406 build for my 63 Galaxie

[ToddK]

Slowly getting together a 406 to go in the Galaxie. I bought this as a short motor from Randy Millard. It had originally been built by Holbrook Racing to go in a NSS 62 Galaxie. I've tamed the cam and comp down a bit, and will be running it in my 63 Galaxie.

 It consists of a 1963 406 crossbolted block, 4.16" bore, Scat 4.25" stroke crank, Scat 6.7" H-beam rods, JE domed pistons milled to give 11.5 to 1 compression, Comp custom solid lifter cam (252/260 at 0.050", 0.636"/0.656" lift on a 108LSA), Survival FElony heads, T&D rockers. The heads and the intake have been massaged by Joe D. Craine. Just waiting now on my distributor to arrive and then I can finish sealing up the bottom end. Hoping to have it looking like a factory original engine. I plan on running it in and tuning it on an engine dyno some time in the new year.

[Joe-jdc]

You have the building blocks for the first 600hp na 6V with that camshaft and compression.  Hope to hear a good number.  Joe-JDC 

[BruceS]

Todd, gotta love that 6V setup!  Are those the T&D "street" rockers?  I calculate 462 CI from that 406...btw the Galaxie looks great; like an NSS back in the day.

Bruce

[machoneman]

Nice build! The attention to details shows

[BH107]

Very cool. Planning something really similar for our 63 Boxtop.

[ToddK]

Thanks guys.

Bruce, the rockers are the T&D street set. They look pretty good so far, hope they live up to their reputation. I'm using a set of Smith Machine ceramic faced lifters, and they require stronger than normal valve springs. The springs are Comp 927's and they have 190lbs on the seat and 530lbs open. So I wanted the good rockers to go with that pressure.

Anything over 550hp with this I'd be happy with. The car is 90% street driven, but after running at a nostalgia drag meet earlier this year, the need for more power bit. It ran a 14.35 at 98mph with a 9.0 to 1 comp 390, Comp 270S, 6V and a slipping clutch plate. I have a set of the long 427 cast iron headers, which I'll use on this new engine. Rest of the drivetrain is a wide ratio toploader and 4.11 rear gears. The pic below is at that drag meet. I normally run steel wheel and dog dishes on the street, so the rake is not so bad. At the race I had a set of 570/15 crossplies on 4.5" Torque Thrust's on the front. and a set of 8" cheater slicks on the back.

[Barry_R]

You have the building blocks for the first 600hp na 6V with that camshaft and compression.  Hope to hear a good number.  Joe-JDC

The potential is there for sure.

The one we did recently had a fair amount of intake work, a somewhat smaller solid flat tappet, less compression, and Edelbrock based heads.  After a LOT of flogging we were able to reach 571HP.  All the parts are in your favor.  One of the things that helped a bunch were a set of tapered open to two hole spacers - like an upside down "super sucker" - hand made by my customer, but you could do something similar.

[ToddK]

I have a set of 1/4" 2 hole spacers that I plan to run under the carbs. I want to run the set up with the aircleaner under my stock hood, so I'm not sure if anything taller will fit. If it gets close to 600hp, I might try something, but I'm not really in this for bragging rights. I have a pair of 500cfm Holleys for the outer carbs, but will be using the stock replacement carb for the primary centre. I could probably pick up a few more hp if I used a 500 Holley on the centre, but I haven't been able to get hold of one with the modified throttle lever to suit the 6V linkage.

[rockhouse66]

This guy will make custom spacers - not sure about a one-hole to two-hole 2V one though.  You could ask.  He did a nice job making some to my exact specs for my 6V setup and, though I don't have back to back data, I believe the spacers contributed to the strong dyno showing for that stockish engine.

http://dashman.net/

[ToddK]

Thanks for the link, Jim. That is who I got my 1/4" spacers from. I might contact him about some 1" spacers, even if I can only use them on the dyno.

[ToddK]

Well, it's taken a while to get to this stage, but today my 406 fired to life. I had a change of plans in that I decided not to use the ceramic base lifters and went with a set of Comp dumbbell lifters instead, which also dictated a valve spring change to suit. I also managed to get a 500cfm Holley to use on the centre carb. The engine was run on a local dyno. I was a bit nervous about the cam break in, but all went okay. I didn't get any pics of the engine on the dyno, but here are the dyno charts and graph.





With running 3 x 500 Holleys, each with 50cc accelerator pumps, the A/F ratio was going way rich as all the carbs were opened up. This is shown by the dip in torque at low rpms. Due to this, the pulls were started at 4000rpm as the mixtures were starting to clean up. Tried a few timing changes, but best power was made at 33-35 degrees. The mixtures were still a bit fat at higher rpm, but I ended up running out of time. Still I was happy as it started, ran, didn't break, and only had a minor oil leak out of the rear manifold to block join. And to top it off, it made 545hp on our premium pump gas, with the potential for a few more hp with more carb tuning. And that big flat torque curve should help get my Galaxie moving.

[jayb]

Great numbers, Todd.  Congrats on a successful dyno day!

[BH107]

Very nice! Was it run on the dyno with your 427 cast iron headers, or a set of dyno headers?

[ToddK]

It was run with the 427 cast headers and a 3" extension pipe that connected to the dyno pipes.

[BH107]

It was run with the 427 cast headers and a 3" extension pipe that connected to the dyno pipes.

That is awesome! Now we can't wait to see some time slips!