Chevy's First Big Block Updated for the 21st Century 

"BRAVO the welder, These are "work's of Art" I wish I could weld this well.

I heard at the top of this motor build 409 and that Beach Boy song just rang in my head, and as I know nothing about the motor I watch to learn thank you for the education and memory both are beautiful.

I really liked the build and video. when I was a kid, the neighbor bought a brand new 63 impala convertible with a 409 in it. He took me for a ride in it and was I jumping for joy. He floored the old girl, and we went flying down the highway; to a kid that was awesome.

Here's to the memory of the RPOZ-11 427 cubic inch W engines.Ultra Rare of course.

Its really great to see engines being built outside of the small block & LS masses. Those engines are great in their own right, but uniqueness has it meritts too.

530hp in a street car should be a pretty wild machine!

Rocker and head setup was interesting. I think welding the stands was right choice and that extra mile great builders do.

Gotta say, that's a _gorgeous_ engine! I haven't even seen a W409 in maybe 30 years.

I had a 1963 SS 409 convertible, black on black with a black top. That jeweled chrome trim and console with an m21 4 speed with 411 gears was a street racing monster. I tried 456 gears for that wheel standing hole shot but I'd run out of rpm before the finish line at New York National Speedway back in the late 60's. I never took any big wins after the 427's took center stage, and rightfully so. But out on the street it was both gorgeous and a very successful street light to street light racer with a very unique sound. 8" M&H Racemaster slicks at about 14 lbs. with rigid welded NMW Ladder bars got the power to the ground. God those were fine days.

I really like the oval intake port on Throttle Body. It is lower than a standard round intake of similar TB. Looks pretty cool also. All the shiny parts really helps show off this beautiful build.

Another of my favorite kind of videos: Engine builds that aren't run of the mill. Thank you. And good luck with that Corvette of yours...

I always enjoy seeing the old 409.

I’ll always immediately recognize this engine series from the valve covers alone since completing a scale model of a 1964 Impala SS with a 409. Good times.

Love the attention to all the details , torque monster.

Great video even though it wasn't the most horsepower of all Chevy big blocks the 409 has always been my favorite, Nice to see them do a modern spin on it

I had a 409/425 4 spd. in a '63 Chevy Super Sport and I miss it, I have missed it since I was 18 years old. Just to say, I was especially interested and impressed with everything about this engine build and the testing on the Dynomometer. The 409 I mentioned was my first true musclecar and I impressed a lot of fellow students in High School, myself included so, I'm sure this 509 you two built would make me a little more impressed. Thanks for sharing a snapshot of your works with all of us.

My buddy had a ‘58 with a 348 and a 3 speed and Fenton shift linkage. About this time The Beach Boys sang about the 409. Grew up in the 60’s when cars had muscle and the girls had class.

Always a great commentary on a unique engine build. Cheers from Australia 🇦🇺 👍

Thanks. Back in the day I put a 400/409 in my 63 Chevy SS convertible. 5 T-10's later I had a Muncie installed. Then Driveshaft twisting and rear end housing bending etc. The reputation was beyond Star Status. Service Station Attendants (remember them?) would beg to check the oil. Suitable chrome under the hood.

That would be a work of art in my ‘59 Impala

JUST LOVE WATCHING PEOPLE WHO KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING BUILD AN ENGINE.

Holy cow that timing!

"Gapping fools at the drag strip" has to be the best line I've heard on this show 🤣

There was a Old dump truck on Marketplace for 500 bucks. I didn't realize the 409 was so rare I should have bought that damn thing!!!!

I love this video and this build; it brings back so many memories. I had a '60 Bel Air with the 409's little brother, the 348 with a factory 6-pack of what, back in the day, we always called "fishbowl" Rochesters. With the weight of the Bel Air, it was by no means a performance car, but I do remember that it somehow had enough torque to break the welds on the rear axle spring mounting plates. Fun stuff; good times! 😁

Had a short ride in 1987 in a just completed, immaculately restored bubble top with a brand new, freshly assembled for the first time, from NOS parts, 409 with those Carter dual quads. It’s new owner was just starting the break-in process and didn’t go over 3,500 RPM. But having said that, it was still a bucket list experience with that unruly beast of an engine! I have always wondered where that car is now. Rumor had it that the gentleman who built the 409 had sufficient NOS to build several, and would do so every now and then for buyers he considered very special.

Love seeing older engine designs modernised :)

One of the best vids i have seen for a long time, and definitely the best on a beach boys special. The narrator has a clean, clear and rather pleasant voice that tops off this great vid.... Thank you so much . Eddie C4 Australia.

