I've got a 350 motor that spun a rod bearing. So I bough a reground crank with matching bearings and a set of piston rings. I got the motor out of the car and took everything apart except the crank itself. What should I know before starting the job that isn't painfully obvious. Also how do I get the rings off and on the pistons? Thanks.
If this is your first attempt at a rebuild,may I suggest you get a book of somesort covering engine rebuilding....AND if it spun a rod bearing,chances are the rod itself is hurt as well. Good luck!
We all started out just like you, bud, except nowadays there is so much info on the internet that we didn't have. There are some very good videos on YouTube on this subject, here is just the first one in a series that I found quickly. Good luck. Don http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFXVIH85xw0
At the least get the both rod that spun and the companion rod on that crank journal reconditioned, the better choice is to get the set done. The block has to be cleaned well and that should always include pulling the oil galley plugs for the cleaning process, perhaps take the block to a local shop to get the block cleaned, neww cam bearings and core plugs installed and the cylinders flex honed. These steps are important to ensure that a low budget rebuild does not become another failure.
You'll be visiiting the machine shop to get the rod reconditioned or replaced....might be a good idea to have them do that block cleaning work, change the cam bearings, and hone it. They can also measure the taper in the bores, if it has more than a few thousandths, and you want the engine to last a long time, you'll want to get it rebored and get oversize pistons.
I got a "freebie" 400 small block from a friend. It was thrown in with a truck purchase, that he had done, so no one knew the history of the complete short block. I was going to do the rebuild all myself, since it looked brand new. Thinking about it, I finally broke down and took it to a machine shop. The oil plugs were missing (you can't see them), it needed new cam bearings, and the crank had to be turned. It was also, a Saturday night special track engine, and it had cheap claimer pistons in it, and when the shop popped them out, one of them broke, along with a couple of the rings. So you can't go by just sight.. It's safe to have a shop check it out before you throw tons of money into it, and then just have something go wrong again. I've got over $1200 in my 400, and it is still in pieces in storage.
All good advice here. For standard rebuilds, I'd take the all the parts into the machine shop, leave the pistons on the rods as well. For a few extra bucks, they press them off and on, resize the piston skirts (remember those ***y Perfect Circle knurls?), resize the rods, etc. Most shops have a standard rebuild service, which is their bread and ****er. They will recommend add-ons if you need them. Bob
You can spend $1,500 on machine work and replacement parts to do it yourself, or you can spend $1,500 on a new engine in a box with a warranty.
Second that, on the recommendation part.. The parts that I was planning to put back into the engine, the guy at the shop talked me away from. Just because they are for sale in the parts catalogs, don't mean they are right for your application. The guys at the engine shop have far more experience than I, so I took their advice..
The Jalopy Journal
