it would be way easier to do with the motor out. not really that hard to get out.
Attachment 22910

^thats how I did it!! A whole lot easier to do instead of pulling it from the engine bay and I didn't even have a cherry picker, just a couple heavy duty jacks and pieces of wood

ok well the motor is out. now i hope i did not cause more problems. i forgot a tranny bolt and by the time i noticed i had slid the tranny off the drive shaft. i thought i had it supported good enough but when i pulled the bolt out the tranny moved and hit the ground. i hate when i make bigger problems for myself. Gorn the pistons he has are standard with lower compression. I am going to pull them out of the block they are in sometime today i hope. I have more pictures to post so I will try to get them up later today.

You can not hone a out of round cylinder to make it round, Honing is a finishing operation that will follow the existing shape of the cylinder. To get the cylinders round they must be bored on a boring mill. First step is to check the cylinders to see if they are out of round. Most rings can handle up to .005 out of round. I would expect to see .010 out of round but would not be suprized if it was .015. How far out of round the cylinders are is a factor of how well they where fitted at the factory and how the car was driven. Since you have the motor out and you are thinking about new pistons and bearings you should also think about new Cam bearings and an oil pump. It really is hard to say where to stop. So many things can fail at high miles and where do you draw the line. New oil pump? Crank will be out of round do you get it ground? Timing chain seems like a no brainer. Cam? lifter? Valves? guides?

I find it cheaper to find a low miles motor and just reseal it then to rebuild a high miles motor. I have a 31K Lt1 in my garage right now. I got it as part of a package deal and I paid less then $1000 for it.

i totally get what ya mean about how much to replace while i am in there. although my motor was at such high miles i was told it was well taken care of when i got it and i took pretty good care of it. and with everything apart it shows. i was shocked at how good the bearings looked. all the crank looked good and only like 3 rod had and marks on them. i still have to measure to see how far out of round it is but i am hoping its not to bad. here is the kit i am thinking about getting 87-93 Chevrolet Car 350 5.7L V8 -ENGINE REBUILD KIT- | eBay

that or a remain kit which is only 250.

but here are some more pictures i have put a bunch more up on here also
http://photobucket.com/z28_rebuild

make sure you getting parts for the lt1. the kits your looking at are for a 350 to 92. you need the 92-97 lt1 parts.

I assumed it was well taken care of because it is still running. On any motor that has not had a failure it is hard to see wear. I would go as far to say you can not see it. When you build a motor you normally want clearance in the bearing to be between .001-.003 IMO the .003 is a loose motor and .001 is a little tight. I like to build then with between .0015 and .0020 clearance. To get to that level the crank needs to be dead balls on round. With a normal 100K motor it is normal to see as much as .002 wear on the crank. This wear is alway "not round". In terms of your eyeball seeing it, no way. On a ground flat pc of metal you could not see .002" of wear. You really need to mic the crank. You should do that anyway to see if you need undersize bearings in your engine kit.

good looking out crabby. i was just using that as an example of the kit i was looking at getting. but it said 93 so i assumed it was the right one. i will make sure to double check before i order. and gorn i talked to the wife and she is saying it might be best to just go with the full kit too. so there would be no worries about the oil pump, timing chain, etc. so if I go that route all i would need to have done is get the crank turned? is that what your saying? how much does that run on avg.

now i am starting to think maybe someone has been in this motor before. after getting the block all cleaned up some one has painter the block black. and the paint is under the motor mounts and in places that could have not been reached unless it was out of the car. on the other hand does anyone know what the numbers on the bearings mean. cuz mine have a gm some number then 5 93. which makes me think they are oem. ok i am stumped. lol i got pics i can post here in a while.

here's another opinion

bite the bullet

the engine is out

take it to a machinist.

why toss new parts when you probably have junk in the oil galleys?

So, that means dipping the block which means new cam bearings. Can you do that yourself? It's not overly difficult but I still mess up so I just let the shop put them in

next, the crank should be reground and they can then tell you which bearings you'll need.

Newer LT1 rods were stronger but yours are the older style. I'd get them checked/resized.

We still don't know if you need boring. Are you good at pressing on pistons to the rods?

Let's talk top end as well. Why put an engine back together with that many hours/miles without bringing the heads up to par? You are then at decision time. Do you pay about $300 -$350 for an economy job or shop around for some used aftermarket LT1 heads but in good shape. Or, can your shop port them for a little better flow?

The cam is probably fine as it's a roller but, it's as good of time as any to upgrade.

Or, you can go through all the labor, toss parts in, do no machine work, go to church and hope it runs for a while. You now see why high mileage vehicles which have no written proof of being rebuilt do not command top dollar. There is a tranny and engine rebuild in the near future and that could be upwards of $5,000 or more for both for basic rebuilds including removal/replacement