The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 409 Engine

Could somebody out there give me an idea what a "good" 409 engine is worth? Also what years did Chevrolet make the 409?

The 409 was used in passenger cars from 62 to 65. There was a medium-duty truck version for somewhat longer. What's it worth? Scrap iron value, unless you find a collector doing a restoration job. The only worse engine was the 348!
Jerry

A completely worn out 409 with a steel crank and the big heads sells for about 5 grand. The heads for about half that. The head design was terrible but with MANY hours of design modification, intake port re-contouring, exhaust port REDUCTION in size, and hours and hours on the flow bench here is a pic of a 62 with a 409 that runs 8's in the 1/4. About the same as a 502 BB with over the counter parts. Go to page four and scroll down to the red 62 if you don't want to wade through all my junkers.
http://s32.photobucket.com/albums/d41/coilover/

In its day Chevy 409's dominated Super Stock racing while the Chrysler 413's dominated Super Stock Auto. I would imagine a solid 409 would fetch a pretty penny today.

[img]http://butchleal.com/photos/63ButchLealImpala.jpg[/img]

Those motors are currently popular with the 'traditional' rod crowd and should easily be worth far more than scrap value. If performance was my goal I'd choose something else, but that distinctive valve cover, the Beach Boy's song and the old race history create a significant interest and percieved value.

If you must give it away, let me come get it.

When I was teaching at a state Vo-Tech school several years ago, we had a NOS 65 model 409 in the shop that had never been started. It was donated to the school by GM when they opened in the early 70's. It sat in the corner of the shop and gathered dust. We did a teardown/reassembly on it once and there were still felt-tip marker numbers on top of the pistons from the factory balance job during assembly. The thing had absolute zero operating time!

I think it went to scrap after I left for another teaching job, along with a couple of Ford 429's and several 10" Ford rear axles. All those parts were new, never-installed items donated by the manufacturers.
Jerry

A 409 from a car application, will go for big dollars. A truck 409, not quite as much, but still worth a whole lot.

Even the 348 now is getting pretty expensive.

Expensive....
At least all that I have seen, even just as a core.

If you do an Ebay search for Chevy 409,there's two engines on there now ,a truck long block for 900 bucks and a complete rebuilt 340 HP 409 for 6000 bucks.Neither one had a bid when I looked.
For street use,the small port truck or 340 hp versions work out quite well.And they don't have the hot running issues of the big HP versions.

Actually they were put in cars from '61 to 65. As said a stamped car block is work a bit more than a truck block, especially if it was a high HP version. I have a 62 belair with a 409 in it, fun car. I would be interested in it depending on what it is and how much. If it is a truck block the heads are not worth much, and intake is useless, the block can be used in any application though. Only real difference in truck block is a valve relieve cut into the cylinder, good for breathing but drops your comperssion a point.

hans

two years ago I gave away a 348 for 425 bucks. It was torn down and had been vatted, everything cleaned, new water pump, one 4 barrel intake and one for 2x4's. Complete engine. I had planned to put it in a 40 sedan but had to many projects. I WISH I HAD THE ENGINE BACK. I'd put it in the panel for a nice "conversation piece"