Sometime around two years ago, I bought a 350 block from a guy in Phoenix. I was sixteen at the time, and what I wanted to do was just make myself a solid replacement for the tired 305 in my car, and have some nice work to display for the high school car show senior year. So on I went, saving up all the money I could from my deadbeat job (and not eating on some occasions to save the money..you know how the whole no money thing goes.. ). Anyhow, I gathered up a bunch of parts, mostly just grabbing them because I see a cheap deal for them on ebay. Scat 3.75" crank, rods, sfi flexplate, flat tops, all that good stuff. Even managed to grab some Dart Iron Eagles for pretty cheap. So it all went together, and looked decently good too, because the crane 216 single pattern I have looked pretty good on desktop Dyno, giving a power curve that just fell off right around 5400, which was perfect.
So the combo was great and all- then I went to build it with the help of a retired chevy technician I know personally, who offered to give some help here and there. Everything was find until I got to the last rod, then realized that the rod bolt was smacking the crank in two places. Alright, fine, nothing a die grinder can't fix, he said. And so he went about grinding off enough clearance to spin the crank.
Well, some time went by before I got the heads where I would go out to that garage and spray out the engine with brake cleaner in an attempt to clean the parts of any shaved metal from the grinding. No good. No matter how much I cleaned there was always more..so I spent a good long time being so concerned that I ended up tearing it all back down to clean all the parts individually. All was good, so I put it back together.
Then came the day that the entire valvetrain went together. it was only after the heads, rockers, lifters and all went on that I attempted to turn the motor over, and was treated to the nice resistance that comes with a rod hitting the cam. Very wonderful. So I threw my whole balancing job in the garbage when I went to pull the rods, and grind off a little material, just enough to fit them. They still didn't fit, so I advanced the cam 4*, and everything was good.
So then I'm looking at the engine before its about to go into the car, and I notice that there's a little oil hole unplugged under the drivers' side head, that goes straight down to the oil. What the *$#@! why would they put a threaded hole there that you can't put anything in? Whatever. I pulled the head, and then saw that the metal shavings that I had gotten rid of weren't gone, they were just hiding.. So I spent another day cleaning that out before I got the head back on. Good deal, all is well.
At about this time, the morons in charge of the school decided that they felt the car show should be moved from late may to april.. What the heck..as if it wasn't bad enough already, they suddenly decided I had a week to get this thing in the car or I'd miss the show I'd been building this up so hard for.
So the next week was crazy. I think I slept about four hours in those five days, but on thursday everything was finally together, and the PROMinator for my ECM came in that day. (was cool, because as this was an 85, as I forgot to mention, I didn't want to mess with that computer so I decided to do a conversion to speed density while in between engine building sessions).
So everything is good. We go to turn the key, and no good. Injectors not firing. So I call up a local guy from the boards (Techsmurf, freakin genius) and he comes over about 11:30 or so that night to check it out. So well, we tinkered around with it until well into the night, when he finally got the tuning software to communicate with the new PROMinator, and was able to upload the new VATS-disabled, 383-fueled bin. Good deal. And at about 1 am the injectors are firing, I'm getting spark, its all ready for friday.
So friday morning at 4 I wake up to go out and start it up, get to break in the cam, all that stuff. Well, I turn the key, crank crank crank, and the thing backfires all over the place. I think I realigned the distributor to #1 on its compression stroke like three times, but eventually it was okay. By this time it wouldn't have made it to the car show..oh well. At least it'll still start.
So when we finally do get a start, I shut it off immediately, and run out to Wal-mart to grab some new oil and a new filter. The gas had pretty much all washed into the oil pan by now, so I figured it would be good to change the oil.
so we do that, just to be on the safe side, and go to start the car.
Well, it took some messing with the distributor but eventually it started, and man the valvetrain clatter sounded horrible, but I figured it'll be fine cause I can adjust it all later. I set them all to zero lash, and then all just a hair past 1/4 turn more. Worse, there was only one spot where the car would rev. Anywhere in one direction of that and it would knock like crazy, and in the other direction it wouldn't rev up to 2k, where it was being held for the breakin. after a while it seemed like it wanted more timing, and by all means I would have but the stupid plug wire for cyl 7 was touching the header and already stretched as far as it could go. But whatever, it was running. Running real rough, and shooting out smoke, but it was running.
Well, we get about ten minutes into the breakin before the coolant temp creeps up to 220. The fan had already been on full blast for the past couple minutes, and the thermostat had been completely left out because I had been aware beforehand that there was a good chance of overheating.
So then the good part comes. Engine is revved at 2k, oil pressure suddenly drops down to 15psi when the coolant starts getting really hot. So I had the person on the throttle ease off a little to about 1500 to see if the oil pressure drops, and sure enough, it does. I ask her to rev back up to 2k, she does, but the oil pressure stays down at 7-8 psi. I just shut it down when that happened.
So now I'm just kinda sitting here in awe of what a waste of money this could turn out to be. I'm praying I didn't wipe the cam, but I'm sure I probably did because of the noise and how many times we tried cranking it over when it wouldn't start. It was well lubed of course, but I don't know how many times you can turn an engine over before all that stuff is gone. Same goes for bearings. Sooo, I don't know what to do now. I suppose tomorrow I'm going to drain the oil, see what that looks like. If it comes out clean I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do. I just learned today that there are plugs inside the actual motor that plug oil galleries.. like ones under the timing cover. Amazing how of all the books I've read about buildups, not one of them has mentioned anything about this..

