Well...here's the story about why my newly rebuilt 350 is on it's death bed.

About a week ago I (correctly) put a Edelbrock Performer RPM intake on my car with new gaskets and all. I've been driving it for a few days and realized I was leaking oil from the back of the intake. I checked the oil and it was a little low so i topped it off. Checked it yesterday and it was a little below full so I left it alone. Well.....

After I got of work at O'Reilly's tonite, I went to my freind's house to help him work on his '95 Camaro that he is putting a carbed 350 in. He just built his motor, and it is pretty much exactly like mine. Knowing that, we go decided to ahead and put his carb on my car to get it adjusted so he wouldn't have to worry about it during his "break-in".

Well most of us know that when you adjust a carburetor you are gonna have to rev it up, and your gonna take it down the road and "get on it" to see how the 4-barrels act and all. So we did and got it running real good. Well, on my way home I noticed that my oil pressure was reading lower than usual (about 35) and then it got worse (15) and I started to hear a knock. I made it home taking it real easy on her, and thats how she sits in my yard now. You can't hear the knock at idle, only when you hold it at about 1500 rpms or more...anyways-

I have two choices:

Rebuild it and bore it .030 over; turning the crank .010 and putting it back together.

-or-

Rebuild it and make it a 383 with this 400 crank that I have lying around.

Let me know your thoughts guys...

Matt

 

sounds like you spun a bearing,might be able to just polish the crank and replace the bearings?
a 383 will need different pistons,but if you get an internally balanced crank at least you could re use the balancer and flywheel/flexplate.
havent got my 383 running yet but i'm really close!if you do need to rebuild and can stand a bit worse mileage,go with the 383!
Eric B

 

how about option 3? figure out what the problem really is instead of guessing and go from there.

 

I agree, if it was a good engine otherwise, then find out first whats up, then look at fixing it.
It does sound like a bearing has spun, but thats not the end of the world.

 

Loss of oil pressure isn't the proper time to limp a car home.

 

Why wouldn't any one else think that it was a bad oil pump, the oil pump came loose and strated to suck the bottom of the pan or something like that?

 

All depends on how good someones description of a noise is.

 

first thing i'd suspect is the sender, or gauge for low PSI readings

 

Even if it was, you still need to figure out how much other damage was caused by the lack of lubrication.

 

Not if the engine started to knock after low readings...

 

Try taking off a valve cover and seeing if you get any oil at the rockers, that could check the pump, and gauge and other stuff at the same time. Wouldn't it?

 

Screw the dead 350.

If you've got a 400 crank just laying around then buy ede's 400 block. It's for sale in his signature. Since everyone loves 350s, you should have no problem selling your bottom end to re-coup the loss.

NO REPLACEMENT FOR DISPLACEMENT!!

 

So theres no oil in it? or there is oil?

-- Joe

 

he can use the 350 pistons with the shorter rods. that's how alot of guys used to make 383 sbc (sbc 400 crank and rods with 350 pistons) often it is called a poor mans 383 now. not worth to time and money given the price you can buy the right crank rods and pistons for now

I would tear into the 350 and see what happened

 

The first thing you need to do is diagnose the problem.The second is to find out why it happened.Unless you were brutal to it,it should not have grenaded from "getting on it".Something else is awry.If it's knocking,the chances of polishing the crank are pretty slim IMO.
I'm also a 400 fan,but I'd not mess with using a 400 crank for a 383 these days.There are too many high quality cranks out there for too cheap to grind down a stock crank and deal with all the balance issues,etc.

Bottom line,find out what went wrong,if it's a simple fix,there's no need to build an entirely different combo.But whatever the cause,learn from it.I honestly feel that if this is a fairly fresh engine,something wasn't right to begin with.

 

Ya...would be the most reasonable thing to do on an oil leaking engine...

 

Hey guys...I haven't been on here much lately, but I just wanted to say that this motor is still running....Changed the oil to 10-40 and I've been driving the car ever since...It still has a slight knock though.......oh well....maybe when I get some spare cash I will fix it good...lol

-Matt

 

I drove an engine like that, about 10 years ago. It had been run low on oil and had a slight knock after oil was added (didn't belong to me at the time). Of course, it gave up at the worst possible time - when I was supposed to pick up my mother-in-law from the airport (no mother-in-law jokes here, she is a great lady and not one I would want to abandon anywhere, let alone at the airport).

Yours is going to do the same someday. The sooner you get it fixed, the better.