America’s Engine Chevy’s immortal Small-Block V-8

Hagerty ^ | Jerry Burton

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

It also allows the clandestine disposal of beer by-products, though some may think it is the radiator with a leak.

[Disambiguator]

I’ve got a 283 sitting in my driveway right now, inside a ‘67 GMC truck. W00t.

[The Antiyuppie]

“That was one piece of junk and I don’t think GM was ever very proud of it.”

They can rev, but only after heroic (=very expensive) measures are taken. The stock pistons weighed over a kilogram each.

Another amazing thing about the small block was how flexible it was; it cost GM almost nothing to upsize it from the original 265 inches to 350 inches, but they could charge good money for bigger engines. The “400”, the biggest stock small-block, was a little different, in that it had siamesed cylinders with steam galleys and gasketing/sealing for the heads got dicey when “woken up”; it was also externally balanced. The head gasket/not much “meat” between the cylinders kept hot-rodders away from it. HOWEVER, a neat trick when I was a kid was to put a 400 crank/reciprocating parts in a 350 block, yielding 383 inches at stock bore (which GM never did, for some reason, possibly because of marketing confusion with the 396/402 big block). THAT was sturdy, and didn’t look different at first glance than any other small block. But, inches ruled the street, and it was a sleeper.

And, there were 400 engines with head gasket failures all over the junkyards.

[The Antiyuppie]

I could see clear to the ground, no problem, under the hood of my 73 Z-28 with a small block in it. Now you look under the hood, you can’t even see the engine half the time.

[Kickass Conservative]

That too. LOL

[lurk]

All I know is a 68 Impala with a 327 can get from here to there plenty fast and smooth.

[Ransomed]

I have a ‘69 blazer with a 400 bored .040 over. Never had a problem with any of the stuff you hear about with the 400 water jackets and over boring. Pretty mild but a torque monster.

Freegards

[OldSmaj]

The stock pistons weighed over a kilogram each.

Wow.

No wonder I saw one once blown with three pistons completely broken thru the side of the block.

I mean completely through.

One of them had broken loose at the wrist pin.

Kinda tells you that that was one hell of a rotating mass.

[Impala64ssa]

I’ve still got finger scares from trying to change plugs with the thing still “tinking” hot.
Yeah, my 327 has the stock "rams horns" exhaust manifolds. Changing the plugs is kinda tricky. But changing plugs on Chevy V-8's from those years with factory AC can be a real PITA.

[Impala64ssa]

Bullet Proof Engine and the Two Speed Powerglide, or as we called it “Powerslide”
Those were the early Powerglides with the cast iron housing. My dad had that trans in his 59 Impala. The only major problem he had with that car was when the trans "self destructed" at 50k. They were also very leak prone. In 1962 they redesigned a lighter and much stronger 'glide with an aluminum housing that was a huge improvement. Even though it's a technological "dinosaur" it's still used by some drag racers.

[Impala64ssa]

18436572 Yah, you better know this when you put it all back together! Yup, not to mention knowing the little trick with bumping the engine to position the top of the oil pump shaft just right before you drop in the distributor.

[Colorado Doug]

They also left out my favorite, the big journal 302 that went in Z-28s. That was a reving little motor!

[central_va]

A friend of mine in Korea, had the carburetor of their jeep shot off during a skirmish. He had a blow torch and fed gas into the intake while sitting under the hood while his buddy drove to safety.

I'm calling BS on this one.

[super7man]

Now that you say that...... he was that kind of guy. I may have reported it as fact but it was just as he told the story.

I’m gunna’ phone it into Myth Busters.