First a little background info:

Back in 79 my dad bought a brand new Chevy 3/4 ton truck. It had a 350 and a 4 speed. The thing ran great for 20 years and then one day my dad was hauling something really heavy and the thing overheated bad. It didn't run too good after then. So my dad and I thought that the head gasket was bad and possibly the heads were warped. So we pulled the heads off, had them decked, put on new gaskets and everything and it ran better, but not as good as it had before. we sold that truck to a guy we knew and he ended up getting in a wreck with it. The body was smashed but the engine was fine.

This is my question: The other day my dad and I took the engine out of the truck and he is going to let me rebuild it right. I am going to completely disassemble it and put in one of those Summit engine kits, which includes new pistons, oil pump, bearings, and all gaskets you need. I am only 16 and this is the first time I have ever done something like this. What things should I look for when dissassembling it, that would tell if there are some things wrong with it? Like metal shavings in the oil and stuff like that. What other tips can you guys give me that will help me along? I hope to learn a lot by doing this and I also hope to have fun doing it. Sorry about it being so long. Any help you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

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yellow 86 Camaro
LG4 700R4
Pioneer head unit
Kenwood speakers
Infinity Beta Digital 300 amp
2 Infinity Perfect 12s

[This message has been edited by matthew (edited February 04, 2001).]

 

I assume you didn't do a compression test on it. It is probably low, which accounts for the power loss.

Before you order the kit, take the engine apart and have it checked over by a machine shop. Very likely the overheating affected the rings - either accelerated wear or even broken compression rings. Have the shop determine the "taper" in the bores, or any other damage, and have the block deck checked for warpage. Very likely, there won't be any problem that a re-bore and deck shave won't cure, but it's best to do that before parts are ordered. They can tell you what oversize pistons and rings to order. Take the crank in, too, and have it checked. You'll need undersized bearings, and again they can tell you what to order.

If the block was cracked, it would probably have exhibited itself via milky oil by now. But, be sure to tell them the history so they can be on the watch for those kind of things.

Have them magnaflux the heads to check for cracks. That was probably done when they were shaved last time, but while it's apart is the right time to do these things. Or, those truck heads weren't much for performance, consider a replacement head like World S/R Torquers. Either way, you're looking at a nice performance improvement over the LG4.

Welcome to the club. I started rebuilding the original 283 in my '57 about a week before I turned 17 (I'd done other engine work, but not a complete overhaul by myself - had helped my older brothers a lot, though). The experience is great, and will give you more respect for your car when you're done.

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82 Berlinetta, orig V-6 car, now w/86 LG4/TH700R. 2.93 limited slip. Cat-back from '91 GTA, Accel HEI SuperCoil. AMSOIL syn lubes bumper-to-bumper. Daily driver, work-in-progress (LG4 w/LB9 block, ZZ3 cam and intake, WP 305 heads ported & polished, Hooker headers & y-pipe, hi-flow cat).
57 Bel Air, my 1st car. 0.030 over 396, Weiand Action+, Edelbrock 1901 Q-Jet, Jacobs Omnipack, 1-3/4" headers, TH400 w/TCI Sat Night Special conv & shift kit, 3.08 10-bolt, AMSOIL syn lubes bumper-to-bumper. Best 15.1 @ 5800' Bandimere. Daily driver while Camaro was being put together.

 

Matthew,

You picked a good engine to start with. The older 350's are more prevalent than warts on a frog, and teh two-piece rear main seal variety (pre-1986) is probably the most common. You should have four-bolt mains, and if the truck was a 3/4 ton it may well have had at least a cast nodular iron crankshaft instead of the gray iron castings. The case should be well seasoned by now and pretty stable. As long as it isn't damaged, cracked, or warped, you've got a good beginning. My first engine rebuild was a 1964 Buick 330 V-8 - you're lucky to have a much better foundation.

There was a thread a few days back regarding engine overhaul/building procedures. From that, several of the senior members have been gracious enough to share some of their tips and tricks. I'm still working on the final draft for a group Tech Article as an engine building guide, but here's what I have to this point:

Prepare the case
Strip the engine case bare, removing all core and galley plugs, bolts, sensors, etc. Clean the inside of the case casting with a solvent that will remove the sludge. Magnaflux, dye test, or ultrasonically test the case to check for stress cracks, especially in the web areas of the crank journals. Stress relieve the case and shot pein if desired.

Machining
Check the alignment of the main bearing bores. If the block has been distorted, the crank has been damaged, or you are installing new main bearing caps, you'll need to align bore / hone the main bearing bores to insure the crank shaft main journals are on the same centerline. This reduces internal friction, stress, bearing wear and improves oil pressure. Boring is preferable to honing to maintain a true centerline and avoid the need for a shortened timing chain. Unless you want to intentionally change the crank position and deck height, try to get a boring service if necessary.

