I have a 427 Tonawanda(sp?) truck engine available to me I believe it had a spicer 5 speed tranny behind it, it is a good block and heads but needs rebuilt it had a rattling in it or so I was told????. What tranny will bolt up to it or what could be done with it as far a putting it in a vehicle or buggy, also what could it be worth. It is a very clean motor and was ran on L.P. It was replaced when it started rattling???? so there was no major damage done.Also came from a fuel injected truck.

its a chevy bbc, all chevy trannies and bells.


tonawanda was a engine outsourcer for chevy, they made the fuel injected 92+ newer 454's, the valve covers will bolt up to the older bbc heads so dont trust them. truck bbc are not the same as pickup/car bbc, they are a tall deck and short stroke with a retarded piston.

before i get to indepth you need to get the casting numbers off the back of it .

As stated above they are a tall deck.They take a different distributor , intake , flywheel? , and for some reason I think they take a different oil pump drive,and the ones I dealt with used 2 thermostats.

As stated above they are a tall deck.They take a different distributor , intake , flywheel? , and for some reason I think they take a different oil pump drive,and the ones I dealt with used 2 thermostats.

wrong,

correct, but you can use aregular intake if you buy the spacer kit and the dist body with an adjustable collar.


flywheels are hit or miss, the 366 td i bought had a 14" fly wheel but they are still and internaly balanced motor so a 306/402 fly wheel will bolt right on and run.

wrong,

same with the 366, it had a 2 tstat housing, twin, siamese, side by side, it also had 2 1-1/2" rad hoses on the intake.

Perfect engine fer a stroker kit.

Im almost 100% certian that they use a different dist.Im not sure what year this was so maybe they changed that.

you can get an intake that will take a standard distributor, you can put a slip collar distributor in it, oil pump driveshaft is the same length as a short deck block because the cam distance from the crank is the same.

the tall deck is .400" taller at the deck. this means you can put a 4.250/4.375 stroke crank in it and not worry , maybe only a little notching... a 4 1/2 stroke crank will require some massaging to make it fit. the bore will be limited to 4.375 or .125 over stock bore. with the taller deck you can use a longer rod, and that will allow a lighter piston.

if you want to just rebuild it, get some .400 long rods, stock 427 *car* pistons, and use the stock industrial forged crankshaft. have it balanced, but remind yourself that its gonna cost an arm and a leg to balance that heavy weighted thing...

The stock industrial heads suck. get rid of em. get some large oval port heads. 049 castings would do great for torque, 990 castings for HP and a stroker motor.

these are just the bottom of the build list.

you could even bolt big chief heads on it, if you wanted to throw some money at it.

big block chevy stuff is fun... but not cheap.

use a roller cam. dont use a lot of lift on the street though, as you wont like to replace the roller lifters all the time. the more lift, the more spring pressure, the easier it is to starve the lifters for oil at low rpm. solid roller lifters in a bbc dont like low rpm.

if you put a flat tappet camshaft in it, be sure you get GOOD synthetic oil after initial breakin. todays oil doesnt support the flat tappet cams in a bbc.

enjoy.

tonawanda was a engine outsourcer for chevy, they made the fuel injected 92+ newer 454's.

Not an outsource. Tonawanda is the town in New York where the GM engine plant is located. The Tonawanda plant has made almost all of the big block engines and a lot of small blocks also.

Thanks Grumpy for clearing that up for me.

i still want casting ### to even make it clear that it is a tall deck. it maybe just a 454 when the newer covers on it and slid into the rig. a LOT of the td were 366 which is pretty much useless and there is no way to tell which t/d with out the numbers or takeing a head off.

to even make sure that it is a t/d, look at the water pump. where it bolts to the front of the block the pupm body will be almost touching the head if its a bbc, the t/d will have .400" gap between the pump and head. other wise it may have the goofy ass 2 t stat housing on the intake.

Thanks for the info everyone, next time I get by there I'll get the #'s off of it and maybe some pics. I have about decided I don't want it, but maybe someone here could use it.Any clue what it would be worth it, he said the problem was a wrist pin tapping, I don't know I never heard it run but it is clean, no external sign of damage.

stock 454from 73+ have reall weak pistons and are prone to tear the skirts off and the tops of the pistons will tear off of the wrist pin.

again it will depend on what it is, a 366 t/d = free good and running or not.

a 427 even if it has a bad piston $500 -/+, they are what you want if you want to build a big inch long throw motor.

a stock 73+ 454 $200-300 if its beat and nasty.

Any 5 speed attached to one of the tall deck motors will most likely have an uber low first gear, and direct 5th. I have a NP542GL from behind a 427TD, it has crazy low first plus a gigantic clutch (iirc 13"). I don't know what its bellhousing pattern is, but it has a thin steel adapter to the chevy bh pattern.

dave do you have any specs or sites for the np tranny?, my buddy has a few and we dont know much about them.

my buddy put a tall deck 427 into his 74 chevy pickup. not allot for revs but an absolute torque monster.
he went from a mild 350 to the bone stock 427 and would never go back.
he used some reducers to use a regular upper rad hose on it. put on a regular water pump and we pounded a frost plug into the t stat housing and had a barbed fitting attached to it for the hose coming off of the water pump.
he also went through his pile of acessory brackets and set all of those up with acessories on the engine stand. if i recall right the harmonic balancer is a huge mother and has the pully cast onto it.

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s43/dak360/feb2407003.jpg

this is last winter, his first time out wheeling, he has the 350 in the truck. two weeks later we went out agian and the 427 was installed. he was able to use 3rd gear with his 465, left the 208 in high range. 33's and 3.08 gears

when he had the 350 in the truck he could ocasionally use 2nd gear in high range.

that .25" of stroke makes all the difference in the world, why do you think the 383 motors are so popular now.

i now hate my sbc becuase of my mild bbc 454. if i have a say about it i would never run a sbc again.

dave do you have any specs or sites for the np tranny?, my buddy has a few and we dont know much about them.

I just took the #'s off the ID tag (it had the 1st gear ratio also...there were a few different #'s for this) and googled them. Found some website that had the ratios for it. I don't know too much else about them, except it has an aluminum top cover just like its smaller brethren.

you would come out better,using a 454 or a 396 or a 402.Trying to use a tall deck "truck" 427 or 366 is just to much trouble.Just keep it simple and the problems wont be as bad.Parts for tall deck BBC's are hard to come by.

you would come out better,using a 454 or a 396 or a 402.Trying to use a tall deck "truck" 427 or 366 is just to much trouble.Just keep it simple and the problems wont be as bad.Parts for tall deck BBC's are hard to come by.

parts for tall deck big block chevys fit short deck big block chevys too. teh only difference is the height on the wrist pin in the piston, and the amount of balance weight on the crank counterweight as far as rotating assembly. if you buy some 6.535 rods, you can put standard 427 pistons in it. Any big block chevy cylinder head will bolt to it.

so... no, youre not right. take your four posts and go get some education before you make inappropriate comments.

you can build a big block chevy with a 4.375 bore, and a 4.375 stroke, which gives you 526 cid. all bolt on parts. these parts are available through Jegs, summit, competition products, doug herbert, and many many many other speed shops. Brand names. not junk. people like brodix, callies, lunati, dart, world products. they all make parts for this engine.

you dont find these in junkyards.