These aren't for sale separately; Herman just makes them for H&H projects when necessary. Design & Hosting by M.M. When we made our own bands, we figured we'd just hold them in place and bend them. water jacket is too close to valve seat. Bill Hirsch Auto has a huge catalog of vintage paint colors that should inspire you to put down the red and black rattle cans. Nailhead engines use a high dome piston and rods that are Buick only, NO interchange with Chevrolet.. 427 chey pistons have the same dome as the nailhead I need the rod length for the 401 nailhead. The June Digital Edition Is Available Today, The April Digital Edition Is Available Today, Get your vehicle road trip ready with these summer tips. Good thing too because according to Bill Mizia at B & T we were pretty far off, which is very common on vintage engines. The earlier engines are harder to find, and the later engines have bigger valves and other improvements, although vintage speed equipment and trans adapters for the earlier engines are sometimes easier to find, perhaps because hot rodders "traded up" when the bigger Nailheads came out. Through the years, the Nailhead was produced in five displacements: + The original 322 CID version of 1953-1956 with 4.00 x 3.20-in. But youd think that the 35 years of technology would help us get our 66 to run at least as fast as some of the modded cars of the era. Although the collection is restricted only to magazines that exhibit a Nailhead on the cover, there are some 56 at last count. If the seal lip looks distorted, grind the seal ends a small amount where they butt and re-check the seal., The next step is to install the bearings and crank can be installed. The nailhead was introduced for the 53 model year as a replacement for the straight-eight engine. I have the machine shop install mine. intake valve diameter is 1 3/4 on all 322/264. Rocker arm shafts are much stronger than studs with rockers on them. Special thanks go out to everyone on the Nailhead Mailing List who helped supply information for this article. Take the short-block to a machine shop for a thorough exam. As is the case with other oddball engines, there is a small but loyal following of gearheads who collect, build, and race nailhead-powered Buicks. Nailhead HistoryAmong the first engines built by Scottish-born David Dunbar Buick was an overhead-valve one-lunger at the close of the 19th century, so the cusp of technology was associated with the Buick marque from its inception. The 401 happens to be one of the most common because it was produced in higher quantities over a number of years, while the 425s are tougher to find and are more expensive, since they were only in a few models. You should never install hardened seats. and a prohibitively restrictive head design, nailheads employed camshafts with higher than average lift and longer duration. Register Now! Hes been in nearly 100 movies and twice as many television shows. Displacement: 455 cu in (7.5L) Configuration: 90 V8 Bore x Stroke: 4.3125 x 3.90 Compression Ratio: 10:1 or 10.5:1 (1970) 8.5:1 (1971-1974) 7.9:1 (1975-1976) Firing Order: 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 Max Horsepower: 350-370 HP @ 4600 Max Torque: 510 lb-ft @ 2600 valve seals were not used until 66, and only then on intakes. Buick never really got involved in the effort, or any racing efforts, for that matter, but Ivo kept making his nailheads go faster and faster. The rest of the short block build process is by the book.. The short stroke lets the engine spin quicker than a longer stroke engine. This Buick was squeezed with a crank-driven blower, which fed pressurized air intothe exhaust ports? The gaskets should have a raised circle around the oil passage hole, but without it and the way modern gaskets are made from layers of material, these tend to leak. The early engines had a 1.75 intake and a 1.25 exhaust valve, puny even for the mid fifties. The nailheads are externally balanced at the factory, and we did not convert ours to internal balancing. Weve had the correct oil galley plugs made; all that was available was 5/8 and that is 0.015 too large! Mistakes made can result in costly comebacks. Chevy automatic transmission adapters are available for all Nailheads The 64-66 ST400 trans from a 401-425 will . of the 58 season9.16 seconds. Hopefully, there are no witnesses. The honing plate distorts the cylinders just like when the heads are torqued down so the cylinder will be perfectly round when the engine is together, Martin says. That engine is actually a four-barrel 425-incher (1963 to 1966). The Series 70 Roadmaster engine originally boasted the highest compression in the '54 lineup at 8.5:1. The Nailhead also became a very popular engine for swaps, being tapped to power everything from street rods to dragsters. The hardest part of a Nailhead rebuild, Martin explains, is installing the cam bearings, so he leaves the hard work to someone else. For several years, it was called the 'Buick Eight' or . Boring lets the machinist control where the metal is removed so a minimum metal is removed from the block most is taken from the main caps. Whether its the outspoken Tommy Ivo running four nailheads on his Showboat dragster, or the hard-core drag racer who reversed his nailheads intake and exhaust ports to get better airflow, the theme of late 50s and early 60s speed scene was anything goes. This will prevent straining or distorting the parts as well