Hey guys sad story but Im coming to a point where I cant seem to get the joy of driving this summer street cruiser because Im always fighting a battle of the infamous money pit a car turns into after a few years.

Since swapping over to this motor I had nothing but headaches and I kinda want to yank it out and start over.Here is the run down.The car runs as she sits and I got a common bolt on setup in my sig.Ive only put on maybe 1000km in the 2 years of having it and it now smokes what seems to be from oil and a major loss in power across the entire power band. Ive had countless timing issues and snags from bolt dist hold downs,bad esc module.tried setting base timing and sometimes its happy at 15* then feels super strong at 30-33* BASE??? Ive had bad cts sensors and were replace,new map sensor,iat sensor,new iac,new pvc,have a kn breather on the pass valve cover,new fuel pump 255lph,new regulator and diaphram,new tps sensor,timing chain and cover were all new before installing,same with the cam and I no longer have the specs but it was a performance cam and its lopey for sure!

I had a 3 week run of the car liteeraly spitting starters out and snapping the casings lol..by starter #8 i found the perfect shim and bracket with heavy duty starter that worked flawless.I have corvette l98 heads and now seem to leak oil somehow which cant be seen only during high rpm.Had my trans rebuilt with shift kit vette servo etc and 2800 stall put in and it leaks a drop of fluid per day and now I seem to only have first gear and reverse :O I wind out first and the car feels like it shifts out of first and then...nothing..just revs to the heavens and scared me when i found out the hard way!Luckily the tranny shop will cover the repair since as I said..only a 1000k ..if that since I put this all together.Ive had many mechanics look at it and scratch their heads and I get a lists of maybess..maybe this is wrong or thats wrong..replace this replace that.Some things did help and being my first motor swap i counted on a few small details but the motor didnt seem to last long and I dont know it is electrical..on a scanner everything is within reason..not rich or lean,no codes etc.but no power..gotta coast it into throttle to break the tires loose now..at first it would rip up to third and id crap my pants..now 305tbi cars would stomp me.I got over 5 grand into this project over the past 2 yrs that spent more time in my driveway than the highway or beating up hondas lol Needless to say..something is wrong and i dont think Im capable of finding it and I want to get rid of this motor.Any suggestions or anyone looking to rebuild a 79 block?i want a fuel injected 350..maybe 383 and make reliable 400hp at the fly or very close and thought this would get me there with a few more bolt ons..but the motor has to run good to go further up on mods

 

any chip work done to it?..Your timing should match the chip.6 degrees advanced if its stock.

 

hey daz long time no see. yeah there was chip work done and i believe its supposed be 8* but trying to time the car that low got me backfiring and a few knock counts.

 

I'd stop put money into that thing asap and cut my losses.

 

Im considering it but After doing some more tear down I found a few things:

Timing chain isnt heavy duty chain and skipped a tooth
Piston rings are worn and itsnt holding good compression
Possible valve or rod damage in the heads from over rev when the tranny didnt shift into second.

So should i just yank the motor and have it freshend up and send my heads out for some work and have them ported and polished. OR get a new 350 block but this time a 4 bolt main compared to my 79 block thats 2 bolt?

Thanks for your opinion guys.

 

Wow, that's rough.

About half way through your description I was starting to think that it was a joke and there'd be some kind of punch line at the end.

Not sure what to suggest; I'd probably just shoot myself in the head after all that..lol

 

I'll buy the shortblock if you wanna sell it lol.

 

I am considering selling the shortblock if it will yield me a decent amount towards getting a new one lol pm me with an offer and ill look into it for sure.

Yea I wish it was a joke and I could jump out and say surprise..but it didnt workout lol.Oddly enough Im rather calm..for now and Im going to price out a doubler roller timing chain and sbc rebuild kit.

As for the heads Im not mad about them getting a lil bent out of shape since I planned on rebuilding them over winter anyways and slapping on a hsr thanks to Daz. I want to drop the motor and tranny this fall/winter and redo my engine bay paint and touch up some areas and re-route some wires and make it extra pretty lol and move on to the rest of my build with brakes and suspension mods

 

[QUOTE=86White_T/A305;3891538]Im considering it but After doing some more tear down I found a few things:

Timing chain isnt......QUOTE]


There you go again.

Send it to motor heaven.

 

hey man, sucks about your motor.I wouldve helped you if you were closer.

I would definitely get it freshened up at least then go for aftermarket heads if you want to at least get close to 400HP and beat your bosses vette .383 if you can afford it.Heads, cam and your HSR should help a lot with that.Then you have extra dough after all that then you can also go 383...Prsonally I would go to a 400 CID with a retrofit roller cam and the HSR

BTW sent you a pm

 

yes I still want to slaughter his vette..not just beat it.I think Ill have it freshend up,get a good timing chain..double roller.This will be my last ditch effort for this block but Im praying nothing else goes wrong and Ive finally found all my bugs for a first time motor swap.Meanwhile Ill start saving up to get the parts i need for a very stout 383.

Pm sent back Daz