Hello everyone.

I've been reading up on these boards for every problem i've ever come across with my 88 firebird v6, nothing special but it finally caught fire and burned to the ground and i'm junking the entire car due to cheap fixes and so many problems. However, I am still in love with these third gens and i plan on building a strong 350.

The first thing to start with is the engine in my opinion and my neighbour has a 350 4 bolt out of a 1974 sierra cheyenne Super 10 and I was trying to find some specifications on the internet regarding horsepower specs, if it's flat-tappet, roller or what... Basically what i would like to know is if this engine is worth building or if i should go find one out of some van in a junk yard. He wants $50(CDN) for the engine which he says the cam shaft "went" in it and he has a new stock cam for $50 also. he has a t-5 tranny to go with it and i would like some information on that as well.

I've been reading on the rebuilds lately and i am considering boring the engine 30 over not only for the power increase but to ensure optimal performance. I am interested in pursing a carb'd approach based on being simpler and cheaper without the need for the computer system. The vortec heads seem to be a big seller and many people have said not the cheap out on the heads. I would like this car to be a daily driver but i dont expect to finish this project on a deadline. I want to spend as much time and care on this project as i possibly can to ensure it is done correctly.

Money is a concern as I don't have all that much but i am willing to put money into it slowly and i would like to know where i should start seeing as i most likely wont have more than 500-1000 to spend at a time. Anyways, i would like to be able to boast i built an engine with the help of my friends here on this board that spews out over 400 horse at the rear wheels, and i know this is no walk in the park to do so.

I was wondering if perhaps it would be a good idea to get the block stroked to 383 while it's in the shop but as i am writing this i am unsure if it's the block or the heads that are machined to obtain this and weather it is a good course of action to take?

I am not a complete newb as i do all the repairs on my car but i've never thinkered with the camshaft, lifters, etc or anything below that. I'm sure if i spend enough time and think things through it shouldn't be too much of a problem but i would like to know from start to finish what i will be looking at here, time wise, money wise and i hope this thread will help other people who are interested in pursing such dreams as i am.

Thank you all, in advance for all the knowledge and help that i am sure you are going to offer.

 

That will be a flat-tappet motor. The factory didn't adopt rollers until several decades after the rest of us, in about 1987.

The block is fine, as long as it doesn't have The Start Problem, or The Lifter Bore Problem; both very very common issues in 1974. Since the cam "went", there's a possibility that it has The Lifter Bore Problem, where the lifters don't point at the cam correctly, because they were incorrectly bored into the block at the time it was originally machined. If it has that problem, it will eat cams no matter what you do.

I wouldn't worry about the factory HP "ratings". It was incredibly dismal. Nobody in his right mind would put that motor back together exactly as it came, and make that little power. Don't even waste a second of mental effort on what any of that was.

Don't buy a stock cam. Especially not for $50. That's $50 down the drain. It's overpriced at $0.50.

As long as the block is good, run it; along with the crank and rods. Get some better heads, and a better cam than the stock "929".

 

A roller cam + lifters can be the solution to the lifter bore problem.
Also, It can be difficult to know in advance whether you have a block with the lifter bore defect. A lot of guys have invested money and time into a block only to find out that it was created terminally ill, and they weren't aware of it until the engine was fired up and the cam turned to scrap.
Unfortunately there isn't a tool for measuring the alignment of the lifter bores in relation to the cam axis.

 

That is exactly correct; however, a "retrofit" roller cam and lifter setup, is on the order of $600-700. Another block is $50. So if you know before you start spending money on a block that it's bad, avoid the block altogether, and try to find one that doesn't eat cams. If you already had this block, and you'd had it bored, 4-bolt splayed caps installed, the oil passages gun-drilled, etc. etc. etc. (in other words, lots of money already tied up in it), and you were building a race motor, then maybe going the roller route as a "repair" option would be viable. But to spend $700 just to fix a block you can replace for $50, doesn't necessarily make alot of sense.

Try to figure out if the block has eaten other cams before. THat's your key to knowing whether it's garbage, before you sink money into it, and then it eats cams for you too. That's no fun at all.

If the lifter bores are damaged in any way, the block is scrap. That means any kind of vertical scartches, or the whole bottom of the bore getting chewed up by a mushroomed lifter foot, or any other visible defect.

It's difficult to measure the lifter alignment, but not impossible. A racing shop that can bore blocks for larger lifters such as Chrysler or AMC, can do that for you. (Yes they actually do that in some racing classes) But, even just measuring that, will cost more than another block.

 

Well thanks for the input so far guys... as far as i know the block had well over 300,000 km and possibly upto 400k on it, which i will be double checking, before the cam went and it was the only cam to go... i thought roller cams and flat tappet were completely different setups. if someone could clarify that for me i would appreciate it.

The block was pulled and still has most of the stuff on it, like waterpump, starter, and anything not nessesary to take off to remove the engine though i haven't seen it for about 6 months i am not exactly sure what is there... these parts would no doubt be an asset to the rebuild i'm sure.

So I'm still unsure if i should use this engine or not.. iknow the guy who is willing to sell it to me is an old loner who drove the truck like it were his grandmother and i think i would feel safer investing in it rather than one from "fast eddy", a pretty crooked junk dealer around here.

Is this lifter bore problem very common? i would like to know what everyone thinks, if i should go with this block or just blindly invest in one from this other crook. if i do get another engine is there a specific type of vehicle i should be getting it from? a year range perhaps? or is a block just a block?

Also nobody has mentioned anything about the 383 question, does it have to do with the heads or the block and is it worth my while? sorry if these questions are ones everyones heard before but i'm still a bit blind to this topic and i'm just trying to get things done right.

thanks guys.

 

About the block defect...
I'll tell you as much as I know which ain't much.
There's a local shop that refuses to guarantee a Chevy rebuild due to their reputation for eating cams. There are other shops that have had little or no problems with it.
One day I noticed that RB mentioned a defect that was apparently present in 70s blocks and it started making sense.
Apparently, there were some blocks that made it through quality control in the 70s with a lifter bore/cam misalignment defect. For a while some shops considered Comp cams to be the culprit, cause Comp came out with a more aggressive flat tappet profile that was especially prone to damage in a block with misalignment problems.
Anyhow if the block that you're looking at ran for as long as it has then it probably doesn't have the defect. But it's a good thing to be aware of, cause if it does have the defect it will eat up a cam pretty quickly.
I have a block that I'm suspicious of and my solution is to check it out periodically, and if a lobe goes flat, retrofit it with a roller cam.