Estate Sale 427 Tear Down

[SuperNovaSS]

I posted pictures of a 69 DZ 302 engine awhile back and received positive response so I thought I would try it again.

I bought this 427 engine from a guy who bought it out of an estate sale. He was told it was a "427 out of a Corvette". I looked the engine over and saw it had a 1966 top end and a 69 block. The block has a CE code on the front pad and has never been painted. I originally thought it was a engine out of a 66 Corvette or Impala that had the shortblock replaced under warranty. As I look further, I am not sure.

The has a service dated 67 L88 carb dated 69. It has a 63 Corvette tach drive distributor. The heads have also been ported as shown by the rounded exhaust ports. The engine came with a 69 dated Muncie M20 counter replacement transmission and scattershield that supposedly came out of the same car and came with the headers shown. To me, this points more towards a hot hot built back in 69 with parts someone gathered along with a dealer purchased shortblock. I'm hoping the shortblock is early L-88.

The engine has obviously been mothballed for a long time and still has an embossed AC oil filter that someone set down on the crate it was sitting on [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/frown.gif[/img] . I am hoping is was not pulled due an explosion or failure. I plan to take it apart later today. Any guesses on what we will find?


Jason

[SuperNovaSS]

[SuperNovaSS]

[mockingbird812]

Cool. By all means, take us along on this adventure!

[Xplantdad]

hoping for good luck on your teardown!

[SuperNovaSS]

Thanks guys.

Well, I got it torn down to the short block. The bad news is this thread will not be as exciting as the DZ 302 thread. The good news is these are nice parts.

Here we go........

Lets get the carb off:




Hmmm, that's not stock but at least they didn't go too crazy.

Let's get the intake off:




No, surprises here. Some gasket matching on the intake ports but no porting. No evidence of damage or destruction yet.

Off with it's heads:





Everything looks good here. Sorry for the rust dust, I shouldn't have blown it off. The cooling ports spewed dust. Oh wait, what's on the dome of that piston:



Looks like we had quite a few valves contact the pistons.

Let's check the heads for bent valves:




No bent valves or damage to the heads. This engine must have been apart before. Let's check the bores:








Hmmm, nice standard bores and no stampings on the pistons.

Time to get this unit on a stand and dig deeper.

First, the flywheel has to go:




Now, to get it on the stand. I hope my back can handle it:



No problem.


Ok, while we are draining the oil, let's pull the lifters and store them in order. Now, lets flip this puppy over and get this pan off:





Now we are talking!

[SuperNovaSS]

Here is the crank number. It is a 6223. This crank was used in 396 engines and 427 engines. However, the L88 crank is a 7115. Not looking good for an L88.



The rods are the dimple units with 3/8 bolts:




The piston numbers will tell us what the engine is. Unfortunately, I could not get a clear picture of them for this thread. The piston number is 3888304. It is a GM forged piston made by TRW. This piston was used in L-71 427/435HP and L-72 427/425HP engines. Mystery solved, this is a 427/425HP shortblock. The investigation is no over yet though, let's keep looking:



Balanced rotating assembly. Who knows if this was done when the shortblock was brand new or after the valves hitting some of the pistons.

Original oil pump:



I've never seen this modification:




Assembly stamp:




Casting date:




Assembly mark:

[SuperNovaSS]

Original non locking motor mounts:




Small balancer with cover for large balancer:



Let's get that timing cover off:



Hmm, I'm surprised that nylon gear timing chain is still there. Maybe the original cam is still there.

Well, the lifters are already out. Let's pull the cam out and see:



Nope, the bump stick was changed but they left the nylon gear timing set. Interesting.

Here is a piston after soaking in WD-40 for a little while anhd being wiped with a rag:





And a cylinder after the cylinders were lubed and the rotating assembly was turned a few times:






I think that is all I have for you. My conclusion is this was a hot rod engine that was in who knows what and was used very little.


Thanks for looking,

Jason

[Tracker1]

Nice score!

[willie71]

the ce code means its a creat enterance motor/the original motor was replaced by the dealership/either over the counter or more likley the motor blew up under warrenty/thats why you dont see and parcial serial numbers on the tab either