Check the block deck height and deck straightness. Mill or surface grind as necessary to correct for warpage or alter the deck height as desired. Bore the cylinders as needed or desired, then hone to a break-in finish. Insist on the use of a torque plate when boring the cylinders. The block should then be deburred. Run a bottoming tap in all threaded holes. Install 3/4" tall standpipes in the rear oil drainback holes in the lifter valley area. This will keep a small reservoir of oil at the lifters and cam bearings at the rear of the engine and allow a little better cooling of the camshaft area.

Chamfer the oil holes at the rear main cap and rear main bearing bore of the case. If you have some aircraft drills or gun drills, clean out the lifter oil galleries, crank oil passages, and passages from the cam bearings to the mains. If you accidently happen to slightly enlarge the passages, you'll get a little more oil flow. Lightly polish the lifter bores with a fine flap wheel to assure smooth lifter movement and oil holding in the bores. Take some time to polish the sealing surfaces where all the pans and gaskets will seal. A medium or fine India stone or well oiled Burr-Buster does this very well.

Cleaning
The block should then be washed with hot soapy water and bottle brushes, rifle cleaning brushes, and whatever else is necessary to clean all galleries, holes, recesses, and cooling jackets. Clean out all oil galleries with rifle brushes to remove loosened carbon and metal from drilling - don't forget the oil pressure port near the distributor. Wash the case in very hot water after all prep work. If you're lucky, you can find someone with an ultrasonic cleaning tank large enough for your case.

Apply a light coating of rust preventive after washing and air drying. Reinstall and seal the oil gallery plugs at the ends of the case. Replace all core plugs (freeze plugs) and install stainless or brass replacements with sealer. Paint the inside of the block with one coat of thinned rust-preventive enamel to seal and impregnate the casting (DON'T paint the crank or rods). Finish with a second coat of your favorite color paint at normal consistency.

Assembly
While the paint is allowed to dry thoroughly, there are a few things you can do. Soak hydraulic lifters in clean engine oil at least overnight before installation. You can soak the new timing chain in the same bath, and soaking longer won't cause any harm.

NOTE: Use assembly lube on all parts from this point forward except where noted. In addition to commercially available assembly lubricants for engines, you can use clean, straight-viscosity engine oil or two-cycle oil. Any oil used should be a mineral-based oil instead of synthetic. Two-cycle oil has the advantages of penetrating the iron and clinging a bit better than some oils, and burns away cleanly on start-up.

Grind, chamfer, and polish the crankshaft and balance it if necessary. Clean after machining as you would for the cylinder case, using brushes in holes and oil passages. Wash thoroughly and use compressed air to dry and blow out passages. Apply a light rust preventive.

Inspect the connecting rods and balance as necessary. Fit the wrist pins to the pistons, and have the assembly weighed and checked for dynamic balance.

Check each bore with a dial bore gauge, inside micrometer, telescope gauges, etc. Don't overlook the lifter bores. Mic the pistons for cylinder clearance. Check and adjust the rings in their bores for proper end gaps. Assemble the rings to the pistons, mark the proper cylinders, and set them aside.

Install a new set of camshaft bearings. If your hot-tank cleaning service boiled out the old bearings, they may have already installed a new set of cam bearings, so you can proceed.

Install the crank bearings and main bearings. Coat the bearings with assembly oil or lithium grease. Trial fit the crankshaft and test bearing clearances. Install the crankshaft and torque the main bearing caps. Test the rotation of the crank as you torque the caps to check for binding and clearances.

Install the pistons and rod assemblies in the bores. Rotate the assembly to check the rods for correct clearances, paying special attention to the camshaft lobes. Check the correct crankshaft end play. Install the oil dipstick tube if it was removed.

Pre-prime the oil pump with heavy straight oil (40W). Some people advocate using STP to prime the pump, but I feel it is a little too much stress on the pump shaft to drive the goo out of there on startup. Install the oil pump and trial fit the pickup tube in the pan. When you are satisfied with the pickup tube location, weld or braze the tube to the pump body/cover plate. You may want to install a secondary pickup brace. Install and trim the scrapers, windage tray, and oil pan to the case. Keep the pan bolts loose to allow fitting the timing cover and in case the pan has to come back off before final assembly.

