We have been scouring the HAMB, other social media outlets and by the good ole fashioned word of mouth for a hot rod project. So over the last few months we have come across a couple of not so good deals, including one particularly rough ’48 Ford Business Coupe, which was disappointing since a ’46-’48 Ford Business Coupe is on my short list of hot rods that I’m wanting. However, in the last couple of weeks we have come across two deals that have been pretty decent. I plan on doing a build thread for each of them, not necessarily how-to’s, but just fun follow-a-longs. With that being said, I wish had thought to do this earlier on because, getting each of these home, were pretty good stories in themselves. As of now, I have put the proverbial horse, or horses, as it would be, before the car-ts. We have brought two big block Chevys. Neither of them is anything like a LS6 or a L88, but decent deals for what they are and what I want to do with them. There probably are better starting points out there, better casting numbers, and better packages, however for what my buy in cost is on each of these, they are just fine. The first engine we picked up the block is a 361959 casting (454, 73-90, 2 or 4 bolt), this one is a 2-bolt block and the heads are casting number 336781, 454, 73-85, Oval - Open, 118cc chamber, 256/114cc ports, 2.06/1.7. It was a running engine in a guy’s ‘66 Chevelle, up until this summer. The story I was told is, he bought the car out of Nashville and it had this 454 in it. He was told it have been “gone through” by a shop in Nashville at some point. He noticed the oil pressure was bouncing around, I think he said at a light the oil pressure got down to 15. Fearing a spun bearing he pulled it from the car a few days later and pulled it apart. During that time he decided to go the LS and halo headlight route. I went and looked at it after work one night and the bearing didn’t seem to have spun, however the bearing was worn pretty badly on one side, but not really galled or scarred bad. The crankshaft journals all measured good, the block and main cap in the area of the damaged bearing didn’t show any signs of ever being hot and with the price he wanted I felt pretty good with it, so I struck a deal with him to come back another night and pick it up. It came complete from intake to pan, from pulleys to flywheel. I’ve not taken the time to mic the camshaft to see what I’ve got there, but suspect it to be factory spec’ed deal. The Edelbrock Performer 2 intake and Accel distributor and coil appear to be the only performance goodies that came with it. Even at worse case scenario if I got to have the block machined and buy a new crank, I’m still at good money on it. My plan, if the block and crank both check out to be good when I take the rotating assembly and block to the machine shop to be cleaned and balanced, is to rebuild it as it is and upgrade the cam and if necessary upgrade the head hardware for a little bit of a lousy cam, like maybe a Mutha Thumpr. You have to follow along with the build thread for this one and see how it goes. The second deal to come along begins with one of my friends at work telling me about a truck that he was going to buy to take mudding and that he was offered a big block for X amount of money, and did I think it was an OK deal. He gave me the casting number, 10114182 (’91 and up 454, Gen V 4 bolt) and I told him that any big block would be worth the money that the guy was asking, especially since he told me he was going to basically build it from a bare block with all new parts. “Hell, at that price let me know if you don’t want it, I’ll take it!” Then I repeated the price, just to make sure I heard him right. In the meantime, I had bought the other engine I mentioned. One day he asked me if I’d still want that big block, and that he had come across something he wanted to put in that truck instead of building a big block. I told him I sure did. At that point, I’m thinking, I’ve never had a Gen V, but even if I have to have this block fully machined I’m still at a fraction of the price of the cheapest block I’ve seen for sale. Honestly, I was thinking that if I have it checked and its junk, it’s worth what I’ll have in it to have as garage art and a mock up block. I was planning on going to get it over the weekend but one night my girlfriend and I were going out to eat and we decided to call him and go get it right then, even though we were in her SUV. He said sure, “but will the block, heads, crank, flywheel and the box of other small stuff all fit in her SUV? For what I was satisfied in paying for what I thought was a bare block, I got all that stuff too. The heads are 10114156 castings (91-up, Oval Open chamber, 118cc, 2.070 Intake, 1.720 Exhaust, Square Exhaust Port, Screw-in rocker studs), nothing there to get wounded up about, but even then, I can probably sell the heads for what I’ve got in the whole package, even in their current dirty state. The crank looks unhurt, but I won’t know for sure until I mic it and have it checked, but if its good, I may use it, but will probably sell it. If the block comes back “good” then I’m going to use it to build a 6-71 blower engine for the street. I’ll start the individual build threads for each one of them and put a link below. I think I will have fun building them, and hope that you enjoy following them along. Side note, not everything is pictured here, I set this picture up while the kids were and school on one of my vacation days, and stopped pulling stuff out when it hit me, I wasn't going to have any help putting it back! https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tale-of-a-blown-big-block.1246027/ https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tale-of-a-naturally-aspirated-big-block.1246037/
The Gen 5 in the pic has Peanut port heads. Good for a truck, but in a performance application, kinda weak. Looking at your parts and plan, I'd swap the 2 for their intended projects. The peanuts on the 5 block could be a pretty torquey naturally aspirated engine with the right healthy lift/short duration cam and bigger valves. Then use the Mark 4 for your blower idea. Those 781 heads are excellent if they get 2.19 valves. BTW, all big blocks use screw in rocker studs and guide plates. Get to know the subtle head gasket sealing differences between the engines before mixing parts.
So after some research and some advice from @squirrel in another thread, I've changed the direction and updated the thread titles and added an update.
John Linenfelter and Richard Holderner both got 600 hp plus on 454 and 496 peanut port heads,mercury marine used square port heads on peanut port heads in there boats for years.On the dyno on youtube
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