I was a partsman in 1962 at a Chevrolet dealership. The parents of a person that I knew bought him a new car and it was a 1962 impala 409 with a four-speed. To shorten this story one morning his mother came into the service department with him in tow. Remember now, we were about 18 years old at the time. His mother said to the people in the service department, Ronnie’s car won’t go. There were a few questions asked and Ronnie kept looking at me sheepishly. You see, the night before he was drag racing with the car and he missed a shift and knocked the four-speed out of it. At the time General Motors, Chevrolet motor division would pay for the transmission to be rebuilt or replaced. His mother nor his father understood what they bought for him, they just bought him the car that he wanted. Pretty funny to witness this and see him the next day.

Can You say Old Reliable ? 1963 Chevrolet tearing up the drag strips ! & everything else in 63 ! Thanks for the video on a awesome build ! & those welds are awesome.

personal I think 1 of the most beautiful designed engines, even with all of its short comings This sparked the fuse for all of Chevys big blocks. I wish I was alive to see the reaction on street and strip racers faces when the hood opened and the gasp because no one had seen a design like it. Fantastic story brother and great video, Thank you for the ride, everyone keep yourselves and love ones safe and healthy.

As a kid, my mom owned a 1960 convertible with the 348. Sweet, fast, and fun car!

That head/ block combustion chamber is one of the craziest things i have seen. Very interesting design !

Someone has a lot of cash, and a love affair with nostalgia, but what a neat build, I learned a lot. Thanks

Small block fan myself, but this build I found quite interesting. Thanks for posting!

You guy's are fun to watch.....Thanks very much.....Shoe🇺🇸

when i was a kid i had a 1960 chevy with a 348,3duces,4spd.and positraction rear end. i dominated the drag strip, but it kept cracking pistons!

Thanks for teaching us car guys so much about the 409. This would look so sweet in my 63! Thought of doing something similar to my 283

That's a beautiful bead on those welds for that fuel injection unit

🎼She’s real fine my 409🎼 my 409🎼

I always look forward to your videos! Awesome content

You might consider talking about the experimental 427 W block that GM considered making but because of inherent problems of the W block they dropped it in favor of the 396. This information comes from an old engine book out of the eighties.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! SOMETHING TO CONSIDER FOR ANY HOT ROD.

The peak numbers are not crazy, but the curves are! That is going to be perfect for a rather heavy show & street car. 👌

This was very well done being narrated. Thanks rob

The W series engine has the save valve locations as the Pro Stock Dodge/Ford hemi head with out the splay. Rotating the chamber from in line to opposed moves peak torque production later in the rpm band. So the W valve layout would be the best compromise

Cool stuff, my dad had a 1946 chevy truck with a 348, 4 speed. As a kid I thought it was badass. It was cool. Nice video👍👍

Loved seeing this. I had a 55 210 with a Scat blueprinted 409. Very fun cruising Van Nuys Blvd back in the day!

WOW! What an amazing build 😎 I have been fascinated with the W motor ever since I saw my first one, sitting in between deuce rails, at a hotrod show. It great the re-pop block uses BBC parts. But the most impressive part of this video is your problem solving, regarding the welding on the rocker stands. Well done, thank you for showing us this build. Cheers Aaron

As long as I have been following Mr. Dorton he is a great engine builder and very clever man.

First time viewer. Cool engine, and great background information, really enjoyed hearing about this engine!

Great build. I have a 1962 409 with a 64 409 425hp z 11 cam with the two 650 carbs 411 positraction, since 1991. It will get rubber in all 4 gears. Love to drive it to cruises.

I remember when I went through the 409 in my 1962 Chevy.(something that I wish I'd kept). I had done plenty of work on small blocks in my 55 chevy but when I got the he heads off of the 409, I couldn't believe it. It had enough torque to do itself justice in any tire burning contests.

(9.1 Compression ratio means it works fine on pump gas too. My Engine described above worked best on Sunoco 260, actually 280 (Avgas) better yet when you could sneak into an airport, lol. BTW, Being a former GM employee, I worked right next door to the engine plant on Van Slyke rd. in Flint, Michigan. I worked in the Fisher Body #2, now called Chevy Trucks. Some of the guys from the engine plant could sneak over to our side, I'll leave it at that for now. If you want to know more get in touch with me. Love your show.

My first car when I got out of the Navy was a 1960 Chevy Impala w/348 Tri Power. I wrenched on that motor many hours. But it had its limitations. The car was pretty heavy, but I loved it.

Incredibly cool build. Great instructional video. I totally enjoyed watching.

These guys are top notch builders

Ancient technology that was designed to only hold about one horsepower per cubic inch Max and he calls it weak!!! There was a reason we stopped using the 409s and went to the 454s even with its weak crank... If you're into 409 this is a cool build.

having had 2 409's over the years , I found this to be very ,very interesting. What a beautiful engine to boot. Thanks very much.

It’s always a good time when the channel post a vid 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Giddy-up 409!!!

