If youve read my other posts you already know we are making a daily driver on a budget. Today I received most of the interior parts with a few suspension parts mixed in. While still waiting on randomness here and there.... this will keep me busy for a bit!

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Hi!

You were asking about a manual in another thread. If you're not an engine builder, you might want to purchase this book.

How to Rebuild the Small-Block Chevy -Revised [Book]

Reading the discription, it has a lot of things in there that you'll want to look for. I would recomend taking the engine to a machinist and have him check out the bore and if it's within spec, just have him do a nice cross hatch so your new rings will seat properly. He can also order your bearings. You might be money ahead also if you have him install your freeze plugs and cam bearings after he hot tanks the block for you.

Have fun!

 

I have to agree. I shadowed my buddy (professional engine builder) while he rebuilt my 454, and there was a LOT more to it than I could have imagined (clearances, special tools, etc) and I am a machinist by trade.

 

The last pic looks like my front door when I was building mine. Drove the wife nuts UPS/Fedex coming to the house 2-3 times a week.

 

You guys are correct 100%

me tearing into the engine is probably not the best idea. We only went down as far as removing the heads. My girlfriends father knows girl whos husband re-works heads... so hes going to hook us up a bit.

Heres the before and after photos of the new seat leather. I know it wont win any awards at a car show but for $100 a seat and doing it ourselves I think they came out pretty damn nice.



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Wow, I like the seats! That gives me a great idea when I go to do my interior!

Just a heads up on your heads. I am not sure how many miles that engine has on it, or why you think you need to redo the heads. But here is something to consider.

If your rings are old, especially if your already getting a little blow by and burning a little bit of oil, then that means that your heads are probably leaking a little too (seals, guides, or both). If your guides are good, but only have to replace the seals, you should be fine. However, if you have bad guides and replace them, you'll seal the compression head leak which will keep more compression in the cylinder which puts more work on the rings. Generally, this is a good thing, unless your rings are starting to get worn out. In that case, you've just turned your somewhat oil burner into a huge oil burner as you've just increased blow by because the worn rings couldn't keep up with the compression when you had a guide leak (before you had your head done), how's it going to keep up with even more compression once you've fixed that leak?

Rule of thumb. If your burning oil under acceleration, it's valve guides and seals. If your burning oil on decompression, it's rings.

I made that mistake one time in my life about 25 years ago. Had some extra money and had a really nice valve job done. Immediately after putting it back together, I was blowing blue smoke out the tailpipe from the rings like never before. Guess my Dad was right on that one lol.