Ok so lets start off with this is the first time ive ever been in an engine before, and also im trying to save as much money as possible because I really dont have it to spend..

Its a used, unknown amount of miles, 350 4-bolt gm crate motor, that sat around without heads or an intake for a long time but apparently was well taken care of regardless.. I tore it down obviously because I wanted to make sure there wasnt any crap in there, which there was, but in my amatuer opinion it looks to be in great shape.. theres a few small spots of surface rust on the bottom of a couple cylinder walls but otherwise it looks nice

I kinda figured at bare minimum I was going to be replacing bearings, since even if there good why not right?? or wrong?
Piston rings?? How do you decide whether or not to replace them

I need to find out what I can measure/check myself, and how, so I can decide what needs to be replaced, I dont even know the proper way or what tool to use to measure the bores.. would be good to know if its been bored out or not already (i need to pickup a good book on engine (re)building)

Block
Parts

 

Bearings you can pretty much see by the wear pattern. Can't see clearly from you photos, but if the rod & main bearings look like what can be seen of the cam bearings, they should be fine. Hopefully you kept the main caps and lifters in order.

Rings, put them in the bore and measure the end gap. The rebuild book you get should tell you how to do that. A quick deglazing of the bores will get rid of the surface rust and help the rings reseat.

 

Ring kits are cheap just replace them, you will get new bearings as well. I sure hope you marked your pistons so you know where they go.

 

Bearings

Yep everythings in order/labeled, thats all I have of the cam, no lifters or pushrods
I actually knew about the piston ring end gap, though I wouldnt know what size gap I was trying to acheive.
Any recommendations on books to pickup?

 

Try "Small Block Chevy Engine Buidups" you can get it at wal-mart for under 15 bucks the staff from hot rod magazine wrote it and has good info, for the cheapest or should I say inexpensive parts try this site texasperfprmanceproducts.com or Hotrodsusa.com Have fun with your build let us know how the build goes and especially if you have extra parts to sell. Good Luck Bowtie

 

go to barnes and noble book store and buy 'how to re-build chevy small blocks', its a great and comes with a 2 hr dvd: intro, tear down, machine shop, rebuild, parts and tools... i watched it four times already and im ready to do mine. i was scared at first til i read and watched that dvd. amazing!!! tells you everything u need to know to do it and how...

 

I would recommend you buy an inexpensive rering kit with stock size rings & bearings, a new oil pump, and new cam & lifter set with new timing set. Plus gaskets, of course.

 

summit has rebuild kits like that, without the big parts like pistons, for a really good price. I have that "how to rebuild your SBC" by Vizard. I like it. A feeler gauge is going to be your most used tool. get some plastigauge too. If you feel up to it, buy a set of micrometers, and a bore measuring tool. But that's expensive, and if you're only going to use it once....

oh! paint the block when you have it bare! it'll look way better that way.

 

I'm rethinking my recommendation. You really need to verify the bore and journal sizes before doing anything. You could take the block and crank to any competent machine shop and they'd bring out their micrometers and do that for you.

The red grease on the cam and lifter bores makes me think this engine may have been rebuilt.

 

Yeah thats my big concern at the moment to figure out what size everything is so I even know what to order.
I know I probably should bring it to a shop and have it all inspected and cleaned up and all, which I might end up doing anyways but this wont be my last rebuild, how much is a good bore measuring tool? I have the feeler gauges, but only a 1" micrometer I believe.. plastigage thats for figuring out what size bearings to go with right?
Going to check out those books later, thanks for the advice guys

 

You can get a usable Chinese made bore gauge on eBay for about $39. You'd need a micrometer in the same range as the bore you're measuring to calibrate it, too.

Plastigauge is for checking bearing clearances while you're assembling after you've already figured out what size bearings to use. I don't like the stuff, personally.

 

Wow. Considering how long that sat I'm surprised.

It had new lifters and such on it a while back. I would have expected the bearingslook a little better. IIRC the PO had told me ~30K miles. :shrug: It did well on the compression test when the heads were on it so I'd say as mentioned break any glaze, throw on some new rings and bearings and have some fun with it... but make sure you get some smaller chamber heads for it, IIRC the slugs were 20 in the hole and they were dished as well. Never got around to throwing the dial indicator on that cam either so you might want to have that measured as well to see if you need a better one.

How's the rest of the project going? I'm down to about a dozen boxes and haven't come across the thing yet.

Five7, the pink stuff is assembly lube. (Red Line to be exact.)

 

The bottoms of the bores still have cross-hatch. How about the top ends? If so, there might not be much (if any) wear.

If you really don't want to haul it all off to a machinist, pull the rings off, place them squarely in a bore, and check the end gaps. If you can read any markings on the pistons, you'll have a better chance of knowing what is installed. With that information, you can usually determine a correct ring end gap.

Slide a piston with no rings into a bore and check skirt clearances at various points along the bore with a feeler guage (you'll need between 0.001 and 0.005 feelers). . If it's consistent, and the ring gaps are in spec, AND you want a budget rebuild instead of a 6,500 RPM, 450 HP weekend warrior, just assemble it. Those rods aren't going to make a high RPM screamer anyway. I've seen a lot of cheap-and-dirty rebuilds run in daily drivers with some very loose tolerances, and run for a very long time.

Another (better) option is to borrow a set of telescope guages or an inside mic and measure bores at several points along their lengths. Measure at 90º increments to check for bore roundness. Mic the crank, both mains and rod journals, then compare to standard specs. If you're within reason, get a set of standard bearing shells or 0.001" undersize if appropriate, and assemble.

You'll still want to clean thoroughly before assembling, but the engine looks like it was clean and fairly fresh.

Bearings? The only bearings I can see are cam bearings. How do the bearings look? Piston skirts?

Not to switch gears too much, but is that a Graco or Shopnet box below the workbench?

 

The vette is a shell, the body is coming off as soon as I build something to put it on.. the engine is going to be kind of sad at first, but its my first build and I just want to get some experience before I go blowing wads of cash on something ill screw up.. I was going to throw the 083 heads and tbi setup on it for now also because I want to get into EFI tuning so I figure its a good enough place to start.

They all have cross-hatch all the way through still, I figured that was a good sign. (oh and the link to the bearings are in my 2nd post)

Im thinking about buying one of those cheapo bore mic's like Apeiron suggested, and a set of micrometers

For the cam I was also thinking about retrofitting a roller cam in, though I dont know what that involves or how much it will cost

I had to go out to the garage after you mentioned that, if thats a brand name, no.. and its some kind of PH tester/alarm thing... one of many electronic gizmos my father scrounged up at work for parts no doubt

 

I don't think the engine has even been run much and none since the cam was put in. No color on the piston skirts. Any possibility of a pic of the top of a piston? It looks like an "unfinished project" motor to me. Sounds like it may just need to be put back together with bearings and gaskets.

 

That was about my guess when I saw the first couple photos.