Bad news. The engine shop called me this morning and told me they found a hairline crack in the lifter valley- so my block is no good.

He did offer to find me a good one though, and his price quote was $1590 including the block and all the work I mentioned above. That's still within the realm of what I can afford, although it is pretty disappointing; enough of this engine's parts are being replaced it was like a waste of money to even buy it. :/

 

Did you ask if it's a structural crack, and whether it can be brazed or not?

 

you just discovered why some of us have encouraged you to bring the engine to a shop. If you did not, and listend to your helper and just put the engine together you could have been asking for problems. Now wait to see if it can be repaired or if it's toast.

Junk/used engines need to be considered as junk until you can prove them to be otherwise.

 

if he cant find you a block, i have a 4 bolt main block, 1985 truck. it should be good but needs machine work. it would be a bit of a drive for you, but i would straight trade you for your bad block. however, i think where you are at now, you would be best buying a short block with lower compression pistons and using the heads you have instead of having to fight the issues of high compression.

 

Having double checked all of my numbers I don't think my compression was actually going to be all that high- I looked up my stock heads, part number 14101083 and they were only 64cc. So I plugged that into the compression calculator and fiddled with numbers until I got the stock compression ratio of 9.5:1. Then I plugged in 60cc for my new heads, and it only went up to 9.9:1. The guy at the shop said something that meshed pretty closely with that when I brought him the engine, so I figure it's probably a pretty good estimate.

He offered straight away to find me a new block, said the one I got was no good. Not knowing one way or the other I just asked him how much it was going to cost with that included, and he gave me $1590 as the quote. Since that's still within bounds of what I planned for, I said ok. He said he should have it ready for me by Friday.

 

alright, sounds good. are you glad you listened to us now? it would have sucked to just throw that motor in then have it split in half the first time it hit 5k

 

Indeed indeed. I got burned enough times when I owned an Eagle Talon, I certainly don't need to have it happen again with my Camaro.

My engine's all set and waiting for me, just need to find the time to pick it up and get it to the shop. Between picketing and working 40 hours at my part time job, free time is a definite premium right now.

 

Alrighty so I got my engine picked up- I wound up with a Vortec block, and that's got me nervous 'cause now I'm not sure about how or if that will change from the L98 block I had.

As it sits everything's waiting for me to make a couple phone calls Monday morning and we can get this show on the road. Finally~

 

if its a block from a vortec, could change a few things. biggest difference would be the location for the oil pressure sending unit, which will now be located above the oil filter boss. and depending one where the block was made, could be limited to making 450 hp before the block is a strength issue

 

Well, the shop didn't say they'd have any problems when I told them and asked if it'd be alright. And I never planned on going as high as 450 hp anyway, so I suppose I ought not to worry about that, eh?

As it stands everything's good to go and they'll get started on it within the week. I'm just waiting on the computer stuff to arrive in the mail, soon as the postal lockout ends, and we should be golden.

I just wish I'd known how much this was going to cost before I started. I might have just fixed up the 305 :/