About thirty years ago I bought at a auction for $22.50 . A 1959 chevy Viking. Someone had started installing a 283 engine from likely a 65 car. A few years later my daily was a 61 short bed. It had a small journal 327 in it. the clutch started slipping. and it was the small clutch. the Viking had a 11 inch clutch. And the 327 was tired and I didn't want to chance a rod bearing failure and ruin the crank. So the 283 was installed in the Pk. The rings must have been stuck Because It drank oil. Used a quart every 20 miles. I ran it for a month. It was pulled and set in a car trunk. The car soon was solkd for scrap. And the 283 was set next to a tree and covered up. The engine got uncovered and set for 25 years. The intake against the dirt and the oil pan to the sky. I got to reading the post on here about a broken 283. So today I went over to my other place and loaded up the mill. It is really rusty and crusty. My plant is to build it and spend as little money as possible. So ive used the air hose and blew the soil off & tore it down. There is some really horrible looking cyl rust and the crank is a cast crank. Ive started soaking the cyls with tranny fluid. It may nee d a rebore. Ive got some used oversize pistons. Eny road this zombie engine might come alive again.
Intriguing project, I will be amazed if you can rebuild this engine without replacing nearly every part. I like to be amazed.
Not actually a rebuild. a overhaul kinda. After I remove the pistons & crankshaft I will put the block in a electrosisis vat with powdered molasses. Not goung to use the can lifters or cyl heads. Would prefer to use new rings and bearings. Ive got a 305 with a bad crank. I will use those heads and cam. If it need,s a rebore I have some good used oversize pistons.
WOW! I don't know if you're an optimist, or I'm a pessimist (always thought I was a realist) , but that's way more than I'd ever take on. Every machined surface is going to need work. I'd save the high capacity oil pan, and maybe the chains and lift tabs. Maybe you're just pulling our leg; you should have been a chiropractor! Good luck. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
One of the first vehicles I ever owned was a Y block ford. The engine was as bad as this one. I acquired another engine that had been reciently overhauled and the block was froze & busted. I took the goodies from the cracked block and put them in the other block. The only parts I bought was new head gaskets. First sanded the rust from the cyls with 36 grit sandpaper. I honed on the cyls for hours before they got smooth enough to suit me. And It worked out for a mediocre knock around engine . I was 12 and had $15 in my 53 ford. got it running and terrorized the neighborhood. My mother stated I was the kind of kid she didnt want her children to play with LOL .Wish I knew about electrolysis way back then.
I rolled a flathead out of the woods it sat in for over 20 years with no intake on it. The head bolts looked like cauliflowers and the sump was full of mud. It cleaned up nicely and not one bolt broke off.
Watching with interest. What are the heads, 520's? Somewhere around 80% of the stuff guys say is "unbuildable" on here, I'd call an ok core.
The heads are the powerpack with a pyramid. I will sand the deck with 320 wet or dry and diesel until it looks like chrome. Ive has planty of experience with rusty cyls. All the ld farm tractors had a exhaust that pointed to the sky. And Ive bought several that had rained full. tear them down and just fix what was bad. Sometimes pull a used sleeve and piston assembly from another engine and put it back together without any new parts. Even reuse the head gasket. Use it myself or it Makes a good auction sale tractor. There is guy over on the Tri Five chevy forum that has spent some where in the neighborhood of 20 thousand on a 409 and it still has problems. Im thinking around $200 on this rusty 283engine
Old wolf, if you need some, I know of a source where you can still get 4" bore steel shim head gaskets. I can pm you contact info for the guy, I got a few sets of NOS J-2 steel shims from him recently.
Ive got a few sets in my hoard. Im going to use 602 casting 305 heads. they are about 58 CC the original powerpacks are about 64 CC so a thicker head gasket will suffice.
Wolf: I have a NOS 283 in my cabrio. It came with pistons, rings and bearings. GM would use various size bearings when assembling these engines, such as 01 or 002 etc. I did put in a new set of mains since I had the steel crank polished. Could you use the odd bearings? Is so, or you need misc. 283 stuff let me know. I may just have something laying around. Tim
old wolf, since you mentioned the thread, here it is for other fans of the 283; http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-to-do-with-this-broken-283-v8.941152/
The cylindrical thing in the lifter valley is for the road draft tube, correct? Mine is so nasty and gunked up it isn't funny so I have not taken a good look at it, how does it work?
yes that is a baffle can for the road draft or PCV. it simply keeps the oil in the engine and lets crankcase vapors out.
The engine is going to be installed in a 1942 army jeep. its a mud bog race rig. has a straight axle up front and a no spin 6 lug chevy rear. It weighs less than two thousand pounds. and has oversize tires. The 283 will be backed by a aluminum powerglide. its one of those things where you try and go as fast as possible and go as far into the mud bog as you can. you hold it on the floor and never let off. bouncing and jouncing and mud flying you can barely see anything. the radiator( great big thing from a flat head ford) is mounted in the rear cargo space. the coolant routed through exhaust pipe. No air filter. a tall stack with a pre cleaner from a diesel. open hedders with a few feet of driveshaft added. horribly loud. Roll bar and shoulder harness. Its a lot of fun.
It would make sense to take that thing straight to the scrap yard. But it would be righteous and magic to hear it run again. I have a soft spot for 283s and I love shit like this! Go man go!
Yep, for a road draft tube on the early blocks or PCV or a line to the air cleaner on the later ones depending on the model, I believe. How does it work? It's just a big old baffle that allows it to move air without sucking oil.
Thanks for the offer however I will simply buy one of those cheepo ring overhaul kits that sell on E Bay. for around $100 you can get all the bearings, timing set , oil pump, rings and full gasket set. ive bought them before and there pretty good quality. Back in the day it was thought you could get by with honing the cyls new rings and rod bearings and a valve job. and when it went to using oil the next time it was time for a rebore job.
There was this one group of guys that had a long-box 4wd Dodge PU with a rowdy 440 with a tunnel ram and a hilborn shotgun on top on methanol, that was pretty crazy...That thing would sling rooster tails about 30' in the air... And yea, lots of guys had more than a few under their belt, it was a zoo!
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