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I thought I would post up a photo or two of my 63's original RE code 340hp/327 long block after it's rebuild and return from the machine shop. It will be garage art for awhile, as the 450hp/357 that has been in the car for the past 20 months is just too fun to take out (and is waiting for my son to find a good F or A body/chassis for its future home).
It's always like Christmas when they come home from the machine shop.
I was worried about the original block stamp pad, and it cleaned up nice. The last rebuild was in 1985, and we found the paint was excessively thick on the R of the RE code, obscuring the leg of the letter. Pad in 2001: the condition after the 1985 rebuild and fifteen years of trashing. Pad 2017: cleaned up and an even coat of paint.
The uncut engine pad still matches the Muncie and chassis numbers. The original 461x heads that came in a box of parts when I purchased the car were cracked, so it still has the 66' 462 heads I ran for decades (with the same small valves as the 63' x heads, but now pocket ported with deburred runners). It also received forged pistons on the Crower sportsman rods from a C2 group buy years back, and a new solid lifter Isky cam that matches the airflow (a sorta bigger than LT1 grind with "modern" 1990's computer designed lobe profiles).
It's not a fire breather like the 357ci engine in the car now, but it should output 340-360hp at the flywheel at 5900 rpm, and ~390 lbft at 4000 rpm, with the stock AFB & Winters intake, and stock iron ramshorns that have the internal flash deburred. The stock deck height is a compromise, with the tight quench chambers CR at ~9.8:1, and the chambers with pistons further down the hole at ~9.6:1. The best part should be the Duntov 097 idle lope and rocker clatter (without the torque and rpm limitations).
It is not intended to be a Judged engine, or optimized for power, but if I get board I might swap over to more original bolt hardware and tweet with modern rockers and advance curve timing. Now the challenge is to sneak it into the family room for safe storage under a safety glass coffee table top. I am also still looking for original no flaw 63 valve covers, as the originals were lost in the 85' rebuild (and I have 66' partial flaw covers on top of risers to clear the stud girdle on the 357, and the 69' covers shown in the photo with the "o" center half filled in). Hopefully the NCRS folks will devide what water pump was correct for a late May engine assembly by the time I need to shop for the pump. Until then it's like most projects that are never finished.
Thank you for the pump info. I remember the questions in the past when I was on the old NCRS bulletin board, and added it into the mental checklist if I ever want to restore the car (or if my son does, and he digs into the boxes of original parts). The pre-85 rebuild pump is likely a 609, in a box with the original master cylinder and other parts. Hopefully when the engine goes back into the car the task of finding a new pump will be like the 63' master cylinder is now, with reproduction and rebuilds available. The rare parts seem to be easier to find today than pre-internet, and pre-chinamakeseverything, parts scrounging of decades past.
Time to get a quote from the glass shop. The carb pad holes have to be predrilled before tempering.
I’m really interested in your table idea...what kind of glass are you looking for? I need to do some research...
Thanks in advance!
The glass guys that do custom half inch shower doors advise to have the edge bevels and holes cut first, before tempering. One guy said he could bead blast or etch a bowtie or Sting Ray script image from a .jpg file on the glass in advance of tempering. Find out who does glass doors and plan it.
Thank you for the pump info. I remember the questions in the past when I was on the old NCRS bulletin board, and added it into the mental checklist if I ever want to restore the car (or if my son does, and he digs into the boxes of original parts). The pre-85 rebuild pump is likely a 609, in a box with the original master cylinder and other parts. Hopefully when the engine goes back into the car the task of finding a new pump will be like the 63' master cylinder is now, with reproduction and rebuilds available. The rare parts seem to be easier to find today than pre-internet, and pre-chinamakeseverything, parts scrounging of decades past.
Time to get a quote from the glass shop. The carb pad holes have to be predrilled before tempering.
If you have the original 609 water pump and master cylinder IMO you should have those parts as well as any other 63 parts professionally overhauled and use them. Reproduction parts are junk compared to original parts...
11-23-2017, 02:39 AM
My 63's Original RE Engine comes home
No controversy. The "609" is the correct water pump for your car. 
