Technical Cleaning up a old 350 sbc

So I have a 350 small block Chevy that I was told runs, I pulled the heads off and the intake manifold and found alot of like grimy gunk inside the motor. Anyways im to cheap to have my motor machined but obviously I cant run my motor with this gunk everywhere inside it, can I rebuild my motor without any major machining? Also my exhaust valves are very white, is this a sign of my motor had been run lean?

 

here is a picture of my valves.

 

that all looks pretty normal to me....

did you get to see the engine run before you took it apart?

 

Never did see it run but supposedly it did. Theres alot of junk and **** under the intake manifold right by the cam lifters, How do i clean this up? I dont want it getting into my bottom end.

 

I would degrease and check the bores for wear and/or damage. You've gone this far why not rings and bearings if not too far gone? All I can say, it looks like a roller block with 1pc RMS.
Ran when parked? I'd pull the pan and look in there as well, who knows what you might find, rings and valve seals could be toast?

 

Yeah, if it's got sludge built up in the valley it's gonna have some in the pan as well. How do the cylinders look? Is there any crosshatching left? Or are the bores polished?

 

Those valves look normal to me. I would check the valve guides and seats. Also check for pitting on the valves. The cylinder head looks to be in pretty decent shape just from the pictures, doesn't appear to have any indication of a blown head gasket but also you only showed one head. I'd check the cylinder walls, for cross hatching and scoring. You might be able to get away with just a reseal of the motor. The sludge build up doesn't look bad from the pictures. Put a new set of lifters and cam just because they are cheap and it's good insurance. I'd either get the valves cut or put all new stainless steel valves and lap them in yourself.

Like said above you are halfway there to a complete tear down. Those SBC parts are a dime a dozen and you can get all rebuild parts from mild to wild and crazy. I've seen a lot worse run great. Do the complete rebuild or do just an good head job.

It would really help with better pictures of the motor, tops of pistons, the other cylinder head, etc.





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Putty knife, wire brush, easy off oven cleaner and a pressure washer. Is that what you are asking. when you get it clean take a spray bottle with lightweight oil and coat it after its dry and it should keep til you get it to the machinist.

 

it has a roller cam, you don't need to replace the cam or lifters....

 

To bad it's been pulled apart a bit all ready. A leak down test would have said all you needed to know about the rings and valves. Chances are it's fine as said before. Just be sure that all the loose stuff that your loosening is cleaned and cleared away so the oiling system does not pick it up and send it thru the engine.

 

Kinda depends what your goals are. Complete overhaul versus a cleanup and head gasket replacement in an afternoon.
I have had decent luck with Northern, good value for the buck. http://www.northernautoparts.com/part/ek-er1090
If you don't want to do any machine work, this kit would work. But I would check your dimensions first. (Piston size, rods, and mains)

 

The only way to tell if you can rebuild your engine without major machine work is to tear it down and inspect it. Engine rebuild 101.

If was building on the cheap I would put the damned thing back together and run some engine flush through it, if it holds together you are in cheap and if it doesn't then you need to rebuild it. Not likely you will find a 350 with any real miles on it that doesn't need the bores cleaned up and the crank polished at the very least.

 

Could I take the motor apart and put it back together with a rebuild kit without any major machining? Will new rings and pistons seat? What do I inspect when I have it apart? I dont want to put it back together as is because of the sludge buildup is really bad, I feel like its gonna blow up.

 

The sludge in those pictures aren't really that bad. Yes you can take the engine down to the bare block. Clean it up in your driveway with some degreaser, use a ball hone to get the cylinders back in shape and then use a ring, rod and main bearing kit to rebuild it. Everything should be kept clean. Dis***emble the heads and clean the ports with a wire brush on a drill and degrease everything. Then hand lap the valves in and re***emble. Use a new oil pump and timing chain at least. Don't mix any of the valves up. Buy a cheap how to rebuild small block Chevy book at the bookstore , this all depends on your skill set.


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You could just clean it up as is and slap it back together. Use some brake clean to clean the lifter valley and the oil pan/crankcase area. If you have an air compressor and a siphon spray gun get a couple gallons of diesel fuel and spray down the insides with that to remove some of the crud. S****e the sealing surfaces clean and clean them up with a scotchbrite pad and put it back together.

But at this point I would at least rotate the crank around and inspect the bores to see how much wear there is. Originally when the engine was ***embled there was a crosshatch pattern on the cylinder walls. If there is a lot of wear that pattern will be mostly gone. If the bores are polished, shiny when you shine a flashlight into them, that's not good, the engine will have a lot of blow by and may consume oil.

Also, if you pull the oil pan, and you should, then you can pull a couple of rod bearing and main bearing caps and inspect the bearings for wear and visually inspect the crank journals. Note, rod bearings wear on the upper half, mains wear on the bottom half, so you should roll the rod bearing upper half out to look at them. This is all pretty basic stuff, if new to you, take your time. Get some reading material, overhaul manuals, "how to" reference books to help.

You're trying to avoid "major machining"? Piston's can be cleaned up and inspected, and if they p*** inspection they can be reused with fresh rings, but you should at least run a hone through the bores to restore that cross hatching, which is important to seat the rings and provide a place on the walls for lubricating oil to cling. If the crank journals are not damaged or worn excessively you could just replace the bearings, be sure to check the clearance.

I don't know how far you want to take this down, or what your plans are regarding the cam, but I would at least consider replacing the timing chain. Checking the cam bearings for wear gets a little trickier, but if the cam bearings are worn, you'll need to replace them and have them line bored, so this is a machinists job, not something you will do.

