Today I did the impossible. Well that's what everyone told me and they had good reason to. I'm going el cheapo on my 350 rebuild and the number one connecting rod had spun a bearing. So I needed a refreshed crank and a new piston and connecting rod for the number one cylinder.

Because this was el cheapo I didn't pull the drivers side head. I tore everything out the bottom of the block. The problem comes in when I had to stuff the new piston back into the block from the bottom. I never measured the bore distortion at the bottom but I'm sure there was some.

I figured i could use one of those spring steel type ring compressors and then push it up from the bottom. Well of course the ring compressor wouldn't fit in between the main webs. So I put the piston in the bore until the top ring touched. Here comes the crazy part. I used both hands and all 10 fingers to manually compress the rings and push the piston up.

I'm still blown away that I got the piston to fit and I'm amazed at how cheap I am going on this engine. HAHA! Seriously Im not normally this stupid or cheap. Check it out.

 

 

When I read your post, I got thge impression that you were doing #1 ONLY, and with the engine still in the car!

Like you were doing it from under the car, engine still in, laying on your back!

 

^^^^^ Yea I'm going to replace one piston and connecting rod every six months until I've done all eight. LOL!

I guess rebuild was the wrong word to use. I just need this engine to be running while I correctly rebuild the ls1 i want to put in. So every dime I spend on the 350 is one I can't put into the ls1. So if it lasts me another year I will be more than happy.

 

thats crazy i thought of that in my younger years but put it out of my head because everyone said it was impossible just goes to show nothing is impossible good show thanks for the knowledge ps how did you keep you caps straight if i dont mark things i will eventually move them and then im screwed

 

The main caps have an arrow cast into them pointing towards the front of the engine. When I took them out I just laid them next to each other in the order I took them out. Starting with the thrust bearing cap first.

On the rod caps I did the same thing but I laid them down in pairs. Two per main web. You could tell the orientation by matching them to the connecting rod and piston assembly that was still in the block.

 

I sure hope you flushed out the oil galleys. Otherwise you'll be doing that again really soon. if you spun a bearing there will be metal partials all over the motor. Clean it out!

 

^^^^^ I put a new oil filter on. What more do you want? HAHA. Yea I tried to flush the oil galleys. I put some cleaner in and blew them out with an air nozzle from the oil pump feed hole. I'm not sure if that was good enough though. I bought a new oil pump as well so things should be decent.

 

Hope you have the LS1 ready to go soon. . .