slap to the ego? worth it.

 

Regardless $400 was/is a great price. The lesson learned..priceless.

 

Back in the 80's a friend of mines Grandfather had a Flathead Ford stored like that and only finger tight main and rods. Was told rings where left out so they wouldn't rust to the walls and it was put together to keep everything together so it would accupy a small space. It's all good if the same party knows all the details. But when things get p***ed on, things like that happen. That's why I never trust a rebuild.

 

looks like you got a set of rings with the deal, if they were still in the box might have been a clue

 

Someday you will laugh about this! Knowing you paid $400 and the dude had spare heads a**** all the other parts AND those covers - I'd chuckle about not noticing the rings. I'm betting the lack of rings over the time it sat actually saved some $ in machine work.

This may turn out to be the best motor you've ever owned.

 

Best $400.00 you ever spent. Got a 409 and a life lesson.

 

$400.00?? You stole that thing. Get those rings in and run it!
Tom

 

never ***ume anything if you didnt ***emble it , you will never know what was done to it , a great price on an engine , good luck

 

Friend of mine asks me if I've ever heard of a two piece 426 hemi crank .
Of course I say no so he tells me the story. It involves 3 28' trailer loads of parts, all sorts of mopar stuff, hemi builders, runners, cores, rebuilt short blocks, good and trusted friends and over 100k cash and the crown jewel. 426 hemi in prestine condition all complete in a vintage Chrysler crate.

Now it took my buddy about an hour to tell me this story but I'll get right to it for you.
He resells crown jewel hemi to another friend and he sets it right into his car. Hooks it up hits the starter and things spin like crazy but no fire. No compression, no distributor moving, no fan no balancer moving. New owner calls my buddy over and they check it out.

Nothing, zero zip zilch nada in the motor but the ends of the crank, middle removed.

Turns out it was a display motor purchased from some famous Chrysler facility.

 

I guess you know what the term basketcase means now. Probably nothing wrong with the heads either. Lesson learned but you still came out smelling like a rose money wise.

 

Well, no harm done in the long run, right?

I apparently never cranked the bolts down on the rearend cover in my van when I changed the axle seals, weeks later I was under it wondering why it was leaking so bad and almost every bolt I was able to crank down a bunch. ***umed I'd tightened them - I sure as hell don't remember not finishing them. Good thing I caught it before all the fluid leaked out.

 

I gotta admit, that's pretty nuts..
Give's new meaning to the phrase "all show and no go".
****s, but at least you will know what you have now when it's all together..

Look's good too.

Tony

 

That is damn funny! And yes, I would say you got a hell of a deal.

 

you STOLE that 409 and parts.

What I find to be humorous is your rant about the guy putting the engine back together without rings and without torquing the bearings, etc.

Yet YOU took the time to re-paint the engine, but didn't take time to check for rings and proper torque on the bearing cap bolts.

just saying...

 

Holy **** Batman!



On the 409 what a deal! Last one I ran across was a POS and the guy wanted $700 for it.

 

I had a homer moment last year... after I dropped the motor in my car, and I found an extra set of freeze plugs. Fortunately, I had taken a picture of the car before the motor went in, and out of sheer coincidence, the shop door was open. I was able to zoom in on the pic and see that the rear freeze plugs were installed and I some how had a spare set.

Whew.

I would have felt like an *** pulling the motor, divorcing the bellhousing to find nothing wrong...

 

Wow.... This is a great story about the deal of a life time and no $ were exchanged, only some work.... I wish I could find a 409 for $400 with no rings, I would stack up the blocks like cord wood...

Very nice motor and valve covers with perfect blue paint as well...

 

Out of curiousity, what did they say was wrong with the heads?

 

Let me make an ***umption., You never read this thread:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=679583&highlight=tear

I don't know what you bought for sure, but for 400 bucks you can't really expect much, that is less than core price. now do ****py work on the guys T and get even with him.

 

Two wronges don't make a right ,but to lefts do.lol