Another awesome build.

My dad used to drag race at a local air strip here in Maryville Tennessee back in 1967, 68, 69. He had a 65 Chevelle SS 327 Turbo Fire, Muncie 4SPD, 3.73 posi.. "It was a pretty stout car",...he said. But,.....he exclaimed that the baddest dude on the block was a 66 Chevy 2 Nova with a 409 rat motor. He said no Mopars Hemi's or Pontiacs, or ANYBODY could touch that car. NOBODY. From what he knew,.....it was a swap from a Impala. Either way,...it was a monster.

Let’s not forget, this is the block that was used for the original NASCAR Z-11 427 Impala, one of or the most powerful engine ever mass produced

That Heron head design saw success in a lot of applications, the Ford MEL(not to be confused with the FE design) was a Heron head engine as well. These types of engine cylinder head designs were more for torque production than outright horsepower as the pistons used in these Heron head designs were heavier in comparison to a wedge or hemi style head where the combustion chamber is in the cylinder head. While admirable, spending $30,000 for 500 or so horsepower in a 65 year old engine design seems illogical, but I know there's a nostalgia to certain applications and the people who demand that aspect.

In 1971, I had a 67 Chevelle SS 396 with Factory High Performance everything. It was putting out as much horse power as the 427, but only had a 2 bolt main. People used to call it the poor man's 427. Hey, I was just a kid, at time had no clue what 2 or 4 bolt main was. Only problem I ever had with engine was a broken screw in rocker stud. I missed a power shift, over rev'd engine and 'pop... clink.. misfire... some oil smoke out the back' - crap. Thought I blew engine. Nah, intake valve stuck shut on #4, high vacuum in cylinder sucking some oil past piston rings. $10.00 part, $5.00 valve cover gasket, back in business of terrify neighbors and myself again.

Another top quality video and build. A gen 1 BBC W motor is a dream engine for me and my 58 fleetside Apache. 3, 4, or 6 moonjection Two barrels, 2 fours, or a big roots. Lots of fins and chrome 🤩 a man can dream right.

That intake manifold is a work of art

they may suffer from suffocation from there own bad design but they still sound amazing with the right exhaust . even If it's for a show car I would love to see what this would do with a turbo to help the old big block breath. still it's a beautiful engine .

Always learn from you guys, the stove bolt staright 6was amazing build true perfectionist

Always loved the 348-409 design as far as the looks, definitely an unusual build in the late 50s, they were gas hogs and the torque was unreal, knew a guy that had a 55 Chevy with a 409 fuel injection that he strictly ran on the local drag strip, the name of the car, Formula 409, Try me as the commercial said. Thanks for the video, wiil look great in that 63 Impala.

I’ve always had a soft spot for w motors

I took note of the original 409 as a teenager and always wanted one (but never came to fruition). The beauty of this engine is the reliability and updated design for replacement parts for the museum-quality show car that sees occasional street miles. Paired with the right trans and rear gear, this would make said show car a lot of fun. I say “show car” because this motor is obviously going to cost $40-50k and not suitable for racing. Thanks for talking us through all the design improvements over the original 409. Would be great to drop this into a ‘59 Impala or ‘61 SS.

These run real smooth.

After all these years I’m now aware of the wired combustion chamber design. 🎼she’s real fine- my 509!

Thanks for the trick of the trade with the Ball bearing and it’s got AC.😎💪

One of a kind monster motor. Honestly…this is WAY more power than the average guy will ever need cruising around, on the street. Would love to see the same treatment done to my ‘64 394 Olds motor. Tony at Ross Racing wrings out a ton of horses, from those. But not to this level. Thanks for sharing. JT: Orlando Florida

Great video, thanks! Surprised a blower or turbo wasn't part of the build, to deal with the low compression ratio and the 409's inherent breathing limitations.

If I ever win the lottery, I’ll be ordering up a 409 for some four door sleeper! Perhaps we go ahead and update it again with super or turbo charging to put the dodge and ford boys in their place! lol Love it boys, great work!👍🏽✊🏽👊🏾

Luv it 😍 Very nice and a great video , thanx for sharing !!! 👌😎

Seen a few 348s never a 409, this build is through the roof awesome, owner definitely tossed some bank at this build.

I had a street race against a '63 Impala 409 with dual quads (4 spd.) and me driving a '65 Biscayne 283 with a 2 bbl. (3 spd.). I got him out of the hole, but when the quads lit up, he went past me. When it got towards top end, my revs took over and I had him by 5-6 car lengths before we got to the RR tracks. A fun race and a thumbs-up to each other at the end. Those were the good old days. JMO.

