VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1961-1964 Critique my Engine

I am not quite done with it, but wanted to find out what I might have done wrong or am missing.
This is a 327/300 for my 64 Impala with A/C (brackets are there, but not yet the compressor)and I am shooting for a drivable but accurate restoration. All the casting numbers and dates are not perfect, but skipping that level of detail, I want to know what stickers are missing or what colors and parts are wrong etc. Keep in mind this is a California car, so it has the closed PCV system (most folks outside of California may not have seen it). I do know of several things that are not accurate (some on purpose) and it is generally better looking than anything they did back in the day.



Bigger pics can be viewed here:

http://www.thecairns.com/Impala/engine.html

The oil drain plug and gasket was installed before the engine was painted so they Would be orange. When new we could always tell if the engine had its first oil change because if it did the paint would be chipped off the drain plug.
Chevrolet never used or sold the asbestos covering on the choke heat tube. That was an after-market item.
The cam plug on the back of the block was orange.
I don't have my reference book here right now but I believe there shold be a decal (or 2) on the air cleaner.

Thanks for the reply.

Painting the drain plug is on my "to-do" list

I didn't know that about the choke heat tube cover. It is one of those things you see on other peoples cars, so you figure you need one too

Since the cam plug is covered by the transmission, I will skip that. I painted the block with POR-15 prior to assembly, and all the plugs were inserted later . I did back and paint the freeze plugs on the front and sides of the block, but saw no point in painting the rear plug.

I know of one decal on the air cleaner that says "FRONT" and some smaller text about care of the air filter. That one has been ordered, just waiting for it to get here.

I am not sure but I think the alt. bracket should be black.

I have seen it painted both ways. Not sure which is correct. As I recall, my bracket did not have any black layers under the orange paint.

David,
Looks great! I think the alt bracket should be black I have only seen the gen brackets painted orange, but then again I pretty much have seen east coast cars. If you look at the shop manual although black and white, you can see a difference in the colors. Also the silicone front intake gasket jumps out at me. But it looks to good to start up!
John

From what I can gather, the upper alternator bracket was either orange or black, depending on the engine plant. Tonawanda was orange and Flint was black, according to Vern Frantz over at Chevytalk.org. My 327 is a Flint block, which also matches my memories of the original 283 that was in this car back in '82. I also have found this photo from the Motor Trend review of the 64 Impala. If you look carefully, you can see the upper and lower alternator brackets, the upper being black and the lower being much lighter, probably orange.



I also noticed something funny about the pictures in the '64 shop manual. In the 283 picture, the upper alternator bracket attaches to the water pump, not the intake manifold. This also appears to be true in the 327 picture, but not as clear. I think this can be explained by the fact that the 327 picture in the '64 shop manual is identical to the picture in the 327 in the '63 shop manual, and does not reflect some minor changes made for '64.

There is a plug wire support or two missing. One goes on the driver side on the rear inside valve cover bolt. This one is rather long. The one for the rear on the other side is part of the dipstick tube on the powerglide cars. I have not been able to find one for a 4 speed car.

Note that the original post was made a year and a half ago.