Building A 409 From The Block Up - HorsePower S12, E10

say what could be cooler than owning a pristine original 54 Corvette well how about one fitted with a fine 409 recently our buddies on the bustle car show bravely began a radical restoration project on a well spent 61 in power leaving up the frame and even having a powder-coated fuss of major surgery here replacing floor fans truck fans and so forth now I guess for an old beauty like this Impala this was like getting collagen or Botox then some butternut greats like a complete air suspension system now these dudes were men on a mission with a vision of a car already named project red sled and for us horsepower guys in charge of building the engine this thing had 409 written all over it was born during the heyday of the race on Sunday by on Monday air that is that the GM engineers took their 348 engine boarded out to 409 cubic inches and made 360 horsepower soon after its debut at 61 it was off to the races and winning a year later a 409 with twin four-barrel carb was the first motor ever to match horsepower with cubic inches although production ceased in 1965 the 409 legacy and allure lives on and off people look at most of the younger kids say what is that I knew the place to start our 409 build was Lamar Walden's shop in Georgia he's been foolin before o9 since the early 60s Lamar was a Pro Stock racer in the 70s and early 80s first driving Vegas then Chevy bonzes in NHRA competition with a special passion for Chevy's first big-block he built and drove the fastest 409 car in history now decades later he's preserving the engines history by helping 409 fans for their muscle classics and street rods a lot when you got a 32 34 Ford and it's got a small-block in it if you've seen one you've seen 2,000 but one shows up with a 409 and the crowds all around it I was really pumped about bringing this old block we found here for expert moschini these guys like to bore them 30 to 60 thousandths but seems like this old truck lock was way overboard as a racer it might work but for a street motor we're gonna have to throw in another block that you got one I'm sure we can dig one up over there okay sorry block now blocks for these voters are increasingly scarce fortunately they had one they could trade us here's something I learned if you find a block with an X on it it's got higher nickel content and may be a good candidate you'd fault the plate down to the block with these four holes then you'd both the bar down to the plate and bore off of the deck the design of the block is part of the uniqueness of the 409 it's busting timbers Marilyn in the block itself and when you end up with a flat piston a small combustion chamber with a real good quench area in it you'll get towards this fill air runs in a nostalgic stock class with a 409 that makes 592 horsepower at the wheels all part of Lamar's learning the old weaknesses and potential strengths of the motor over the 20 years that I've made on this iron we found one likes it or don't like and the piston design is real critical on making horsepower that's the squinch of the head has got to be perfect the Pistons that Lamar is making for our four old guy with this CNC machine are quite an improvement from the factory design this piston here is just a basic 425 horse with the 564 strings stock compression high for the sixteenth rod where this piston here will be running with a four inch stroke crankshaft with a 635 rod so the compression distance you can see is quite different another weakness in the original motor was the valvetrain namely push rods poking out of a block without guide blades the guide plates was just strictly a hole drilled through the head and push rod ran through and it stuck up so far above the head itself you got a lot of deflection in the push rod so of course the push rods and being and when TKE sideways ma'am using more CNC technology Lamar's making improve new heads for the 409 and the z11 along with intake manifolds that even can handle a 671 supercharger plus other products to meet the demands of new 4:09 aficionados meanwhile our blocks getting its deck surfaced and here the mains get a complete line holding this is the final honing after our boring leaving the block roughly 5,000 small those five on one one bank and seven on the other and from here we're gonna gonna hone it to finish size for this process that we have on this particular block with the Rings we're using we use two different stones start with the roughing 220 and finish with with a 2 80 grit finally I catch up with Rob Walden who's been balancing our new Eagle crank say what have you done so far well we spun it up and rough balanced it in we had to drill a hole on this end and then another hole on this end and then to get it to come around for the 2400 gram Bob weight that we made up for the rods and the Pistons that we're using homeless combination so when Rob's finished here and his dad wraps up the piston making we can get to