Hey guys, I'm wanting to buy an engine from my best friend. He rounded two lobes off the cam after 1000 miles, it was by shear stupidty too. He thought the rockers were tapping, so he kept tightening them. He then firgured out that they were tapping on the valve covers! Any how, end result two cam lobes gone, on a brand new short block. He wants to sell me the engine for a reasonable price. And I know whats in this engine, we built it together and its got some very good parts in it. Not to mention its a 327 bored .030, which was a ton of fun in the S-10 we stuffed it in.
But I'm wanting to know what do I need to do to it for repair, besides replacing the cam and lifters. Does the engine need to be completely torn down and sent off to get cleaned up by the machine shop, reassembled with new cam, crank, and rod bearings; new oil pump and pickup, and new timing chain? Or should I just replace cam lifters, oil pump, rod, and main bearings and clean all the surfaces good and sinch the bottom end up. Going the less involved route I was thinking I could install a FilterMag on the oil filter to capture what cam material is left floating around. Or if anyone has a completely different idea please let me know. Thanks for the help guys, I always appreciate this boards suggestions!

 

Your definately best off tearing it down to nothing and cleaning it up before you reassemble it. thats alot of metal floating around in the engine, just hope that it didnt eat up all your bearings!

 

Yea, chances are all the bearings need to be replaced.

 

You should know!

 

i would clean it..slap a new cam, adjust it like it should be, if the rocker are hittin the covers gettin taller covers would fix that.

 

Did everybody miss the fact that it's a 327? If it is, it should be missing the front accessory mounting holes on the heads. I'd cough twice and pass. By the time you fixed it right (completely torn down, sent off to get cleaned up by the machine shop, reassembled with new cam, lifters, crank, rod & main bearings, new oil pump & pickup, and new timing chain) you would be better off starting with a stock 350 that doesn't have a ruined cam from a junk yard.

 

Just because it is a 327 doesnt mean that it still has the old style heads without accessory holes, in fact odds are, it doesnt.

 

If the engine is out might as well pull the pan and do a quick inspection on the rod and main bearings. If they look clean zip it up and run it if not then you know what to do. Just curious though how is the oil pressure at this point compared to shortly after break in? Sometimes you can get real lucky.

 

The heads on this engine are aftermarket, they have the accessory holes. Its a large journal crank 3.25" stroke. I don't know about the oil pressure right now. Before we pulled the engine from the S-10, when the cam was bad it was 50-60 psi , at this point with a new cam I have no idea. My buddy already pulled the pan and checked the bearings. Both the rod and crank bearings looked fine, no sign of burrs, cuts, knicks or anything in the babbit material. I'm seriously considering just replacing the oil pump and pick up, and running it. He told me when he pulled the pan that there was about a tablepoon of metal in the sump, I don't know how big the debris was though.
Would it be absolute best to pull the crank and put new main and rod bearings in and not worry about the cam bearings? Then replace the oil pump and pickup, and during this clean the inside of the case with brake cleaner? Is brake cleaner ok, any other suggestions? Wipe it down, torque it, and run it.

 

No, absolute best would be to tear the whole thing down, hot tank it, clean the oil passages, grind the crank if it needs it, and put all new bearings in it.