My girlfriend picked up a 68 400 to put in her 67 Special. It is in need of a rebuild so she called around to find a machine shop to handle the work. A local old school performance shop (been in business since the 50s) quoted her $3000 for a complete rebuild (pistons, rings, cam, bearings, all machine work and balancing). He is offering a running, tuned, drop in engine). This sound steep to anyone? Or is it a good price? I know you usually get what you pay for and this shop has done right by me before with other work. One of the guys who works there is a buick nut and has an immaculate 65 Riv GS. What should one expect to pay for a quality rebuild on a buick engine? Not complete and running but a bring in a longblock and get it rebuilt. Thanks
Rich that sounds like a reasonable price to me. Especially since you stated they know Buicks and do quality work. I've heard that 400 pistons are difficult to find but that second hand info. o No:
I recently had a complete rebuild done on my '67 400 and the cost was $1600.00 from a reputable Buick engine rebuilder that races Buicks as a hobby. That was a long block rebuild. I had to install the intake, pullies, etc. When everything was said and done I ended up with about $2500.00 with everything new except the fan, flex plate, and the starter. Your price of 3 grand doesn't sound too far out of line. Rebuild parts for the 400 are available from Egge. There are a couple of others out there but I don't remember their names. An internet search for Egge will get you going. They supposedly purchased all of the drawings from GM. Good quality cast pistons.
I just spoke to the guys at the machine shop. The quote was for a drive in, drive out rebuild. Since the motor is on a stand in my garage the price went down to $2,500. Great guy to talk to, old school shop with old school gearheads (no honda stuff). So, they are getting the job. Now all we have left to do is everything. Motor mounts, carb, exhaust, trans, driveshaft, ignition, all the pumps, linkages etc....... Should be fun, but not cheap. Thanks
where? Where is this shop at rich? I been looking for a buick shop in the los angeles area but cant find anything..any help?
I think it depends on what you want when you are done. If you just want it to run as it did stock, you are probably in the ballpark. I just had my engine finished at Tri-Shield for well over double that amount. Of course mine is 10:1 forged pistons, ported Stage 1 heads and dyno tuned to 485hp.
That's a good price Rich. Be sure and have them drill the oil suction passage in the block up to 5/8" from the existing 1/2" and install a 5/8" pickup tube. Get a ported or new timing cover from TSP or TA. Also invest in rebuilt rocker arm assy's, you'll pick up a bunch of oil pressure there. Moving to the 430 bore allows a much larger selection of pistons.
Thanks for the tips Len, much appreciated :beer The name of the shop is Dragmaster, they are located in downtown Carlsbad. Only about a block and a half from my front door (makes pickup pretty easy). Seem like pretty straight up guys. I will let you know how things turn out. We are in need of some parts to complete the engine. It was pretty much just a block and heads when we got it. Anyone got a complete 455 with a rod sticking out the side of the block that can be scavanged for parts? We need pretty much everything on the front of the engine, timing cover on forward. Also in need of bracketry for P/S, alternator etc. We also need a distributor. How far can a 400 be punched out??? Thanks
I would ask specifically what Make / Manufacturer parts will be used such as pistons, rings, cam / cam bearings, rod / main bearings, etc. etc. I believe a 400" can be punched out easily to 430 + .030 over - do some searches it was discussed not more than 3 months ago
Rich, The guys at Dragmaster are a good group, I've had them do work for me in the past and it was always done right and fairly priced. Is the long block you have the one that Skip had in the shop? If so, it was mine, I sold it to him a while back (he said it was going in a 67), it was a spare that came with my parts car, supposedly had a pretty steep cam in it. I've got a full up engine in my parts car (spun rod bearing) , let me know if you want to stop over and pickup some parts, I've got a timing cover, carb, some of the brackets and such.
Len, Thanks for the heads up on Dragmaster. I have never had them do any machine work for me before but I brought some control arms to them once that I needed the cross shafts pressed out of. They got one out no problem but could not get the other all the way out (needed an odd shaped die that they didn't have). They refused to take any money for the work that they had done so far because they didn't complete the job. I thanked them and slipped the guy doing the work a $20 for busting his butt for almost an hour working on the one shaft. (I found out later that the only way to get the shafts out was to cut the arms in half). Yes, this is the same engine that was sitting over at Skips. Do you know anything about the engines history (other then the cam)? Any idea how the oil pan got so messed up? It looks like the engine was in a car that was in a pretty hard wreck (or someone dropped the motor on its nose at some point). Thank you for the parts offer. The nickle and dime details seem like they are going to be the hardest part of the swap, having access to all the brackets and such is going to help out greatly. I will talk to Lori when she gets home from work today and see if we can schedule a date and time to drop by. Thanks again Ps, big thanks Skip for being patient. We did not plan on leaving the engine at your shop as long as we did. But with moving and all it was a big help not having another big heavy thing to shuffle around while getting situated.
I do know that the car it came out of was in a pretty serious accident, the guy I got it from pulled the heads off it and put them on his car (now my parts car) which is also a 68GS400 so the casting numbers will still be correct, he told me that he thought he remembered the car had about 90k miles on it when the accident occured, it then sat in his garage for 10years. That's about all I know.
Rich, Get an itemized estimate of everything that will be done, and what parts will be used. The word "Rebuild" has a lot of definitions. JW
Rich, I have a bunch of stuff laying around. I'll have to be careful what I give away while we're building a 455 for my son-in-law but there's two of a lot of items. I DO have a good Pertronix setup 455 distributor that won't get used around here. I pulled it out of my Stage 1 when I went with the MSD stuff and electric pump. Also have several 'stock' 455 and 350 distributors and an HEI from a 350 that can be converted to 455 with a swap of the drive gear. Doesn't sound like you need this stuff immediately but I'll try to snag it as I trip over it while were in the middle of several projects... '70 GS complete resto - engine, trans, interior, body. '70 Stage 1 new 12-bolt posi '69 GS new 8.5 posi, suspension rebuild, disc brake conversion. '50 Willys Pickup - frame off - Buick 350, TH400/Dana 300, Dana 44 front 4.55:1, Ford 9" rear 4.56:1, box frame, strip and paint, Saginaw steering converstion... yada, yada. Email me at gary.fanning@mci.com
455 in Oceanside Rich, There's a complete 455 in a 73 Lesabre at the Oceanside Ecology (u-pick) yard, it's got every bracket and accessory installed even has cruise, it's a 2bbl engine but you've got the intake I believe. Nice cheap source of parts or a whole engine, it turned over easy enough, looked to have been fairly well maintained.
Can anyone provide me with a sketch of which oiling passage must be blocked off to run 67 big port heads on a 455. I just picked up a set.
It's the hole located at about the 2 o'clock location from the top front head bolt hole on the driver's side of the block. You can't miss it. You can aslo plug it at the head as well. To plug it at the block, tap the hole for a 1/8 inch pipe tap, do it BEFORE you have the cam bearings installed. Jim Burek