work ourselves building our own fine 409 reviving some of its unique history for the first time ever in the horse power shop [Music] we're back with our 409 block from lamar waldron automotive that's where we had a completely machined our crank was balanced and everything for the bottom end was tested for clearance well speaking of that they also took out some material here in the cylinder bores to give us rod clearance in that four inch stroke and for better oiling enlarge the oil galley feeds to the mains now these oil feed hose are 5/16 just like a big-block here's the rest of the bottom in the Eagle crankshaft that you guys saw earlier plus a said their six point one three five inch connecting rods now check these out these are the Pistons that Lamar made for us and they're 200 grams lighter than the factory ones for bearings federal-mogul are the only ones that play the game for the 409 mains four rods we're using cleave i'ts now we can drop the bearings into place followed by the rear main seal with plenty of Lube we're ready to drop in the crank next drop on the main caps in the correct direction then torque the main caps from the center out we're using seal power of plasma moly rings for our Pistons and installing the rod bearings next we can lube up the cylinder walls with oil using the built in ring compressor with a 45 degree angle we can now drop in the Pistons and rods into their new home but take your time because this will break rings if you're not careful followed by the ride caps and torque them the specs you might not be surprised to know the original four Alliance came from the factory using a flat tappet cam and solid lifters in fact wasn't until 2007 that you could even find and use a hydraulic roller and that was after comp cams and Lamar got together to develop a correct grind that would make for a streetable 409 next to the timing chain cover we have the cam thrust button which will actually press down onto the cover right here but we need to have enough M play in it because if we have too much pressure here it's going to wear the cam gear right into the block so we'll just install the cover with just two bolts okay now we'll check our M play I'm moving those cam back and forth with a screwdriver on the lobe okay we have way too much in place so in order to decrease that we need to hammer in on the plate okay now we'll check the M play again and we have absolutely zero so once we put our gasket in here that should put us in the right clearance Edelbrock now offers these W series performer rpm cylinder heads that have Stockport locations and valve angles now they come with the 220 CC cnc'd intake runner that's been port matched along with 90 CC exhaust ports now they have hardened spring cups screw in studs and hardened guide plates we're using fill Pro gaskets on this engine including these for the heads now you need to remove the guide plates to install the head bolts they come in two different lengths so you need to be careful and not mix them up or you could damage the block before we get too far we want to mask off the heads and water pump ports now using a piece of cardboard and some more tape we sealed up the lifter Valley as well now we paint the entire block with dupli-color Chevy Orange engine enamel making sure to protect the bottom end with a piece of cardboard as you spray well nothing more exciting than watch the paint dry and fortunately this paint drives fast well we're about ready to drop on the oil pan finish the build and fire up this fine 409 it's gonna be like horse power history coming to life here in the shop right the bill goes on for our legendary 409 a motor that's eventually going to find a home and muscle cars project red sled Impala I'm already jealous well I got to tell you that we're going against our own advice of installing the valvetrain before the oiling system and that's because these lifters here need a little bit more time to soak in the 30 weight this is our oil pump for our big-block 409 that was modified at Lamar Walden's to enhance flow for the enlarged oil galleys now they shortened this shaft and beveled the drive so it would fit in the main cab before you put your oil pan on you want to make sure you enough clearance between the pan and the oil pump pickup so get yourself a straightedge and a tape measure measure your depth of the pan then the height of the pickup you should have anywhere between 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch now we put silicone on the stock style reproduction pan to make sure we have no leaks then put it in place the original 409 came with a canister style filter which we're doing away with so we're using this trans dab oil filter adapter to allow the use of a spin on style oil filter lifters are done now we can install these hydraulic roller lifters from Lamar Walden that come with a link bar specially made for the 409 we have two different lengths push rods because it'll lay out of the valves so I