[boodlefoof]

Hi all (long post due to back story for those interested - if you just want to get to the summary and questions, skip to the end),

Back Story:

Progress on my '63 Tempest build begun in 2012 has slowed to a crawl as a result of another baby and another project - restoring a 200+ year old house. Time and money are both in shorter supply. So, my plan to build a killer stroked 400 with aluminum heads has been put on the back burner. In the meantime I hope to keep the project moving along, albeit slowly, with a "temporary" engine. Not sure how "temporary" it will be. Time will tell! I went in search of a more-or-less complete (preferably running) and inexpensive (Norm - if you're reading, what I mean is "cheap" ) engine to use that would still be fun to tool around with.

Last night I took a gamble on a "it ran great when pulled a few years ago" engine that I found locally. The owner couldn't really tell me anything about it other than it wasn't going to be used in a '67 Tempest project and that it needed to go because of a move. The owner also thought it was a 428 due to the "428" stickers that someone had put on the valve covers and oil pan... The red repaint job someone had given it obscured the engine code.

The engine turned over smoothly and had been sealed-up with duct tape. I popped the valve cover and it looked clean inside, with stock rockers and pressed-in studs. A little work with a wire brush showed the engine code as XV, block 9786133 and heads #061, all with matching May 1967 date codes. I consulted my engine codes sheet print-out and found it to be a high compression 290hp 400 with 2bbl carb. My heads info print out led me to believe these were small valve, small chamber heads. I was a little unimpressed. But, the thing had an Edelbrock Performer intake and 750cfm carb (date code 2006) on it, and a Mallory Unilite (3758001 - no vacuum advance) ignition setup. The price was also right: $500. It came with the TH400 that was attached to it.

I read up a little more on the 061 heads after getting it home since I wasn't familiar with them, and found conflicting reports about these being big-valve heads. I decided to go ahead and start tearing it down to inspect it. Sure enough, the heads have big 2.11/1.77 valves and an interesting chamber shape. Since everything was so clean and the engine had been repainted, I started to consider that perhaps it wasn't beyond the realm of possibility to think that someone had stuck a 4'' crank in there when rebuilding the engine. With the head off I measured the stroke: stock 3.75'' I also found that it has 4-valve-relief pistons and is still standard bore. Pistons are .020'' in the hole. I couldn't really make out cross hatching left in the bores (light wasn't very good), but no scars were there either. I had presumed the engine to have been rebuilt at some point, but perhaps not. I have yet to pull the second head, the pan, or the timing cover to see whether the cam is factory. I haven't verified combustion chamber cc either. I had to get to bed. I'll hopefully squeeze in another hour out in the garage tonight.

Summary:

I'm cheap. I bought a '67 400, code XV, with #061 heads and TH400 trans for $500 hoping to use it as my "temporary" engine while I save funds for a big build later. It looks clean inside, turns over smoothly and is standard bore. It presently has an Edelbrock Performer intake and 750cfm carb and a Mallory Unilite ignition (no vacuum advance). I still have to check the cam to see if I can figure out what it is.

Questions:

Any suggestions or reminders for specific things to look for in inspection and evaluation of the engine? I haven't torn down a Pontiac motor before. I probably should have primed it and run a leakdown test before pulling the head off...

And very generally, what would you do with this on a minimalist budget to turn it into a fun driver?

Thanks in advance for any and all thoughts and comments.