Pulled the engine from the 63 Im restoring for my dad

[tjthorson]

Those of you that have followed the story - if you want an update - here it is. On Saturday we had a few hours - and my dad came over and we pulled the 401 out of that 63. You may remember that it cranked REALLY hard - to the point of heating up battery cables and killing batteries in a few seconds of cranking. Yet it only had 75lbs compression. All this after sitting from being parked since 1971.

I had to use the starter to bump it to get to the flexplate bolts - I actually broke a large craftsman screwdriver trying to wegde and pry between the trans bellhousing and the flexplate teeth to spin the engine - thats how tight it was.

The 401 is out and torn down. The crank looks perfect - bearings fine, no wear, scratches, or copper showing. Lifters all nice and flat, cam lobes and bearings look good. Timing chain was still tight, rods were nice and free - nearly all the rings are stuck. The hard cranking was apparently one cylinder that had some rust toward the top (probably a valve was open on that one). All the other pistons came out without a lot of effort. Problem is, I cracked the one piston that had the rust getting it out, a wooden block actually cracked the skirt it was soo tight. the cylinder seemed to hone up nice - there was barely and ridge in any of the cylinders.

My plan is to send out the block and heads to be tanked, new cam bearings installed, and the heads checked.

I will reassemble the block with all new bearings, seals, rings, and oil pump (after I find a replacement standard bore piston....)

Anyone have any advice other then this? I have only rebuilt post 67 Buicks - so this one is definitely different. Any gotchas? Anyone have a standard bore piston for a 401 laying around? Thanks.....