HELP! I bought a mess?

stixx said:

Hey YR, you are contradicting yourself...
Usually you are advocating strokers ONLY when used with the best of them very good heads... otherwise the poor engine will fall off a log past 4800rpm dadada... lol

But I like the idea to go stroker with a 318 block... only that the OP will have to sink thousands of $'s into it then... and the better half might not like that.

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Not a contradiction at all.

He never said he wanted max power.
He never said ET was the ultimate goal.
He never said he wanted the engine to RPM.
He said its for his wife.
He said its a show and cruise car.

So why not? It will be a tire shredder. Always looks good at car shows when you can melt the hoops down to the wheel with ease and the brag you have a "stroker".

And yes, I built a 408 back in 2000-2001 that went over 545 HP but it did it at 5200. That was with fully ported edelbrock heads. And a HR with 240 at .050 so it was really a tractor engine. What a waste. Buy the owner was a internet believer and was told you can't make 500 HP with that combo on pump gas. Don't need a steel crank (I will never understand the love affair with cast cranks...Chevy used them because they are cheap, not because they good...steel cranks are so cheap it's stupid not to use one). The internet world went batshit crazy when he told them I was using Chevy rods and took a brand new crank and turned the Rod throws down to LJ Chevy...a crime against Mopar humanity. They all said the headers were too big, the intake was wrong, the ignition I picked was junk and the general consensus was it was on a happy dyno it might make 475-480.

So, not a contradiction. That 408 would have been much better off with 1. A bunch more cam or 2. No more than a 3.75ish stroke. Again, the Internet engine builders all said the cam I used was too,big for the street, would need to idle at 1200, wouldn't make any "bottom end", one of my most hated and ignorant statements ever made and a host of other things. Yet they were all wrong.

Again, I didn't contradict anything. Consider the end user and application.

OK... honestly I was just teasing. I perfectly got what you meant.
Like what you wrote in the lenghty reply.
Thanks for that.

So I was able to get out to the garage on this great Veteran's Day. Thank you for your service to all of my brothers and sisters on here.

I was able to run a compression test on the 273 n the car. The motor seems to have tested out pretty well. Results were: 1 - 128, 2 - 132, 3 - 130, 4 - 135, 5 - 132, 6 - 126, 7 - 125, 8 - 132.

I am now hopeful that al of the leaking is just aged seals that have been sitting for years and are no longer doing their jobs but the engine may not have a dreadful amount of mileage and wear on it.

I am now thinking thanks to al of the information I have been able to get from you all that my best and first step will be to pull the motor, put a full gasket set into it, replace the leaking freeze plug on the back of the motor and throw it back in and see what it will do with a good maintenance and tune up. Thoughts on that course of action?

Separately, the engine has a set of Hooker long tube headers on it that I have spent most of my time working around so far and calling them every name in the book. They are a MAJOR PITA. Trying to get the #5 and #7 plugs out is a nightmare as the #5 tube comes up, goes straight back parallel to the ground past #7 and them dives almost straight down and is touching the inner side of the steering column in the engine compartment. Any suggestions for some shorty or block hugger headers that others have used tat might be easier to work around?

Those are some super consistent compression numbers! I'm not sure why, but they recommend to have carb fully open when compression test.
I've hear nothing good of Hooker headers.
Tti people seem to be happy with, no 1st hand knowledge here.

4spdragtop said:

Those are some super consistent compression numbers! I'm not sure why, but they recommend to have carb fully open when compression test.
I've hear nothing good of Hooker headers.
Tti people seem to be happy with, no 1st hand knowledge here.

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Those numbers are with a warm engine, all plugs out, and choke and throttle blades propped wide open.

Might not even need to pull the engine if its the valve seals. Don't know which freeze plug or if its accessible but there are replacement freeze plugs that are rubber with a screw tightener that you can put in with the engine installed.

69conv said:

Might not even need to pull the engine if its the valve seals. Don't know which freeze plug or if its accessible but there are replacement freeze plugs that are rubber with a screw tightener that you can put in with the engine installed.

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Unfortunately the suspected culprit of the antifreeze leak is the freeze plug on the back of the block on the passengers side under the automatic transmission bell housing. That's ok. While I have it out it will get cleaned up, all new gaskets, the correct paint job after losing those hideous chrome valve covers, and either some the original cast iron manifolds that came with the car or some new shorty headers.

Sounds like youre going for an original look. You have a great start for that. The parts section of this website can probably find you anything you need. And there is a lot to be said for original reliability. Those original manifolds should be pretty easy too.

Basically I would opt to keep it with the original 273, since it is a vert and a pretty desirable and not common A body. That little 273 can be built to run darn good in that light car. Want more snap, change the rear gears. The A body world is slam full of "updated cars/engine combos, resto rods, etc... By the way, welcome nice score.