Awesome video guys! Would like to see someone improve on the inadequacies that limited horsepower on these motors.

with that low compression it woud be perfect for a turbo or period correct supercharger like 8.71

I had a 55 Chevy 210 with a tri-power 348 back in the early sixties. I did alot of street racing with it and beat quite a few small blocks. I knew that the 348 couldn’t rev like a small block and I drove it accordingly. It had enough torque that it didn’t need high rpm’s. I guess I was lucky because I ran it hard but never had any serious issues. Sold the car in a few years later and bought a ‘63 Impala SS with the dual quad 409. Unfortunately, I only had it for about a year before it got stolen.

Looks great and sounds great to but not for everybody . You have to have deep pockets to duplicate . Love the build ! Thank You keep up the excellent work ! 🇺🇲🇵🇷👍

Excellent episode, thanks

Against my Dad's wishes in 1969 I purchased a 1/2 ton Chevy Pick up that had a "W" head Big Block in it. The Farmer I purchased it from said the Original Engine had blown up hauling irrigation pipe a few years back and his Son who had only just recently bought a 59 Chevy 4 Door Car and had taken the Engine out of that car, rebuilt it with a bunch of very expensive parts (he didn't know what it all was but he had all the sales slips from a local machine shop in town who had done a bunch of machine work on the Engine and that was also where 90% of the parts came from. The son had that shop assemble the short block and he brought it home to their own shop and finished putting it all together and put it in the Truck. He thought it was a 348 but couldn't be sure because he never paid attention to that just that it was REALLY POWERFULL, HAD THEM DAMNED HEADER PIPES, he called them and was way more truck than they really needed just to pull trailers with ! And after his son passed from Cancer he decided to sell it and just buy a 3/4 Ton new Chevy Pickup for the farm. This was as I say 1969. Long story short I drove it and fell in love instantly....didn't even go 2 miles and went back and paid him cash $950.00 for it. Got all the paper work took care of and drove it home. Later that night I started reading thru the stack of sales slips from the Machine Shop and discovered it was indeed a 409 Engine and they did a bunch of work to it. Custom high compression pistons that came from California from some Race Shop, a High Performance custom grind cam from Ed Iskendarian when Ed was actually grinding the cams, a Aluminum Intake from some place but there was no name on it just a #number ( # 105 was engraved into the intake by hand) a single Holley 750 Standard old Double Pumper and fancy finned aluminum valve covers with no identification on them at all. The build sheets had the head work ported and hand polished plus port matching to the intake, a valve job, and other machine work but really that was it. This Engine had a sound I will never forget....and if it hadnt been in a 1/2 ton Pickup with the original 4 speed that you never used 1st gear except if you were trying to get a really heavy load moving....but if that Engine had been in a light small car like a 67 Camaro or a Chevy II Nova....I most likely wouldnt be sitting here today.. I would have most likely street raced it and either blown it to bits or wrecked it and .....well it could have got ugly. I sold it to a friend about 4 years later for $1500.00 because I had done alot of work to the Truck itself and it looked like new and the guy had no problem paying 1500.00 for it. What happened to it after that I have no idea because I moved away. That was the Engine though that got me Hooked on Big Block Chevys and have owned at least 1 ever since right up to the 468 and 565 I built and Drag Race today.

Love seeing older engine designs modernised :). Love seeing older engine designs modernised :).

This video is so awesome, that I just subscribed ,great work guys. Bodymanbob from Northern Virginia, I'm very happy to see G.M.putting research dollars into gasoline engines. Will this engine pass the E.P.A standards? BODYMANBOB FROM NORTHERN VIRGINIA.

Great video. I love learning about these rare engines like this. I had never seen this type of block/head/combustion chamber design until I pulled the heads of a Ford MEL 462. I had no idea Chevy had made one also.

Those will run rings around a stock LS. And who better to build it than Kieth. Saw him build a beast for Horse Power TV guys. Really knows his stuff.

4.804 bore spacing is exactly the same as the Porsche M28 V8 engine from the 928; That means that with some drilling and welding, you can bolt 32 valve DOHC Porsche heads to a 409 block. Arias in California has done this to 454 big blocks, though the spacing is slightly different, but close enough. A Chrysler 426/440 will also accept Porsche heads, but I don't think that has ever been done.

"She's real fine my 409" but this one is Super Fine!!! Awesome video. I have great memories of my older brother scaring me as he went threw the gears in his 1963 SS Impala 340 HP 409! He shifts so hard it sounds like some one is taking a sledge hammer to the dash each shift!!

Biggest mistake I ever made was selling my 348 for $100 way back when.

The 1961 348 c.i. SHP generated 350 HP. It had a solid lifter cam and three deuces.

Absolutely awesome content brother!! Now when does the tunnel ram flathead video going to pop up?? Lol

The Bow tie brand's first flat head. Henry would have been proud.

Those are respectable numbers considering the header limitations and having the complete accessory drive in tow during the pulls.

Great show just discovered it