Project Anti-Ken-A Very Low Budget 350 build

[Tom Bryant]

I got the block all cleaned up and ready to take to the machine shop. All of the machined surfaces are clean and oiled. Cliff (DkBG) will be stopping by next Monday and we will throw the block in his Buick truck, er, station wagon, and take it to the shop. This delay in the progress on my engine has been bugging me. Once I decide to do something I like to keep moving.

In the meantime I thought I would post a couple pics of some badly worn engine parts for those that may not be familiar with some of the basic problems encountered in an old small block Chevy. The first is the imfamous nylon toothed cam gear. The nylon gets brittle and breaks apart over time resulting in a very loose timing chain. Always replace one of these with a steel gear. Notice that most of the nylon is gone and the chain has been eating into the aluminum gear underneath.

 

[Tom Bryant]

The next two are pictures of cam lobes that are gone. This is due to soft cams that were a recuring problem in the '70s. These parts are from the "good" '72 Monte Carlo engine that came with my project. Compare the worn off lobes withthe sharp point of the good lobes.

 

[Tom Bryant]

Not many good lobes in that picture. Let's try this one.

 

[Ken]

Nice cam Tom! :duh

_ken

 

[Tom Bryant]

Cliff and I took the block over to the machine shop on Monday. Somehow I forgot to throw the box of rods in the car so I dropped them off today. I was suprised to find out that he did the block yesterday! What a thing of beauty. Perfectly clean with shiney new freeze plugs and oil galley plugs. He found a plugged oil galley above the next to rear main. He said it was a really tough thing to clean out. Makes me wonder if it was plugged from new and that is why that one cylinder scored in so few of miles.

Anyway it's all better now. I looked at my new pistons while I was there. Nice looking pieces. The valve reliefs had pretty sharp machined edges on them so I'll be softening them and polishing the tops. Anything that will help reduce the chance of detonation is time well spent.

Tom

 

[DkBG]

Yes and he bought lunch Too . It wasn't very good , but , He Did Buy ! Cliff

 

[Tom Bryant]

At least we know where NOT to go the next time.

 

[Tom Bryant]

Well, Cliff and I made the rounds today. Went to H&W in Edgerton and got a new alternator for my son's Blazer and put that on. I hope this one lasts more than 2 weeks. Thankfully he bought a lifetime one in the beginning. This was number 3. Then we went to H&W in Hicksville to the machine shop and picked up the block and pistons. Threw them in the Vibe. It makes a pretty good truck. Then went to Butler IN to the Chevy dealer where my wife works and picked up the calipers for the '81, We struck out on the p/s pulley for his big Buick wagon but that will be in tomorrow. Also had lunch at a much better resturant than last time.

Here's one of the Silv-o-Lite pistons. You can see how sharp the edges of the valve reliefs are. Those will get softened some.

.Sorry
these pictures were deleted with the old members gallery. If anyone needs to see these just ask and I'll dig them up.

Heres the block. He found a plugged oil galley in the #4 bearing web so it was a good thing I decided to have him do the super cleaning, galley plugs, freeze plugs and cam bearings. The cylinder wall finish is superior.

Remember that $500. budget thing I was talking about? Well, I can kiss that one goodbye. Not over it yet but I'm within $35. If not for the one scored cylinder that plan would have worked. For anyone following along with the thoughts of doing a budget rebuild these are the things that you can all too often run into. I'll go over the machine shop bill and post it so you can see what was involved in just a basic clean-up bore and block cleaning

 

[Tom Bryant]

I'm sorry that this rebuild is starting to drag on but I've been trying to get the garage and house ready for my son's graduation party. Everything else, including engine funds, is on the back burner for at least the next 2 weeks. I'll try to get that machine shop bill posted tomorrow while I am taking a break from painting.

Tom

 

[echoecho11]

Tom "gerate thried" hope you keep it going.

I've been down this same road a dozen or so times. It amazes me that you can get a good short block done for $500 and your close to that. and is not a good machine shop a god send ? think of what he saved you when he found that blocked oil passage. not haveing to take it back out of your C10 makes that $130 bore job posably the best mony you have spent. you did'nt mention PN's on the cylender heads but I"m guessing 883's if they are seventys LT1 stuff.? and are they big valve? anyway thanks for the good thried . congraudulation on getting a kid through graduation ( it's a job for shure) and speaking for myself ( I'm shure other gear heads too.) dont mid wateting. having sad that it's killing me to see what you do to the heads for under 500? Echo 1

 

[Ken]

"gerate thried"

:confused

 

[echoecho11]

lettes see..... a ....... how about " TOM" Great post. honestly
I've driven every english teacher I had nuts trying to teach me to spell. I was trying to spell " thread". when I went through 2nd grade we were to use phonic's, then in the 3rd they said now we are going to spell words the way they sound to through out phonic's. along comes the 5th grade and they said that it did'nt work lets go back to phonic's . I will jest have to try harder ..... K.

