I was given this 305 for free. Took off the heads and this is what I saw...could this have been from a blown head gasket? or is the block/cylinder head cracked...?...

Any advice would be helpful...this was going to be a low budget rebuild but now i am worried I am looking at replacing many parts....

 

Well, thats definately not very good. Could be a bad head too. If you are dead set on rebuilding a 305, take it apart and have it checked by a machine shop. Thats the best way to go, it could probably use a little resizing of the bores too. It certainly doesnt appear to be a low mile engine.

 

question why rebuild a 305 when for pretty much the same money you could rebuild a 350

 

And now you have the second reason it was free. The first was because it was a 305. Really.

As for how bad that is, depends on how bad the rust is on the cylinder wall. It may be toast.

 

Thanks for all the replies...I am rebuilding a 305 because I already have much of the 305 parts and short on $. I was hoping the block would come out ok from this one so I could put my good internals into it..

The rust on the cylinder wall isn't awful but obviously not good. Is there anything I can do to check the block and/or cylinder head to determine which was the problem? or am I forced to take it to a machine shop? Like I said, short on $ so if I don't have to, I don't want to...I was going to just remove all the internals and degrease it like crazy and then check for any obvious cracks...unless everyone thinks that is a waste of time at this point...

any other advice would be helpful...

Thanks Alot....

 

If the rust is more than just the light surface rust, I wouldn't bother. Most of what you are going to use on the 305 can be used in the 350. I think ede had posted a while back the nuts and bolts of that discussion. Try a search. What parts do you have that you are going to use on the new engine?

 

Most likely it will need machine work to repair the damage, so junk it.

If your looking at making a little more power cheap, head to the junkyard and find a 350 junkyard jewel and re-ring it. Look for cars that were wrecked because of an accident. Pull the heads and look for any damage and a cylinder ridge. Then pull the pan and look for damage or metal in the oil. If there isn't any damage to the engine, you might have a pretty good engine that will run good if you replace all the bearings and re-ring it.

This is not the proper way to do build a reliable engine that will last along time, but it is cheap.