I was tossing an idea around in my head for a few weeks of checking out this vortec 305 I pulled from a 98 pick-um-up truck to slap in the bird until gas prices drop a bit.
The truck had 72k on it when the engine was pulled.

The story is, The owner changed the oil one day started the truck ran fine. Later that night drove off to play pool got out started the truck and the engine was knocking. Good oil pressure full of oil no sign of coolant in the oil or oil in the coolant. He then had it towed to the shop where I listened to it. It sounded like a rod was about to let go. The truck owner decided to replace the engine rather then have it checked out further. Anyway a day later I started it up knocking like mad, drove it 10ft into the shop and it stoped making the noise. By that time a new 305 crate engine was sitting on the hoist and an owner expecting his truck back in a day.

I pulled the pan off when the engine was out and there was no metal figured a bearing might have spun so I just slaped it on a crate and shelved the engine.

Today 1 1/2 year latter I pulled it out and pulled the bottem end caps off. I see nothing wrong NO HOT SPOTS on the bearings nothing.

Q is, Shouldent I see signs from lack of oil? or anything funky? The pistons look great Ive seen them blow apart and make similiar noise but this was in the bottem end. As it stands now the engine appears in good enough shape to slap new standard bearings in surafce the heads and order an intake.

 

i would think if it was starving the bearings for oil it would definately show some wear on em atleast ....id make sure the oil passages are all clean and throw a new set of bearings and a minor rebuild kit in it and see what happens should be okay if it didnt have any shavings at all make sure you have the crank checked with the rods for out of round or bends and id go with it

 

i too think any problem would be easy to spot, or any damage caused by the problem. however given the history of the engine if it were me i'd have to take it apart and inspect everything and freshen it up. have the block tanked and the heads done.

 

Yea usually I would rebuild the engine totally but I was thinking more along the lines of "temporary use" until fuel prices drop a bit. This way I would have a nifty vortec manifold for future use.
I talked to my machinest today and he said to pay closer attention to the no.1 main, he said they have seen alot of problems in that area due to high belt tension. Again if that were the case I should see damage. I dunno I might just shove it all in a box and put it back on the shelf.