Tell me what you see.....I only got the drivers side off today...lots of carbon...Remember the valve seals were shot shot shot...the cylinder walls look great. no scoring or scratches..the # 5 piston has a burr ,sharp point, spot at about 6 o clock...what the heck is it???? Cause for concern? The cylinder walls look great ...Give it your best guess...tell me what you see in these pics. Please..

 

and here

 

One more ok 2 more

 

Casting imperfection on the piston or a piece of hard carbon build-up. Actually those pistons look good, not too much carbon and still see almost all of the metal surface on them.

 

Just what I was hoping....here was the head

 

done

 

The one on the far right was burning a bit of oil.

 

I really dont expect to find ANY valve seals when I take them apart...it was that bad.....The bottom end really sounded pretty good...had great oil pressure....I'm going to clean it all up....replace gaskets from the pan to the carb....as you can see it needs them...then, the new cam ,and heads, and intake, and rollertip rockers ,lifters ,and timing set, will all go on....i will be porting the new heads first..the carb gets a kit...

 

that would be # 3..

 

That would be # 3

 

Looks like a typical old motor with head gaskets that didn't seal... look at the brown stains in the narrow place between #3 & #5, and the very front end of the head, around #1. That's combustion leakage.

The #3-#5 leak is typical of over-torquing, because of the way that makes the head flex upwards in between the bolt holes.

Looks like there were plenty of crispies built all up inside that motor too.

I would strongly recommend grinding the edges of that rough place in that piston smooth if possible.

 

Not to hop on the bandwagon and overload it, but it appears that RB is right (like we'd think otherwise?). The top of the web area between #5 and #5 seems to have been leaking combustion. This might be the result of overtorque, or natural casting warpage. Better check the deck and head surfaces.

It also looks as if you may have had poor coolant sealing aroud the rear hole at #7.

Those are camel-humps?

As for the marks in the piston tops, bring each piston to TDC and clean the tops as best you can. I like to use a wire cup wheel in a die grinder or drill to remove carbon. Once they are cleaned, you may discover that the marks are position, indexing, or oversize markers, casting imperfections, or damage form carbon particles (the latter being the least likely).

 

great stuff here..from the best, I love this board...Yes, They certainly had some troubles...yes Vader they are 462 camel humps...now the are my practice heads for home porting!!! I am replacing them with some 416's.... I could never keep plugs in those heads either...tried all kinds ,,they would loosen up everytime..im talking in under 500mi.
The guys that built this motor were some real backwoods kind of Iowa Hillbilly's...anything is possible...
Like I said ...the bottom end sounded real good. Good oil pressure..and the motor ran a cool 180* always......My future plans are Running the 327 this summer...buying a 350 shortblock...then do some major part swapping..into a 355 next winter..Everything I have upgraded will work just as well or better on a 350..correct me if I'm wrong...

 

I got the rest of the motor tore down today...not looking good..the piston with the scar on it..is just that . after cleaning it up a bit I can see something traveled throgh that cylinder...there is a scar on the cylinder wall I can hook my nail on. Both of the old heads were warped enough to see it with a straight edge...the deck looked ok...I pulled the cam...the front bearing is all scored up..so I'm sure the rest dont look too good...all of the other pistons and cylinder walls look great...Im at a delima right now..I called a machine shop some friends use..He said he could sleeve the bad cylinder then bore it to size....install new cam bearings and reassemble the short block..all for around $200..seems cheap enough..assuming they dont find any other problems....here are a couple more pics...oh yeah, when I took the pan off, all I found was these plastic like pieces..they arent affected by a magnet...what could they be? And any opinions on the machine work...feeling kinda low right now.. The plastic ? parts

 

piston #5 cylinder wall

 

bearing

 

are these cast pistons?? they were supposed to be forged...it did actually have a DR timing set.. and the pistons are .030 over..hmm 2 out of 10 isnt too bad..

 

here is the rest of #5

 

forgot one passenger side..head

 

Those pieces look copper, rather like crank thrust bearing, to me....

The pistons look forged to me, TRWs specifically, except that they don't have the part # stamped on their face like TRWs always do. Beyond that, I can't tell much about them. Maybe when you get them out you can tell more. Cast & forged pistons look very different; usually the top of a cast piston looks very cast (just like the outside of a head or something), while a forged one is machined on top like those.

The damage to the piston may have occurred before the motor was put together.

The head just looks like typical stud failure from backing the rocker nut off too fast. I recall breaking 3 ARP studs on a motor that way once, with stock rocker nuts, just from getting too enthusiastic tearing them down. Made me feel like a fool when I had to buy a $et of $tud$ to put it back together.

 

thought i already posted this but its not there......I just put a lighter to the mystery pieces and the caught fire and melted...Heavy sigh of relief.....

 

how can I tell what cam this is.....its aftermarket but I could never get the specs...

 

Old distributor O-ring? It looks like it would be larger diameter than that though.

 

Good guess mine was gone from the distibutor...

 

Those pistons actually look like they are in good condition.

 

Look on the back face of it, the part which is at the very rear of the block. Many aftermarket cam mfrs stamp their name and/or part number into the cam here.

 

I didnt see any marking there but I will look again . Doesnt really matter much..I am replacing it with the xe274h anyways. I'm taking the block and rotating assembly, to the machinest next week.
Its good to KNOW what is in this motor now...The guy I bought it from turned out to be a real BS artist, and it was real hard to believe anything he told me...you Know the type..
I want to use the same pistons, Rods, and crank...everything else will be new..The only cylinder I am concerned about is the #5. all the rest look really good...I'll know more next week!
Thanks for the replys...Ill be talking to ya!