So whatever. This project has been a whole PITA, and came out not even worth it. I'm in so much debt right now for finishing this engine..its not even done, so I can't afford a new cam...maybe..maybe bearings, but I doubt that too. I think I'm going to buy something other than clevites. Haven't heard good things about those. So, I can't afford new parts. Definitely can't afford a rebuild. I'm getting ready to go off to college so I need to find a car that I can afford with my like..$300 budget.

Hello Toyota. I heard you don't require retarded plugs all over the engine for no particular reason to make your engines run.

I'm seriously too depressed to think about it much more here. The next few days are just going to be a long nap, unless I work up enough courage to go out and check for damage tomorrow. I'm not even sure what to really do from here, so hopefully its something small. All I know is that I'm sitting here driving a beat up, shattered sunroof, slipping transmission, one-cylinder-down Geo Tracker to work as my car just sits there in the driveway..and somewhere some kid is sitting around with his "best student engine work" trophy that he won for putting an air filter on his honda.

 

wow what a long story.Well all i can say is u cannot have success without failure.So tear the motor apart and investigate where u went wrong.

 

Yeah, the plan is to drain the oil tomorrow to get a rough idea of what's going on. My dad said he checked it and it looked clean, but that was through the dipstick so I'm going to look through the oil from the pan. What I'm hoping is that there's someone around here who could give me some advice in either direction. If the oil's clean I'm not sure what to do..just go in and put in those gallery plugs that I think I'm missing, or pull the pan and check the oil pump screen and stuff anyway. If it was getting oil pressure at startup and still even 8-9 psi at the end, then the pump is working, right? Maybe I can check it by priming it and looking at the gauge. I don't know.

Edit: Oh, and the pressure before it started dropping off was around 30 psi. Don't know if that helps anyone make any guesses.

 

the first sign should hav ebeen that you had to grind the rods thats just terribly wrong


it sucks that nothing works out well one lesson learned not to be a dick sometimes you have to miss an important event to have your car running right, do things right and you will come out happier and with more power than expected...

obviously something went wrong somewhere i would reccomend a machinist to do the work next time they usually only charge about 200 to put together a motor...

 

Won't bother to tell you what you should have done.
You'll find out on your own.
I got bit by the vats too. But it was on a ecm bench so no damage. Happens to experienced people too. Know of two others with lots more knowledge than me who did it recently.

Very nice of the machinist to check with a 17yo if he
wanted the rods clearanced. And did he know he needed to clearance the block. You always have to grind somewhere if even a little bit when going to 383. My rods were supposed to clear no prob out of the box and I got the grnd anyway.
Still hit when I swapped cams. My guess is your hit due to the single pattern cam.
Don't use that machinist again. He has no interest in repeat business.

I don't know how good the engine tech help is here since I come for the DIY Prom board. But Team Camaro or Team Chevelle has great guys for assistance. 3 or 4 machine shop owners on team Chevelle. Most likely get a response on the Performance board.
At least one guy from Phoenix area on it.

Could be a number of things wrong.
Since you had 30# to start, that's ok, but low. should have been in the 40# range. Could be bearing clearance or a loose pump.
Brand wise I'd only use a Melling M55 or M55A high pressure pump. Same one the Z28/vette's use. Bought a Dyna Gear once because they were out of M55A's. Hint hint Took it apart to check the end clearance. All sorts of porosity in the casting and in the sealing surface. Went back and got a melling.
Did you check the end clearance on the pump. Small chance you got a loose one. Did someone verify the rod/main bearing clearances?
If you missed a plug I don't think you would have got 30#'s. But I've never done it to know. Must have missed the extra parts laying there......
You may get lucky and it's something stuck in the pump bypass.