 

[Tom Bryant]

I got the point. :L I thought that you got your fingers tangled up while typing. I do that a lot. Once in a while you can even catch Ken making a typo but not too often. :L

I didn't get to the posting of the machine shop bill today. I was in the garage all day painting and cleaning. sprayed the ceiling even. I'll post that fun tale in the Corvette Stables Forum.

As for the heads, they are the '72 Monte Carlo 2 bbl heads that were on the dead engine. I measured them at 78cc actual. A little larger than what they are supposed to be. If I use them I won't have to install hard seats. If I use the '70 350/300 64cc heads I have I'll have to put in hard seats to be on the safe side. Either head has 1.94 intakes. I should use the old bearings and set the crank in and slip one piston/rod asm in to check deck height. Then I'd know which way to go. If I can get a break from the garage cleaning I'll do that.

The machine shop has a Sunnen machine to do the heads that uses a cutter that will cut all 3 valve angles at once. Makes for a perfect seat. He can also do the bowl blending on that machine. A little port matching and some performance springs and I'll be set. Don't know if the valves will be usable yet or not. He can give me a real good price on stainless if I need them. I'll probably go with screw in studs and guide plates for security. I think I have a set in the cabinet.

Who knows. Maybe a set of more interesting heads will come along before I get that far.

Tom

 

[echoecho11]

Tom whould you happen to know when did chevy go to hardend exaust valve seats? some say that 75 was the year for no lead and another sorce says they started in 73 but only on certan ones? the reason I ask is because I have a set of 3973487's with production date L-2-O . near as I can tell this is the correct number for 71 to 76 LT1's but the date indicates that the heads were made in dec 2 of 70 ? so I'm not shure that I need hardend seats installed or not ? from what I can gather unless some one has installed them already your 72 monty heads they might need them ? I'm useing these 487 heads on a engine that has the sterlling two valve relefe flat top pistions so like you I wanted the larger open chamber 76cc heads but my problem is compounded because I'm runing the summit 383 stroker crank. hope the extra 1/4 inch stroke dose not run the compresion up to high. I also need to check my pistion to deck hight, have you ever herd of a person useing a thick head gasket to lower compression? keep pluging on that clean up Tom.... thanks

Echo 1

 

[69MyWay]

They never look better than fresh out of the machine shop.

I ended up painting my 69 block "cast iron", then applied three coats of clear so that it has that fresh machined look all the time.

What color are you going to paint this one?

 

[Ken]

I got the point. :L I thought that you got your fingers tangled up while typing.

I thought it was Gallic or something. Thought maybe you guys were birds of a similar feather and had your own language. :L

 

[Tom Bryant]

Ken,

We have a secret hand shake too.

Chris,

Actually you have been an influence on me. I will probably go the cast iron grey and clear also. If not I have some bright silver Dodge truck Chroma and I could make it look like John's Caddy.

Echo 1,

When GM and the rest lowered the compression ratios for the '71 model year the engines were unleaded compatible. That was part of the deal. It wasn't necessary to use it though and many areas didn't have it available for a couple years. Heads for '71 model even if actually built in late '70 should have hard seats. Beginning in '75 they were required to run unleaded due to the cat converters.

Heads gaskets are available in varied compressed thicknesses and you can gain or reduce conmpression ratio by going to a thicker or thinner gasket. The compressed thickness of the head gasket is one of the figures that goes into calculating true compression ratio. Most catalogs will give the compressed thickness of the gasket.

The supplier of your stroker kit can tell you what the cr will be with the heads you are using depending on deck height and head gasket used.

Tom

 

[echoecho11]

Thanks for the info on the heads TOM, it will come in handy.

Think you might like Hugger Orange on them SBC ?

This pic is of a 66 vette engine I did last summer .

 

[echoecho11]

"OH HECK" That pic didn't do it justaus.....try this....

 

[Tom Bryant]

Nice looking engine.