as preventing thread damage. Wilcap has adapters for GM automatics and a stick bellhousing. Well probably never know those deep, dark GM secrets, just like we cant figure out the Pontiac Aztek. The spring installed height is 1.55 inches. Find your perfect car with Edmunds expert reviews, car comparisons, and pricing tools. The '56 redesigns of those parts plus a compression bump to 9.5:1 were responsible for bringing the '56 322's rating up to 255 hp and 341 lb-ft. Jan 6, 2021 When Buick replaced its overhead-valve inline-eight in 1953, the Nailhead became the company's first pushrod V-8. early nailhead water pumps are hard to come by, but Egge is one of the few shops out there that offers a full rebuild service with upgraded shaft and bushings for just about any water pump out there. UCC Truck Show 2023: Maximum Performance Under Big-Time Pressure. First off, the Nailhead is more correctly labeled a them than an it. The Nailhead had a big-bore, short-stroke design that offered tremendous torque, spread out over a wide RPM range. So proud of their cruisin' torque was the Buick team that they gave their engines decals that referred to their torque rating, rather than their displacement. But one of our favorite nailhead-powered cars was a dragster photographed at the 58 NHRA Nationals. That allows the heat to flow easier from the bearing into the rod or block, keeping the bearings cooler, he explains. With a high-quality aluminum housing and hardened steel dual bushing construction, it is built to last. All clearances are kept as close to factory specs as possible. The engine took its name from the small valve covers mounted on. 53 valves are same diameter as 54 aside from stem length. all 54 to 66 valves are the same overall length. Your Leader In: Buick Engine Parts and Accessories. After discovering it preferred 36 degrees of total timing paired with 55 idle jets, 155 main jets, and 200 air bleeds, we were rewarded with a very respectable 325 hp at 5,000 rpm and an even better plateau-like torque curve that peaked at 385 lb-ft at 3,800 rpm and averaged 357 lb-ft from 3,000 to 5,500 rpm. Forty-five years later, my current ride is a '40 pickup with a 401. But the convenient packaging wasnt without compromise. As Bob Egge told us, "If it'll hold vacuum, it'll pump water.". Bellhousings were designed and produced to back up nailhead engines with strong manual gearboxes. when rebuilding heads, we always use seals on intakes, even though the factory didn't. The translucent red goo is our Torco assembly lube from Egge. variations. With the go-fast disease progressing nicely in his system, Tom then had Kent Fuller build a new chassis and campaigned this with an injected Nailhead (Top Gas) in 1958, followed later by a twin-engined Nailhead gas dragster (he sold the single-engine Nailhead car to buddy Don Prudhomme). Get all the water off quickly and oil the insides, says Martin. Perhaps the most obvious thing about the Buick nailhead is that its arrangement demands very small valves, which seems antithetical to the whole concept of the modern V8 in the first place. Yet, unlike its more familiar brothers, cousins and even competitors, the Nailhead has an aura of mystery about it as well. Rather than attempt to find a fuel block that would fit, Herman whittled out this custom block from a solid piece of aluminum and glass-beaded it to match the finish of our cast Kring parts. Tom remained a pro racer for many years after in Top Fuel and Funny Cars. There were other Buick engine sizes produced as well that resembled the Nailheads (such as the 215 and 300 V8s), but they had no parts interchangeability with the Nailhead and instead are actually more closely related to the V6 and later Buick V8. It may be unwise to buy one from a source that is too far from you to permit a thorough examination before purchase, which is true for any vintage engine. If the crank is brought closer to the cam you will get a loose timing chain and you dont want that, there are no oversized sprockets available to tighten the chain back up., When installing the pistons always oil rings and space the end gaps on the top two rings. The old chain will be 12 links, the new one is 16. Here are 11 steps to help clean any cars engine compartment. The coolant passages are too close to the seats, so you are likely to either cut into the coolant passage while cutting for the seat or the metal will crack while installing them! One problem with Nailheads is the left-side starter location, which causes interference problems between the steering, starter, and exhaust all trying to occupy the same real estate. The Buick cylinder heads are comparatively easy on valve seats, but the material around the seats isn't copious, so many a Buick head has been ruined by someone trying to install hard seats and hitting the water jackets. Working with permission from Weber, Empi has recast the carbs with a few internal tricks that make them easier to keep in tune, and they often make more power than original Webers. We have to admit, it's one of the reasons we wanted to build one. The 63 model year marked another upgrade in nailhead performance with the introduction of the Wildcat 465, a 340hp 425 ci, available as an upgrade for the first-year Riviera. Early nailheads used a canister-style oil filter that's infuriating and messy to change and questionably effective at filtering.
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