Main reason i even decided to go through it is its already out,( to replace mounts) every gasket on it leaks, and it's been about 40 years since its been touched.
I vote four speed, a lot more fun. Bought this bone stock 64 from a guy at work many years ago, pretty tired 250hp 327 with three speed on the column. I'd had my share of higher powered cars so figured it would be fine for a while just for a Summer cruiser, but a grandma column shifter didn't cut it, had it about a week and started collecting pieces for a Muncie four speed swap, the plan was to use a Hurst shifter but I stumbled onto a mostly complete original 64 shifter, it was missing the 3-4 lever and rod but got them at the Portland Swap Meet, the real score was the the mint original four speed shift boot that the guy had left in the car, said I could have it if I came and took it out, I did not hesitate as he lived only fifteen miles from me. I planned on just removing the shift handle from the column but got real lucky when a guy in Boise Idaho advertised an original floor shift steering column for sale in the Nickle Ads, I was going to leave it black but found some matching fine textured turquoise paint for it, it came out real nice, a lot of people thought it was an original four speed car.
Give it a compression check before you pull it down. A ball hone , Ring and Bearing, New Cam/Lifters, Timing Set , Oil pump, Water pump etc is something you can do yourself. Send the Heads to a machine shop and get the valves and seats cut. [throw in some Chevy 305 1.84" intake valves] And you're basically done! Mods like 4 barrel carb and intake, and HEI can be done anytime after it is back on the road You need to establish what rear end you have which is easy on an open rear end. Jack up one wheel and put a mark [tape] on it. Get a friend to rotate the wheel 2 revolutions and you crawl under and count how many turns the yoke rotates If it rotates "approx" 3-3/4 turns it is a 3.70 [3 turns is a 3.08] etc etc [If your rear end is a "posi" you jack up both wheels and rotate it 1 revolution] The 55-64 drop out rear ends had a limited number of ratios 3:08, 3:36, 3:55, 3:70, 4:11, 4:56 are the factory gears available @ekimneirbo has given good advice and something you should seriously consider. The advancements in transmissions is what made a modern vehicle so practical and perform so well Go back 40 years to the 3rd Gen Camaro with a 210hp 305 TPI , they had a T5 trans that allowed them to perform reasonably OK [compared to the mid 70's ****] A 3rd Gen weighs approx 350 lbs less than your 64 impala, so you would need 255 hp from a 283 to perform approx the same @DDDenny Nice Car , I really like it
Beautifull car looks to be in nice shape! My dad did the same with the column on this..ud never know it was an automatic originally ( except the lever is still on the column under hood for linkage lol)
I did check compression it was decent. The engine ran great always has...just starting to burn a little oil, probably mostly leaky valve seals if i had to guess cause it sits a lot. Ill def consider a ****** swap to mostly make highway cruising a little less ***bersome. Yeah I've checked ratios befor just haven't done it on this yet
I'll do that this weekend ( unfortunately I get very little time with it which ****s) Its definitely open.
'63/4 are the best full size Chevy's !! Like a lot have said, 283 is going to like the higher RPMs. Build it 9.5 ish compression ratio (pump gas), cam and valve train to run to 6500 RPM. Roller tappets will allow the better cam profile and not need zinc missing from modern oils. Run roller rockers also. 3 deuces are cool, run all 3 with progressive linkage. New small form factor electronic distributor with external coil will maintain the old school look, will clear the 3x2's and not need point maintenance, HEI is a good distributor, but are just plain ugly Muncie will not have a low enough 1st. T10 can have a lower 1st, but no OD. NP440 has a lower 1st and OD, but will not shift in the higher RPMs and are hard to come by. Saginaws offer a lower 1st, but no OD and also will not shift in the higher RPMs. TKX, 4.56/4.88 gears are my thoughts.