usually do one of two things I'll either mark the box to keep myself organized or I'll put all the exhaustion or the all the intake in at one time right now we'll do all the exhaust now I know you don't want to hear buddy squeal like a pig like you did last time so remember oil on the push rod tips the rockers were using are these 1.7 bagged embroil errs from cup and remember a flat side up when you install them and wear the poly locks in place we can go ahead and latch the valves and we are done for an intake we're going new classic it's an Edelbrock Performer rpm dual quad air gap now this is how you get the cool old look with modern day performance they stay in just an inch and 5/8 taller than the original but you still get their gap design that separates the runners from the hot engine valley for a cooler denser charge now we can drop on the valve covers now check these out they also come from Edelbrock and they have a black powder coat finish for that classic look the top of the fins have even been machined and they're specifically made for the 409 man this thing is starting to look like a cool classic bowtie now okay on top we're using a pair of Edelbrock's 600 CFM performer carbs they've got metering rods that are easily removed for tunability and check this out we're using their brand new progressive throttle linkage specifically designed to work with this intake manifold check out this big water pump now this is specific for the truck 409 block now that's where we got our motor from the passenger car one look like this but it was made out of cast iron this one is aluminum and came from Edelbrock let's get it bolted on using some anti-seize on the cranks now we can install a professional products harmonic balancer and install the oil filler tube into the manifold all right we're just about ready to button up our 409 now we're gonna add the finishing touches back on the engine dyno but right now we need to take a little break when we come back we're gonna hear this old piece of history come to life and hopefully make some good dyno numbers hey we're about to fire up horse powers first-ever 409 motor here in the dyno cell when we built especially for muscle cars project red sled and power now our 409 / a began with a vintage block that was completely machined at Lamar Walden automotive that's also where our luminal pistons were custom made we built up our bottom end using a new Eagle crank and a set of their connecting rods our comp hydraulic roller went in next we installed a set of Edelbrock 409 performer heads then a GM big-block oil pump and replacement pan the rest of the valve train included lwa lifters and cop17 rockers we use the nettle brock RPM dual quad intake manifold with a pair of there are six hundred CFM carbs to finish up we're installing a Mallory you know light ignition and one of their coils plus a set of tailored wires on Denso iridium plugs you know back in the day they call the 409 the W motor for I guess an obvious reason the configuration of the heads sort of looks like the letter W well unless you're on that side and looks like an M at any event we're about ready to fire this thing up check the timing check for leaks a couple of heat cycles and we can make a run [Music] whoo I gotta burn my shirt you lean up against the exhaust while ha we're headers were using a set of Doug's ceramic-coated try wives out of place stage 8 locking faster 12 motormate 466 horsepower and 498 foot-pounds of torque but buddy thanks for you get more by bumping the timing up four degrees you might like to know our motor has the same 11:1 compression ratio as a 63 factory 409 with dual quads which made 400 [Music] it looks like more timing was a good idea we got 475 horsepower for a gain of nine all right that's pretty respectable for a street bound 409 but we always want to make more horsepower so let's see what happens when we bolt on a set of competition headers now these came from hooker and they have longer primaries and a three-inch collector which is a whole half inch larger than the others man that extra half-inch really made a big difference we made 497 horsepower 525 foot-pounds of torque muscle cars gonna have all they can handle with this motor you got that right for sure well now the finishing touch to our new O 409 this air cleaner is simply that matches our valve covers well now the ball is in muscle cars court they got to finish that project red sled and provide a fitting home for our fine 409 well that's it for horsepower we'll see you next time hey let's sing a song nice Oh fine

Channel: POWERNATION

Views: 239,648

Rating: 4.9135461 out of 5

Keywords: Car, PowerNation, howto, how-to, diy, automotive, cars, trucks, automobile, do it yourself, automobiles, auto, horsepower, engine build, engine power, 409, 409 engine, chevrolet 409 engine, chevy, chevrolet, engine building, engine

Id: VUrpGkXj_BM

Length: 18min 1sec (1081 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 11 2020