How hard would it be for a novice to rebuild an engine? I know they have books/videos on how to rebuild the 700R4 and I have thought about doing that, but I heard that building an engine is easier than rebuilding a transmission...so my question is how "easy"?? I saw a video on ebay on rebuilding small block chevy engines, and there are countless books on the subject also. I am mechanically inclined but I just want to know what I'd be getting into. I'd like to save money to do it myself also.

 

partly depends on your skill level. no real tricks to it but knowledge and experience does come into play. also having the correct tools will go along way towards doing the job right. all in all i think it'd be better for you to help someone that knows what he's doing the first time instead of jumping in with both feet, not that alot of people haven't did it that way.

 

Well in my books if you have to ask how hard it is then maybe you should get someone else to do it. or maybe have a spare engine on standby

It also depends how far your going into the build, If you plan on stroking a 350 to a 383 or something similar dont even try. Other than that just remember how stuff came apart and maybe take some pictures of things to help you out in the reassemble stage.

 

I rebuilt my first engine myself back in about 1987, it was a 318 in my Dart, I just had a simple book with torque specs. and a few pictures. I just paid attention to how it came apart, took it to get bored out and the crank turned, I put it back together and drove it for 50,000 miles with no problems, then took it out and sold it to a friend so I could buy a bigger 360 engine to build for the Dart, the 318 is still running to this day.

 

the only reason I ask is because of cost factor. If I do it myself I could probably get around to doing it cheaper, however as you pointed out, not having done this before probably isn't a good idea. Second, I have a SBC 400. I'd like to keep it, but when you probably factor in the cost of having someone else do it I could probably get a crate engine cheaper. I've thought about maybe selling the engine but I don't know if it would be worth it. It runs strong, but I don't know what was put into it and when so now that I have it I think rebuilding it would be a good idea so I know it is in sound condition. I really want to get on with redoing the interior but everyone always says make sure the engine and drivetrain is good before doing body/interior work.

 

Ya why have a nice interior if you cant drive the car Definately spend your money on drivetrain/suspension first.

 

the first engine i ever built is the one that is in my current daily driver. i built it seven years ago and it still runs good. of course, i'm still making mods to it also. before this, all i had ever done was read a book about it and do tune-up and maintenance to cars. then i learned to rebuild 700's and 350's.

 

Another option is to let a shop put the bottom end together and you can put the heads,intake,distributor, water pump,and carb/tpi on.

 

yah, that may be the route to go. I can put all the other stuff on myself, no problem.