So recently me and my uncle took off the valve covers on my 350 sbc. Once removed we noticed that some of the roller rockers weren't hiting the valve, but actually hitting the spring. So we adjusted the rockers with the car running to get an accurate gauge at how to tight it had to be. All of the rockers where nice and snug, but once we shut the car off. One of the rods bent . After looking some more we noticed that it looked liked the guides where rubbing against the rods. So to make a long story short, we loosened the the guides and removed the rockers. We touched on of the valve springs and just fell off, it had no compression o.O

So what would you do my uncle says i need to get the heads fixed and hes saying that costs about 800$ a head.

This was my DD, but i just bought a Malibu.

Keep in mind i am 18 with a full time job, and part time college student. So what would you do, would you sell the car, and buy another one or fix the current car.

Shes got a lot of body work to be done, and a lot of cut wires.

Really need some advice on this one

 

Depends what needs doing , all you have described so far is just a broken valve spring

For the $1600 cost your uncle ( you need a new uncle ...) is talking about you could buy a set of brand new Hi perf aftermarket heads way beyond your needs in a DD

 

800$ a head?You can buy a low mile lt1 for that much around here. Do that, it's the best thing i ever did to my car. For 1600 you could probably find an ls1 T56 combo. But do what you want, but if it was my car i would be pissed if someone ****ed with my car and told me 800$ a goddamn head.

 

Just remember everyone has that dumb *** uncle that stays drunk and thinks he knows what he's talking about. But doesn't know ****.

 

What would be the cost of a new valve spring, I asked for his help since he has been working on cars for awhile.

 

but why would the rollers be on top of some of the valve springs :S

 

If you replace one valve spring you will replace them all, and when you adjust your rockers there is a certain way to do it right, and if it's rubbing spring you over reved hard and floated your valves. That's my guess without being there you have to be more specific.

 

this is the picture of the valve where the valve spring, is missing.

When i mean that the roller isnt on valve, it was resting on the valve spring. Also that push rod that got bent, didnt move after it was bent.

 

I don't see a problem , the valve hasn't dropped into the cylinder wrecking the engine
Was the spring that came out broken?

Take a pic from a better angle showing the rockers touching the springs

Like

 

The spring just popped off with no force. It just kinda fell off

Sadly its dark out now :S i only have a few pictures the i can see if i have a better one

 

Think about it.
If the rocker was pushing down on the spring retainer on top of the spring instead of the valve it may have
pushed it down far enough so it was possible for the keepers that lock the retainer to the valve stem to pop out .
Exactly the same way you push down on the retainer to compress the spring so you can remove the locks when
you take the valve springs out

At this point with nothing obviously broken , I would be just putting a set of new valve springs in
which can be done without taking the heads off if you are good ( after you find the 2 valve locks missing from
that loose spring ! ) and then be concentrating on the rocker alignment problem

Send the $1500 change from what your uncle said you needed to spend to me .

 

Looks more serious than that. The tip of that valve don't look too healthy. And if it didn't drop down with the spring off, it's probably stuck in the guide

I wouldn't shoot your uncle yet, I think he's right about taking the heads off, but wrong on the cost

 

When we removed the one valve spring there was no keeperb

 

If that cylinder isn't stuffed with compressed air, rope, or a spark plug wire - something is wrong. Without some type of support that valve SHOULD have fallen into the cylinder. The head should be pulled JUST to inspect the piston and the cylinder walls for damage,.... but it will HAVE to get pulled to replace the bad parts and make repairs regardless.

I just had a single new valve guide installed on a head...... the machine shop charged $60. In your case I'd also be sure to inspect ( possibly correct ) the valve seat too. Also had to buy a couple intake valves recently and they were about $20 each. A new set of stock spring will run you under $40. Add to the list of repairs about $40 worth of new gaskets and sealer. That adds up to >$200 in parts.

If it's work you can do yourself than it's not going to be expensive to overcome. You could easily buy additional parts in advance as insurance and still spend WAY under $400 to repair. ( buying a full set of valves for $80 "just in case" others are bent, or expanding the repairs to include new valve seals or other parts while your working on it for example. ) If you've got to pay for the labor expect the price to EASILY double.

FYI: If you don't want to deal with a machine shop,... I just Found a replacement 350 head on FeePay for $200 delivered ( must return core ) Item 170913249301

Hope that helps in some way !

 

Tip next to it looks worn down to the keeper it will fail too.
Something wasnt put together right.
If you can do it on the cheap fine otherwise sell the car take a loss and move on if it needs all the work you say it does. Let someone else "save it" while you get something more sound to play with.