A "compe***ion valve job" is also an upgrade on power pack heads. You don't need to justify the extra CFM unless you want to pull more air into the engine [Rev the sh*t out of it] A few year ago I helped a friend build a stroker 383 for his 53 pickup.[disguised as a 283] It used a 3.75 stroke 350 shortblock underneath 283 power pack heads etc with a very mild "stump puller" cam. It was probably the most satisfying engine we ever built It would cruise at the speed limit or higher with the 700 R4, and would get driven everywhere with a Motorcycle or Surf board in the Bed, got good economy, and occasionally do horsepower "display" [aka: burnout] The only thing he changed on the build later was a Fi-tech EFI carb which was an exercise in futility. [it only improved the bank balance of the seller] So it is either RPM or Cubic inches When people s**** in their pants about HP numbers , they don't volunteer the RPM numbers. Most engines spend 99% of their time below 3000 rpm They fit on a 283 with 1.94 valves Personally there is nothing wrong with power pack heads [They flowed good enough for a 327] and so far have survived 59 years on his 64 impala Keep in mind most people want to rebuild their engines into a race engines !!!! [this is what reading too many Hotrod magazines , or Watching the MotorTrend channel cause]
Ok ill just stick Ok so I guess its wise to just stick with the power packs..is it worth it to have machined for the bigger valves? I'm taking the block and heads in this week..ill upload some pics soon
They make a head with the smaller chambers and valves (1.94 1.50) 54cc chamber i think for a smaller bore like the 283...only diff I see is the volume is bigger
I've read good things about getting the power pack heads machined for the slightly larger 305 valves (1.84 intake). I am going to go this route on mine.
So I was going to us an engraver to mark everything ...that wont mess anything up will it as far as balance what have you?
There's nothing to balance on the heads (just match marking for re***embly), and the rods, pistons, etc won't be affected at all by marking with an engraver.
Balance? The factory tossed in parts out of a bin and torqued em Never balanced anything other than tires Keep the main caps oriented correctly. Rod caps with their rods. Pistons have notches
Personally you're better off resisting engine mod urges and redirect $$$$ to a more modern transmission. Your car is going to have it's 60th birthday soon [and a family heirloom] so it would be far wiser to keep the engine bay looking as stock as possible. If your heads need new valves then put some 305 valves in them. Now confession time [with my 283] I like diesel like manners with street engines. This was also a lesson I learned from my friends 383 stealth engine. With the 283 engine in my 57 Chevy , I went the opposite direction to conventional thinking. The cylinder heads and intake on this engine are from a 56 Chevy 265 [ I've kept the original 283 heads in storage] Casting number is 3725306. and the chamber volume is 56cc. and the intake ports are tiny requiring a matching 265 intake [283 and newer intakes and gaskets cannot be used] I kept the baby 1.72 valves but we back cut them and did a 3 angle seat job on them. The block was zero decked and I installed a 205° duration cam Compression was slightly over 10:1 [10.05:1] The goals were ,was High RPM behaviour at Low RPM so we targeted high port/manifold velocity and got the air flowing when the valves were "just off the seat" The engine pulled like a tractor which was great with "3 on the tree" [non-syncro 1st gear] Cruising around town at 30mph in 3rd is only 1400 rpm and it is extremely docile. The engine still retains the original staggered bolt rocker covers but I did switch to a '58 paper element air cleaner. One mod I am seriously considering is a Camaro T5 with an S10 Tail housing / shifter.
I wanted "High Velocity" at low rpm The Heads and Intake were given to me by somebody that wanted to do the opposite. I built the engine for how I intended to drive it. [I have a race car for other urges] It would probably "fall on it's face" at 4200 rpm [90 mph] The old baby Chevy engine ended up being quite torquey All I did was copy what Chevy did with the L98 [and what we did on my friends 383] but on a scaled down version You could achieve similar results with a larger shortblock [under everything] Which would be really satisfying in a larger car
I've been trying to get these plugs out and havnt been able to. And I dont see were these are on other sbc's I've seen. Zoom in and they are the two 3/4" plugs on each side of the came bore.
Lifter gallery plugs Get you machinist to remove them when he cleans the block and re-install new ones. There are a couple of others at the rear [oil pump feed ] that are below the deck.
Ur talking about the three little plugs or "soft plug" type ones ? I got all those out i think there were a total of 8 if I remember right and I was ganna tap them for regular npt plugs. I mean those big plugs with a 3/4 size square drive in them..unless that is what you ment?
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