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I have a friend who is selling me the motor out of his hot rod. He wants $5500. Its runing now and he says it has all the "pink" parts inside. I can see the aluminum heads and solid lifters but I can't see inside. What are "pink Parts and what is this motor worth. Its a 396
Thanks
Steve
I've never heard this terminology used with respect to big blocks. I expect that it's an "extrapolation" from the "world of small blocks". Once-upon-a-time, the connecting rods for special high performance 350 cid small blocks had a "pink" blotch of an inspection mark on them. These rods were used for L-46, LT-1, and L-82 small blocks. At the time and for many years thereafter, they were the "hot-setup" and were very popular in hot rodding circles. These rods, because of their pink inspection mark, came to be known as "pink rods" and that's how they were referred to in the hot rodding vernacular.
I have seen small pink inspection marks on some examples of the GM #3969804 connecting rods used for 1969 L-88 and ZL-1 engines. However, these rods are generally identified (when new, of course) by a GREEN inspection mark. The LS-6 rods were identified by a WHITE inspection mark.
There are no other internal components of big block engines that I know of that are identified by "pink" inspection marks. Some SHP components may have pink inspection marks to be found upon them, but lesser parts may have pink inspection marks, too. It's really moot, anyway, since these inspection marks are usually long gone or faded out in a used engine.
Perhaps the "pink parts" refers to the pinkish paint used to mark SHP BBC
parts back in the day. I have seen rods, cranks, cams, and blocks that were
treated in this manner. Yes, green & white are also used, but perhaps the
pink just stood out for this particular owner. I've got many pictures here
showing the use of pink paint on the items mentioned.
Yes, pink inspection marks were definitely used on SHP pieces. However, as I mentioned, they were also used on non-SHP, "every-day" type parts. So, the pink inspection mark does not, by itself, really distinguish a SHP part form a non-SHP part. In the case of small block rods, it does. I don't think that a pink inspection mark was ever otherwise used for small block rods.
What casting number and date code are the heads? Vintage aluminum heads with date codes 1969 or earlier can bring up to $3000 a set if you're lucky and they're NOT ported, welded, polished, bead blasted, or otherwise repaired or modified. If they've been messed with, you can get them for about $1500 or less on ebay depending upon the deviation from stock. Crank and rods aren't really worth much - you can get the cranks brand new for about $100 and a good set of aftermarket rods for $250 on up. The 396 block - I have no idea (unless it's a 1965 961 block ).
All of these prices would represent cores to be used for rebuilding.
Good luck,
Mark
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