Hey guys I have gotten my hands on a 400 bored .040 over. The engine chewed up a cam and a few journals are screwed, I have another stock crank ground .010 under and I'm wondering if I can drop in the .010 under crank without having to balance the entire rotating assembly again (of course after I clean everything up and make sure there's no more metal shaving in it). I don't plan on high rpms nothing more than 5500 with a few 6k every now and then. Also can I use a stock 400 oil pan from a chevelle on it without hitting the k member. Thanks in advance.
:note this is a cheap build that's why I'm asking.

 

"Can"? Yes. Absolutely. Of course.

Is it "A Good Idea"? Another matter altogether.

Feeling lucky today? That's the better question to ask. I wouldn't do that.

Which means, a trip to the quarter car wash after disassembly and the removal of the cam bearings and ALL oil passage plugs (1 under the rear main cap about 1" up into the block, 3 ea at the front & rear of the cam, 1 above the oil filter) with acoupla cans of Engine Degreaser (diesel fuel in a spray can) and your rifle pistol & shotgun brushes through EVERY oil passage (3 front-to-rear, 5 bottom-to-top through the cam bearings, 1 bottom-to top behind the dist, a couple around the oil filter) and a toothbrush shaped small wire brush in the grooves behind the cam bearings. Do it early in the morning on a nice warm sunny day and let it sit out in the sun to dry. Put transmission fluid or similar on the cyl walls and bearing journals and lifter bores as soon as all those surfaces are dry enough.

This is ESSENTIAL, because metal shavings don't dissolve in the machine shop's tank. ANY metal chips remaining in the block will have ONLY ONE WAY to go after you reassemble it: which is, RIGHT STRAIGHT DIRECTLY INTO your new bearings and rotating parts.

Then take it back to the machine shop for installation of cam bearings. Put the plugs in yourself, and DO NOT FORGET the one behind the rear main cap. Drill about a #70 hole in the 2 plugs on the sides of the cam in front of the block. Use screw-in plugs, if the block isn't already equipped for those, tap them to ¼" pipe BEFORE the rifle brush process that removes metal chips.

Every build is "cheap". Quite often, SO "CHEAP" that the builder gets to do it AGAIN, and spend all the same money AGAIN, PLUS the money that should have been spent in the first place so that it would only have had to be done once. Don't be one of "those" people.

Yes the Chevelle pan will fit. Be aware though, a stock oil dipstick for that motor will not fit the stock exh manifolds for one of these cars. Headers of course cure that problem.

 

If the first crank was balanced I would surely have the second one balanced as well rather then run it with a vibration and have to disassemble and have the rotator balanced.

The block should be striped and cleaned.

If the oil filter Adapter was plugged nothing would have got to the bearings !!!

If your running a flat tappet cam go with a P55 cam core and if your using HYD lifters go with the ones from GM with the steel bottoms.

 

Thanks for the help guys, sadly I don't think I'm going to keep it, I took the heads off today and there's some damage in cylinder #7. Thankfully I got it for pretty cheap. I still have s 400 block but now I have to get it bored and decked. I also plan on using a roller camshaft to make my life a little easier.

 

Yeah that's messed up, with a capital F. No wonder you got it cheap. It's not a motor, it's just a block core with a bunch of extra garbage inside it weighing it down. It needs a total rebuild from the ground up.