 

The answer is obvious , You should do what you think is best

Now that we've got the "politically correct" BS answer outta the way , lets look at this objectively . You already now have a car to drive with the Malibu , so transportation is no longer an issue nor requirement for your thirdgen . So , first and foremost , HOW bad is this bodywork ? Are we talkin rot , or just a bit of parking lot rash . Cause if it's in any way rotted , forget it , you really don't sound like you want to get that far into it and I don't blame ya one bit . Rot is the single worse thing next to major accident damage to fix cause once started it just keeps coming back in place after place till ya give up in frustration having $pent mad $$$ chasing the rot monster through the car . Assuming it ain't rotted , do you have a place to park this car while you slowly restore it (if that's the plan for keeping it) ? If you do have a place for this restoration , does the car mean enough to you to want to spend the money you'll need to spend restoring it ? If you can give honest answers to yourself as to those questions you'll quickly know which is the better choice for you . Remember , there are no right or wrong answers here , just whether you want to take on this responsibility at this time . If yes , Great ! I wish you much enjoyment with your restoration . If not , Great ! sell it to someone who IS looking for a thirdgen to restore and maybe revisit the idea after college , when ya makin the mad buck$ , and buy one that needs NO restoring .

Your call , Good luck with it

 

Thankfully no rot, tbh the most worring thing is the random wires. Body work doesn't scare me to much, Hopefully ill be able to post more pictures tomorrow.

I love the car, what scares me is the unknown.

my options atm are
1. Take all the good parts out of the car, and scrap the rest and buy another one.
2. Drive the Malibu for awhile and fix the engine and while doing so do the body work when cash is light.
3. Sell the car with the parts and invest in a better thirdgen.

Atm option 2 is looking the best imo, because even if I buy another thirdgen who knows the condition it might be in

 

I got some pictures for you guys today. This is the car, these are some of the issues i am worried about







Those are some of the issues, the body work doesn't scare me, but the hatch not lining up is kinda strange to me. The hatch also doesnt pull down like it should. I have tried a 2nd motor aswell, but getting back to topic



This is the rocker not resting on the valve, but instead on the spring

 

you call that needing "body work?" that's all minor.. hardly anything even an enthusiast wouldnt be able to fix..

here is one question maybe I didn't see the answer to..

how did the car drive BEFORE you F'ed with it? was it knocking? did you get on it? does it shake violently at any speed? how is the idle? can you smoke the tires? is this the car you want? is this car hard to find? what was your investment?

you are giving yourself options but haven't answered any of these questions..

 

Like i said the body work isnt horrible. Before the car always made a weird noise. Almost like a tap near that spot with the problem valve. That's why we took the valve covers off

 

I would keep the body and scrap the motor it's probably been beat to hell anyway worst case scenario. Or you can find some dirt cheap swirl port 350 heads 50$ that will keep the car running for the time being, i have a hunch that's probably what's on it now.

I have seen people buy stock 350 Thirdgens and get overwhelmed by the low end torque, after the seller had them believe that the motor was built more then it really was. I'm not saying you don't have a 383 i'm just saying they were going for that sleeper look.

 

Ya not a bad idea, Recently i started ripping the engine out. Removed the headers, alt, radiator, power steering, carb, intake manifold.

Hopefully ill beable to take the engine out soon, while i have it out ill check on everything else.

Also found out today my rear is a 10 bolt with disc brakes, guy said supposedly has a 373 gear ratio in the back.

 

So i finally got the engine out today. Took me alittle bit, and thank god i had some help from a friend but this is what i got



Also noticed my battery compartment is horriably is in really bad condition.



Any suggestions for someone who has no idea how to weld to fix something like this.

 

Get yourself a drill, a spot-weld drill bit / large drill bit, and a wire wheel. If you use a spot-weld bit you can leave the lip of sheet metal 'behind' the battery tray intact - if you use a drill bit then you will have a number of holes to fill later.







Wire wheel THE HELL out of the edges of the battery tray. Once you can ID all the spot welds,...... drill them all out. Get a bone-yard to cut out the battery tray from a junk/wrecked thirdgen and install it in the empty space. You might get lucky and find someone in the classifieds here that will cut this piece out of a parts cars for you.

When the rusty old tray is removed wire wheel, scrape, sand, and chemically treat all the metal in this area. Be sure to spray a SEALER on any bare metal before installing a replacement tray. you DON'T want rust forming in between the layers of sheet metal !

So you don't know how to weld - no problem. I'll bet you can handle a grinder !?!?! Since the 'seems' are lap-joints the 2 layers are simply laid over each other before they would get welded. Use a number of small screws and carefully place the replacement tray in the proper location and screw it down along all the edges. (don't use any more screws than needed) Place the screws close enough together so that all overlapping areas are tightly fit to each other and only set the screws in about 1/2 way (unless you NEED to fully torque them to get the 2 layers to fit tight ). Once your finished, grind all the screw heads off; but don't grind them too low or the 2 layers might "pop" apart again ! This operation should allow you to finish this part of your project and drive the car normally until you find a decent welder & pay him weld it in properly.

You might have acted just-in-time,........ Looks like you *might* still be able to save the rusted areas of the strut tower sheet metal !!

 

I picked up a new battery tray in fleabay for like $40 it fit well and didn't have over 20 years of battery fumes eating away at it.

Edit: Looked around for one, only can find one for a passenger side on ebay and classic industries. You may be able to find a left side with some more searching than I did

 

Anyway i can tell if their have been any modifications to the bore. I took the oil pan off, this is the result.

 

Also thanks for the information, going to follow your instructions step by step
thanks a ton