You can certainly do engine overhaul without major machining, whether you should or not is a different question. But at the minimum clean it up and inspect it before re***embling it. Over the years people have done all kinds of things to overhaul engines on the cheap, including things like knurling the pistons to close up a gap between them and worn cylinders. What you should do is really up to you. Google is your friend, there is all kinds of information on the web for free, but I would get some actual books on the subject if I were you. It's one thing for a guy with lot's of experience to do this job only needing a few torque specs, it's another for somebody of your experience. Spend a few bucks on some good resource material if you're gonna do this.

 

how much money you need to spend on it, depends on how long you want it to last before you have to overhaul it again, and how worn it is right now.

The first thing I'd do is see how much ridge it has at the top of the cylinder bores. If you can catch your fingernail on it, then it will probably last less than 50,000 miles if you just put new rings in it.

I'd also look at the bearings, and see how worn they are.

Valves...well, you can take out a few, and see how the guides fit. If they're loose, then it probably needs some expensive machine work there. If the guides are loose, most shops won't do a valve job without fixing them.

 

Wont he have to cut the ridge out of the cylinders and hone if he is just replacing rings? Needs to check cylinder with a bore gauge to see how much taper they have. Bob

 

I don't usually measure them...if it has a ridge, it needs to be bored if I want it to last a long time. If I'm not going to bore it, it doesn't really matter exactly how much taper it has...it'll wear the rings out after several tens of thousands of miles. Might need to ream the ridge if it's pronounced enough that the new rings will hit it.

 

Used to be able to borrow/rent a ridge reamer from the local parts house. Not sure if the Auto Zone's and O'Reilly's still do that.

 

What about a timing chain and gears just for good measure, cheap insurance while you're at it. Maybe an oil pimp as well?

 

Back in the old days, pre 65. A lot of engines were rebuilt just as you want to do. Yes, they only lasted 50,000 - 60,000 miles. A lot of race car engines were built the same way. They only had to last the weekend. If that engine lasts 50,000 miles it will be 10-20 years before most of the cars on here see that amount of miles. If you put over 5000 miles a year on your hot rod you are way above average.

 

best dollar value? clean and put it back together and run it.
new rings and bearings in old bores and crank worth the money? probably not.
fun to play with tho.

 

So I pulled the cam out and all the pistons, Timing chain was super loose so I am going to replace the chain and sprockets, the bearings in the rods look surprisingly good, If you take them out you can still see crosshatching on outside of bearing and inside of rod. cam lifters had a little bit of rust and were a little resistant pulling out, same with cam had a little bit of pitting. a new roller cam is going to be big bucks, would the stock cam be good for my motor, I may just try and clean everything really well? Can I install a higher lift flat tappet cam to make some more power? I think I am going to use a ridge reamer on the bore then hone it out. Can I install new bearings into the mains and the rods? Will this cause issues with uneven wear? How can I check my crank shaft for wear? I have a small machine shop at my hands so I have micrometers and dial indicators and other tools. Any tips for the heads? What can I do from my shop? Lap the valves? Any way to check the oil pump for wear? or is this a part you just replace.

 

Just a hint but if you have the engine mounted on a stand rotate it so the valley is down then clean the sludge and let gravity drop the sludge into a pan or bucket. By the way the sludge is from either lots of miles or no oil changes. Back in the old days before detergent oil the people that used "Pennsylvania" oil were surprised when they took off the valve covers and it looked like it had been packed with Vaseline.

 

If you have a 3" mic, you can measure the bearing journals, and see how the crank is. But you can also tell a bit from the look and feel of it...if you have experience with them...which you don't, apparently. If you get new bearings, you can measure the clearance with plastigauge to get an idea of how worn the crank is. If the bearings look good, the crank is probably ok.

I hope you number stamped the rod caps before you took them off! each rod is machined with the cap in place.

 

I used a peen and made a mark for each one, My cam and crank both have a little bit of rust/pitting, should I be worried? On the crank its only in one area on the main seal, on the cam its all over the cam shaft, Roller cams seem relatively expensive, Will a new flat tappet cam with a higher lift fit in? Heres the numbers I pulled from the block 14093638 87-95 350 Car & Truck 2 & 4-bolt P***enger stick 1-piece seal and here is the ones from the heads 14102193 305/350 87-95 1.84/1.50 From my research I believe that these heads have some kind of swirl design to them. I guess there not very good for power. Anyways I was hoping I could get this motor to be around 200-300 hp. I have a edelbrock performer intake and a quadrajet carb I found in the back seat of the car I am going to try and rebuild. Any suggestions for parts are appreciated and if anyone knows where to get a rebuild kit please let me know.

 

I found this rebuild kit would it work with my motor?
http://www.northernautoparts.com/part/ek-ek1085

 

wow, too bad the cam is rusty. That kit would probably work, but you'll be into some money at the machine shop....might look around and see if you can find another engine? It can get expensive.

 

Honestly im thinking about just spending alot of time with 1500 grit sand paper and trying to clean this cam up, anyways if I dont I was thinking about maybe running flat tappet cams in it, I was doing some reading and I believe you can run them in this block without any modification. I also found this http://www.northernautoparts.com/part/ek-ec1089 which is not a bad price, but idk if I have a vin K engine. I tried to read my vin and I could make out 4pw4M2997 although it was really hard to read.