I have a 78 350 complete from carb to oil pan. I am newish to rebuilding engines and figure its time to dig in and learn. I have helped people rebuild engines (mostly diesels) before but mainly as a tool and parts holder/grabber. What is a good rebuild kit? I am looking to do it on a budget but don't know a reasonable limit since I have never done it. I am looking for around 300 HP but mainly want reliability. Any tips, budget guesses, or good rebuild kit ideals would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

Step one, invest in a book

http://www.amazon.com/How-Rebuild-Yo...9638489&sr=1-1


step 2- determine if you want a quality rebuild or just to try and toss some parts at it and see if it works?

Step 3- realize that if you say "quality" then low cost will no longer be in the vocabulary. Unless you know everything about the engine, and it's been recently machined, you're going to have spend $$$ at a machine shop.

 

Thank you for the link. I will definitely be getting a book. I think since this is my first go at it I am going to use this as a learning experience so I'm not going to spend a lot on it. The next engine I will take to the machine shop and drop some money on it. I would hate to spend a bunch on my first build just for me to ruin it all Hahaha.

 

I would look at Northern Auto Parts. They have some good basic rebuild kits.

 

if the intent is just to take the 350, tear it down and put back together as a learning experience then go for it and don't torque down the bolts or buy any parts.

if the intent is to take the engine that you know nothing about it's condition, and plan on dropping it into your 3rd gen then you can't be so cavalier.

It's great to go on-line, look up rebuild kits but you can't assume that all the tolerances are excellent and nothing needs machining. The rebuild kit will be the lowest cost portion of a proper rebuild.
So, if you think you can grab one of those $300 kits, slap it in, and then toss in another $50 in incidentals and you'll have a well running engine that will give you reliability then you are sadly mistaken.

 

Well I have never even thought of taking it apart and putting it back together to learn. Not a bad ideal. I would re-torque everything though to practice that too. I don't expect to just throw a rebuild kit on it and like magic everything be perfect, but I am going to try to reuse as many parts as I can. This is a learning experience so I may not even put it in my 3rd gen. If everything goes back together and it runs I may lower it in. I bought my camaro to wrench on and learn. I expect to be mistaken on a lot of things because I have never done it before! My best learning has been from screwing things up really bad hahaha

 

if your a visual learner, this is a good book that includes a 2 hour dvd that is filmed very well

http://www.amazon.com/Rebuild-Small-...9806552&sr=1-2

the dvd walks you through:
Tear down
Machine Shop involvment
Pre-assembly
Final Assembly