Clean and buff the camshaft's distributor drive gear thoroughly. For mechanical or hydraulic flat-tappet camshafts, coat the lobes with molybdenum break-in grease designed for camshafts. Do not coat the journals, only the lobes. You can put a small dab on the faces of the lifters as they are installed, but avoid getting any in the lifter body oil grooves and holes. Roller lifter camshafts require only a coating of the assembly oil.

Install the camshaft and check for proper clearance. Install the timing chain and sprockets and check/set the camshaft degree position. Install the cam spacer button and cover, then snug the oil pan bolts.

Cylinder Heads
Cylinder heads are sometimes replaced during rebuilds, and there has been much more written on head modifications than standard case rebuilding procedures. If you are rebuilding your heads, follow the same general preparation steps as listed for the case. Strip, clean, test for cracks, perform all machining, clean, paint, and assemble with your favorite parts.

Once you have prepared or new heads, fit the new gaskets over the dowels and double check the coolant passage holes for alignment on both the case and the heads. Install and torque to the block. Install the pre-oiled lifters and check clearances. Install the push rods, rockers, and nuts. Preadjust the valves for proper lifter preload.

Final Testing
Install a new oil filter and a few quarts of fresh engine oil. Operate the oil pump with a pump shaft adapter and electric drill to test for internal oil leakage - the ability to hold pressure without leaking out internally. Test oil pressure and volume running at 500 RPM pump speed - about the maximum of a heavy-duty ½" electric drill.

Test each cylinder for compression leakage. A leakdown tester is helpful for this. Rotate the entire crank / camshaft assembly to test for tight spots, interference, and torque required to turn the engine.

When the assembly is satisfactory, install the intake manifold, harmonic balancer, flexplate / flywheel, and distributor if the application will allow it. If the distributor must be left out for installation of the engine in the vehicle, plug the opening to prevent contamination.

Happy motoring!

Alternate Components, techniques, and Products
Weld a brace from the oil pump pick up tube and bolt it to the pump body, instead of welding it to the pump.

Use Lubriplate 105 motor assembly lube on all the bearings and to prime the oil pump as well as the timing chain (work it in with my fingers) I use moly lube on the rod and main bolts, bottom of the lifer, the cam lobes, and cam and distributor gear.

Always use a screen kit in the lifter valley.

Use the Moroso oil pump plate, not even sure what it's called.

If I clean something, it's usually at the car wash.

Use high tack on the block for the oil pan side gaskets, timing cover, water pump, t- stat, fuel pump mostly to keep the gaskets from moving. Use Permatex ultra copper silicone on all the pan flanges. Use a wire brush in a die grinder to clean gasket surfaces with and then a rag soaked in brake clean. Use KW copper spray sealer on the head and intake side gaskets. If the head or intake is pitted, use silicone around the water passages. Use Teflon pipe sealer on all the bolts going to water jackets, threads and under the heads.

One thing I do that no one else said is surface the heads and block deck, or have a machine shop do it. I use 3/4 N.P.T. plugs with 3/16" holes drilled in them in the big water passages on the block deck surface, grind/sand them down before having the machine shop finish it off when they surface the block. Supposed to make the deck more stable and stronger.

I usually use new bolts, but if I reuse bolts I clean them on a bench grinder with a wire brush wheel.

Spray pistons with penetrating lube (like WD40 but oil based) put the rings on and then give it a few squirts of 30W oil. The spray lube gets every where, doesn't hurt and most likely doesn't help, but it makes me feel better.

Sorry for the length, but that's the article so far. (Thanks to all who contributed so far!)

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Later,
Vader
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"Make Me Bad..."
Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0

 

Mr vader and Mr 5.7 covered a lot. one thing you want to do is go to a hardwear store and buy a set of number stamps. stanp every rod cap, piston, main cap in a way that you can tell which way points to the front, outside egde, or any other referance point you can think of. i stamp the rod caps with the engine up side down front to rear standing at the rear of the block so i can read the number. match mark the rod to rod cap. i stamp the pistons with the number in the lower (6:00) part of the piston so if i were standing by the fender i could read the number. same thing with main caps. it sounds complicated but it's easy, or you can make up your own system. it'll save you time later, you can look at something and know top, bottom, right, left, front and rear with out having ot stop to think about it.

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ICON Motorsports

1st & 3rd

 

thanks everybody for the help. Especially vaders article, man that thing took me 10 minutes to read just so I could take it all in. Once I get my engine stand I am going to start to tear into it. how long should it take for a beginer to dissassemble, clean, and reassemble an engine? I plan on taking my time and doing it right. There is no hurry for this engine right now. Oh, this engine isn't going in my car (I wish), its for a different truck. Once I get good at building engines I'm going to make a 383 for myself

[This message has been edited by matthew (edited February 07, 2001).]