got a 400 block bored .40 over. well the other day tlaling to a friend of mine's dad and he told me that i should try to get rid of the car b/c it is the 509 casting block. he said they were the worse block produced and i just wanted to see what all of you though before i possible try to get rid of the car

 

Yeah right.

I assume he's trying to buy it from you, at a real low price too, to help protect you from this menace....

Drive it. Enjoy the power. There's nothing wrong with that casting, in fact it's by far the most common 400 casting. This one here, for example, has 125,000 of my miles on it, was just an old block dumped off in the trunk of a used car my late little brother bought, and it's still standard bore.

Just nod approvingly, pretend to agree, and move on. Some things in life aren't worth arguing about. If this person thinks that's a bad casting, well, in the long run that's a good thing, because that's just one less person competing to buy the finite number of them that exist.

 

thank you very much, helps with the inspiration that is hard to come by on such projects, is there anyone else that has their opinion?? i would like to hear more

 

Like RB said, nothing wrong with the casting. I have one in the garage I'm building up. Just make sure you mag the block before you start throwing money into (but you should do that with every block regardless).

 

Nothing wrong with it. Foujd a few quirks with it over the years:

1. Threads on a few of the head bolts like to strip out if you take the heads on and off a lot (like me). Usuall the bottom bolt, 2nd to the rear on both sides. Fixable with Heli-coil thread repair, but not easily. I built myself a jig for doing it with the block still in the car, just to tell you how often it happend to me.

2. Deck surfaces like to warp up pretty good on them. Have found few that didn't need just a little decking operation to bring them back to dead-flat.

Both of these phenomena are basically the result of it being a "light" casting typical in 70s-era small blocks

That beind said, I know of one that is on it's 4th life, (factory stock, 2 rebuilds by me, one by the current owner) that runs low 11s in a bracket car. 4 or 5 heli-coiled head bolt threads (mostly mine), slight decking operation performed during rebuild #2, and a bunch of little things that don't amout to a hill of beans. Current owner couldn't be more pleased with this "junkyard" engine.

 

my parents own an antique auto salvage, and they just bought 4 buildings full of parts in illinois...

i was up there helping my dad load another trailer of parts, and under a blanket in the corner of one of the buildings was an engine... complete from oil pan to heads....

im like, "hey dad, can i put that thing in my camaro to replace that little stock 305?"

hes like, "sure"

and just like that i had a rebuilt 400 short block (casting number "509"

pulled off the little truck heads, threw on a set of vortecs and a cam, and here i am :-D (havent driven it yet due to starter problems...)

but hey... stock bore, rehoned, etc... if it doesnt crack or explode, itll get a few rebuilds over it's life in my camaro :-D