What did you pay for your nailhead?

I found a 65' Buick 401 nailhead in a junkyard the man says that it runs and is willing to get it running for me to hear. I am wondering about what it is worth if it doesn't knock and etc. It has a new water pump on it if that makes a difference.

Thanks

 

I paid $600 for one 425 with no ******, $800 for one with a ST400. They both ran but still got taken apart.

 

I can buy cores for $100-$300, my buddy has one in a '57 that is supposed to run the whole car would go for $500. If you look, complete running '61-'66 Buick 4drs can be had for $1000 or less, sometimes you can part out enough stuff to get most of the money back. Heck there was a guy in the cl***ified with a '63 ragtop and a '65 Riviera for $750 each, not sure if they ran, but there is $1000 in parts easy in a Riv.

What you want with this motor is the trans, I believe the '65 is the ST400 which is a lot like a regular turbo 400 but bolts to the nailhead. They're not as easy to find.

 

Zman is the ST400 the three speed trans? Do you know what 4 or 5 speed ******s will work with a 401?

 

The ST400 is a Nailhead TH400, the SP400 is the same with a switch pitch torque converter. The crank for these is different than the earlier 401's and the 364 is different as well, thought they can be adapted with a little lite machine work and a bushing. IF your talking manual trannies you can bolt up most regular GM style manual trannies with the bellhousing from http://transmissionadapters.com/
The autos are a different story, they take an adpater that I'm just not fond of, the Nailheads are torque monsters and I don't like adding another weak link in the chain.

 

The '57 would be a 364, you can get those cheap all day long, same with the dynaflow 401's, it's the later 64-66 Nailheads that are bringing money. If the '65 Rivi is only $750 I doubt there are many parts that are salvageable body wise... But a good deal none the less...

Not always true...

A source for TH400 ******s:
wanted to give everyone a heads up on a good place to look for TH400
transmissions. keep an eye out for jeep pick-ups and wagoneers 1965
to 1972. they have the same bell housing as a 401 nailhead and are
th400's. you can unbolt the transfer case adapter and bolt on a 4"
tailhousing and your ready to go! the holander number is # 1331, so
start looking. i had never seen one till today and stumbled across
one.

Also Rolls and Bentley
you are correct about this trans bolting up to a nailhead, but the
output shaft should be a course spline on the jeep & about 3.75"
longer than a 2x2. Dave

the one i found was out of a 1970 jeep p/u but the output shaft is
the same length and spline as my 65 buick trans st400 i have! what do
you think the deal is with that! maybe it was changed or something.

Yea, sounds like someone changed the shaft to be able to use a later
GM transfer case. Good deal for you tho.
Just checked on the jeep cores I have & they both have the long
course spline output shafts. But you will want to overhaul it anyway,
so thats the time to switch shafts.I got tons of the 2x2 shafts if
you need some. Dave
Most of the nailhead cases in Jeeps have the fine spline short shaft
used with the 4" extension housing for Buicks. the exception being
the Quadratrac transfer cases. You can also find them in CJ7's until
1980.

Even stranger, the Jeeps with a 350 Buick in them used the Nailhead
case, with an adapter to bolt to the 350. this is the adapter that
might be reversed and used to fit a BOP stick housing to a nailhead.
Don't know that it would work, never tried it, May be impossible, I
really don't know.

The guts will interchange from any T400 to any other T400 case. there
are differences. The Buick valve body will hold the trans in the gear
selected, and not "blow" shift like a chevy T400.The ST400 parts will
fit too, with qualifications. you have to use the ST pump with the ST
convertor, and the is an orfice plug that has to go in an oil p***age
behind the pump at the top of the case. Also, you can use a ST 300
convertor in a ST 400 to get more stall out of the trans. The ST 400
convertor is 13", the ST 300 convertor is 11"

 

Around here those things rotted faster than the Buicks built before them did, I know of exactly one from roughly that period. Don't see them in junkyards much either. The one I know of I think I could knock the body off with my bare hands, in pieces -

 

The man said that he would take $750 for the motor and trans is that sounds to me like a pretty fair price to me. What do yall think? That is if I can hear it run and it sound "good"!

 

I paid $700 for a '66 Rivi w/ a 425 and SP400 a few years back. Itried to give the body away and nobody wanted it. I ran what was left across the scales and made almost $100. I took that and turned it into a couple of cases of beer and went to work on the 425.

 

i paid $500 bucks for a solid running 53 buick super. i sold it for $300 once the engine and ****** were out so i actually paid $200 for mine

 

This thread's almost 2 years old... I can say that since then I picked up a '58 complete for $50. Sold the owner's manual and dealer envelope out of it for $40 and the taillight lenses for another $40 or $50. We had a Jeep with the TH400 trans for a while, but I couldn't get my buddy to let me pull it before he junked the thing.

 

i have one in ok. for sale 63 elec 4 door 82000mi, 401 auto,runs good but could use tune up,perfect drums,1000 bucks,and im not making nothing,i found a hemi so something has got to go

 

I just bought a running 425 with the SP-400 ****** for 300 bucks. I don't think that the wrecking yard guys knew that it ran when they took it out of the Riviera for me, but i had put a battery in the Riv and started it up a year earlier when the yard was under different ownership. They also sold me the wide-fin aluminum drums for $20 each. The prior owners had wanted too much for this stuff, so I walked. Sometimes you just have to be patient.