Did you set the valves correctly?
Hard to mess up if when on the same cylinder you do it with EOIC.
Adjust the exh when the intake valve is almost closed and the intake valve when the exh is just opening. Do them in the firing order.
Only doing one cylinder at a time will remove chances to get on the wrong valve. You can also do all the exhaust then all the intake to cut down on crank revolutions.
You also should have someone show you on the first valve so you get the feel of the pushrod clearance going to zero.
Lots of people go to far and break stuff.
You may or may not have wiped the cam. You'll need to check the clearance on all the valves to see. Or do an inspection.

Nothing wrong with clevites if used in the correct application.

To set the dist, you leave the motor at 6* BTDC on the compression stroke. Can tell that by both rockers being even. Then mark #1 plug position on the dist base and line the rotor up with that mark when it is installed. I've heard there is a little mark inside a stock 8 pin hei dist on the p/u coil to indicate 6*. Never looked though.

Ebay name brand parts should always be checked over closely.
Lots of seconds get disposed of that way. Heard of oval rod journals floating around about a year ago. Eagle was most often mentioned. Don't think Scat had a problem.

Did the machinist check the heads for proper spring pressure?
If it's a single spring, you should be fine. May not rev, but not too much pressure. I've done the setup on my last two sets of heads and ran into all sorts of problems. Wasn't me, asked around and it is a frequent occurance. Note name brands such as compcams are not insurance in this case. A good shop just takes care of it.

How did you check cam to rod clearance? I used a tywrap on every lobe and turned the motor back and forth. Yes takes lots of time. But I know I have .060 clearance on every rod/lobe.

If you need a gasket kit, get a whole rebuild set from summit.
Cheaper route since Hipo Felpro head gaskets are 65 or so a set by themselves.

For books, the "How to Hotrod a SBC" is very informative.
It's only bias is toward stock parts. And it is a bit dated in it's technology. But it has a very wide coverage for the sbc and is an excellent guide for a beginner. More than this goes here and gets tightened to this torque. Most people who own it, read it several times.

If you need a new cam, there are better ones available. Not that your cam choice was bad. Pretty close actually. But if running single exh, you really want a dual pattern cam.
Based on your 216 energizer pick.
I'd go with the new Lunati Voodoo 256 hyd cam. Or one up from it. For testimony, all I can say is go to the Team chevelle board and search on UDharold. He's the guy who designed it.
The Lunati ads say 30yrs experience went into them. True, all from one guy. Not 3 or 4 like other places. He's one of the guys who started Compcams. Comp ads likes to say no secret formulas in their new ads LOL. Talking about Harold again. He has a computer program he wrote to help him calculate the lobe profile based on intended use. He has 15k mile before adj solid cam lobes and BBC Solid roller 24hr at Lemans winners.

Hope things aren't as bad as you think. Don't get discouraged.
Just take a week,or a month off and then get back at it.

 

Man, I hope nobody is naive enough to take you seriously.




Anyway, thanks for the suggestions, Z69.
The clearancing wasn't a problem. Did it myself, measured everything. Clearances were all good after the fact. After which, I disassembled it to make sure everything was okay, before putting it all back together.
I don't have any idea why single pattern makes any difference. I don't think it'll hit only because both lobes are the same. That doesn't make much sense.
I know the clearances are good. Plastigaged them on first build, then decided second time around to be safe so everything was measured and such. All within specs. Actually I do have a Melling M55A in there. My plan is to replace it with the stock pump if I pull the pan because people have been telling me it should be fine anyway. The particular motor is going to be low-revving, so I don't know if I need too much pressure.
The springs are not binding or anything, and no they're not single. I don't see how much of an effect that has on oil pressure, though..Adjusting valves wasn't the problem.
I don't know if there's anything wrong with the cam. From what I saw the oil is still clean. I'm going to dump it tomorrow to get a closer look at it, but I was under the assumption that you'd see metal in the oil if you wipe a lobe? Still I doubt that happened. Could be though.
Either way I haven't decided yet if I'm going to try again or not. I've done searches and every time this has come up with someone, someone else has said to check it with a mechanical gauge. I may do that because they all had the same problem; decent pressure until it warms up, then it drops.
I won't let it run for long if I do that. If its still bad I'm going to pull the pan and the timing cover to check stuff out.

By the way, the guy wasn't a machinist, just some guy showing me how to fit rings and that sort of thing. As for the "extra parts", the block was all retarded after I got it back from the REAL machine shop, like only one freeze plug was missing and only one oil plug was in..stupid things like that. The machine shop I did go to sucked though, had to have another machine shop fix the problem when the first one returned the block to me, and then gave me the main bearing caps they pulled, and mixed up without bothering to mark them.