A friend sent me this pic several years ago 'cause he knew I like nailheads. I came across it again today and studied it for a while. Now I'm really curious about some things. 1. Any of you know anything about the testing that's going on? I don't see a distributer cap or plug wires or fuel or cooling so it's not running on its own. It looks like the flywheel/flexplate is spinning though. 2. Anyone know what the engine hoisting plates those are in the background? 3. Anyone recognize the drivers' side exhaust manifolds in the near background? Or the p***enger side manifolds in the far background? 4. Anyone know what year these engines are? What clued you about that? I'll probably fab up headers for the 401 going in my Model A but those manifolds look really interesting.
A lot of mfgrs would run an engine through its paces like that to make sure the mechanical parts of the ***embly were working properly.
Chances are good that those engines are destined for '63 Rivieras. That was the only model (as far as I know) that received a silver-painted Nailhead. The aluminum small blocks were also painted silver, as was the '64 300 with aluminum heads (they might have just been polished), but those aren't Nailheads. I just painted the engine in my '63 using some Rustoleum High-Heat paint; it's a little too silver, but it's close enough for driving around.
Edit: With that being said, I don't recognize those exhaust manifolds. These are the ones from my Riviera.
Yup, engine run-in off of an electric drive. Hard to believe that the OEMs went through this at the volume of production we had in those days. Somewhere I have a picture of a whole line of Model A engines being run in like that. No info from me on the manifolds, but they look early.
I have had a couple of the aluminum 215's, and don't recall them having been painted from the factory, but rather just raw aluminum. Maybe a previous owner stripped the paint off?
Because of the rear sump oil pans and long water pumps, I think 59-60 range. The exhaust manifolds also look in that range. Most later ones were rear dump on the driver side. I have a couple of 59-61 ones that resemble those. My other thought would be the 322 Loadmaster used in Chevy 10000 series trucks in 56 and 57.
You're probably right that they were bare aluminum. I imagine that the '64 300 with iron block and aluminum heads must have been painted. Great call on the oil pan! I didn't notice that. I've spent about 20 minutes online looking for the original engine color on those Chevy truck engines and haven't come up with anything, but that's a great guess.
@atch, the manifold in the foreground appears to be 1960 LaSabre 364 with single exhaust. It dumps straight down behind the motor mount and ahead of the starter. Tucks tight into the block and would be a good candidate for your Model A. @Hamtown Al has those on his 32 with the 425, and I have a set for my 401 going in my coupe. Although the p***enger side manifolds in the background are harder to see, they look like 57-58 Roadmaster. Casting 1173844
Above is the manifold I used on the driver's side as mentioned above by @Bangingoldtin . This picture shows the part number for the manifold. Something else you should get is a good hi-torque mini-starter as shown... much more room. You can clearly see the difference in size above. Works great. Hope this helps, Al
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