Scorrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeee!!!!

Definitely for resale and investment in the '63. From the info I could find they were used with a four barrel or tri-power. Pontiac did play with dual fours during those years too. But I'm hoping that any Super Duty parts I find will sell. The block, unless it's a 4 bolt main, is nothing special. If so I'll keep it for a project in the future. This is almost identical to the '60 block I'm using in the '63. They were cast much stouter pre '61. More nickle, thicker main webs and crankcase walls. The standard Pontiacs use an open lifter valley and when used with aggresive cams will usually break out the lifter bore castings. These blocks have thicker metal even on these lifter bores and resist breakage. So it is a great block to base a higher horsepower build on. Which is why I used my '60 block. If it has a SD forged 389 crank then that would really make my day. The heads are no use to me so I hope to recover at least the cost of buying the engine. That will give me a choice keeping some of the other parts for projects if they are SD parts. I still want to build a higher rpm motor. The block and if it has a SD forged crank, would really give me a base for that. I'd destroke the crank as much as possible to small block chevy rod journal size, using long SBC rods for possibly about 360 cubes. Good pistons and good heads. It would be fun to build it for the gasser and run it with a good liberty four or five speed and good clutch. Bringing it off the line like the old Gassers and Modified Production engines. But who knows. We'll know more Monday. I doubt my luck will stretch that far. LOL. Mark L

Well this is the tale of the day. I got the motor home and started dismantling. The heads are theearly Super Duty heads. They appear to be totally untouched. Which adds to their value.











We found the block to be a 4 bolt '59 casting. Got excited as we pulled the first rod/piston and we discovered it had the good Super Duty rods but with pressed pins and cast pistons. Then pulled the rest of the rods/pistons. Then we hoped to find a forged crank but it turned out to be cast. Plus it was showing some repaired damage and normal performance work. Something had broken (rod?) and banged up a counterweight that had been ground to clean up the damage. Some extra weight for balancing was welded in the original drilled balancing holes. And the crank is .010/.010. Took a lunch break all excited about the heads, the four bolt mains, and the good rods. Then when we returned to do more work Keith goes, Oh OH. He was looking at one of the other rod/piston assemblies that we removed after finding the good SD rod, and we discovered that the rest of the rods were a hodge podge collection of the older less desirable rubber rods. So it turned out that we had only one good SD rod. Then Keith (damn you Keith) points at the number 7 cylinder and says, "sleeved". Sure enough. Although the pistons showed an .020 over bore, number seven was sleeved. So whatever broke must have done that damage too. The engine was equiped with solid lifters and cam. But there are no telling stampings or marks denoting what the cam is. You can see I got a nice set of Cal Custom rocker covers too.

Mark L

My friend Keith did some searching in his library of Pontiac books and he came up with the original application of the block. The code 859P serial code no. 1764 stamped on the block interprets as ---8--Bonneville, 59--year, P--Pontiac Michigan plant. The 1764 means, it was the 763rd car off of the assembly line for 1959. The build code (1764) starts at 1001 for the code number. Which means the very first car is 1002, then the second one is 1003 and on. That is why this block was in the 763rd car off the line. With just those numbers I can get a print out of the build sheet and window sticker of that car that would tell me everything that was on the original car. It would be interesting to know.
The heads have turned out to be the star of the find. They were the first purpose made Super Duty program heads. There is nothing really great performance wise about them but they are a rare casting. They were made for the '61 model year, a point at which they had made changes to the intake bolt and water patterns. But, they were developed and in the 59-60 time frame so the pattern does not fit the '61 model year and up intakes etc. They had to make a specific aluminum intake for it. You can bolt the '55-'60 intakes to the heads but they are not as good of a performance manifold as the specific aluminum Super Duty intake. This engine I found had a stock '58 cast iron intake on it. So who ever built it did not get the aluminum intake or it could have been taken off at some time and replaced with a cheaper intake. But there is a lot of value in the heads and I can always use the block for a good engine project down the road. Although, being a 4 bolt '59 block they are a little rare too and someone may just want it more than I do. Just a note. This block is virtually identical to the block that I sought out and bought to build my turbo motor on. There are some minor differences due to the one year difference and how the two years differed in the way they equiped the two blocks for cooling. But if I had started with this 4 bolt block in th efirst place I ould nto have needed the splayed 4 bolts that I put on my '60 block and it would be almost as strong. I had one gentleman that deals in buying and selling these Super Duty parts tell me that he feels it would not be too far out to expect as much as $1500 for the heads as they came off of the engine. His concern was whether they had been altered. Such as deck cut or ported and from what I have seen, they look completely original and untouched. Which could up the value even more. I want to do a quick cleanup on them to look at their overall condition. This has been fun with all the expectations and then the realities of it all. At least I know I will recover all of my costs and more. So it is a good thing. And maybe it will result in someone finally completing a restoration that otherwise might have stalled waiting for a set of these heads to show up. Mark L

$$$$$$$$$$

Marks63PontiacGasser said:

Well I think I'm going to buy a raffle ticket. I just set up with a buyer for those SD heads. I paid $250 for the entire motor, the heads sold (pending money sent) for $1500. One of those "I never get that kind of good luck stuff", HA!! Well John had a great deal fall into his lap. Now I had a GREAT DEALHAPPEN..... MArk L

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Honestly Sir Markus NoticesAlot.... I never thought about it that way. Come to think of it Lady Luck has been shinning!!!

It feels good when it happens.... probably cause it does happen often enough or never happened at all.

So glad to hear the pending deal on those heads.

Being so rare and Pontiac I figured they would sell quickly but not for as much as they did.

Good money that will be "well spent !!!!


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