Thread: 350, few years old.. never started

Tweet

Hello, glad I stumbled across this website.

My grandfather past away a couple years ago and I inherited his old 31 Chevy.. he built it into a hot rod but he did leave me with plenty work to do.

He was in the process of putting in his new motor when he couldn't do it anymore.

Now, finally I've got some spare time and this past week I've spent tearing apart the engine.

The condition of the motor was great, it was assembled, but minus the oil pain, intake manifold, distributer ect. Well I couldn't get the motor to turn over by hand so it started to worry me a bit. When I flipped the motor over I noticed all this yellow-ish gookie stuff. My conclusion is that it was lube or grease. There was oil on the parts as well. The yellow stuff was like dried up glue, resting mainly on the cam shaft, crank and even the timing chain.

I continued removing peices, I could only get 6 of the 8 cyclinders out because of the positioning of the crank wouldn't let me slide them through and they were at odd angles to really do anything. Finally I invited a gentlemen over that is slightly.. just slightly stronger than me and he was able to break the nasty stuff free and let it turn finally!

fast forward to today. I spent most of the night scrapping the "glue" off and whiping it down. It looks brand new. Tomorrow is the crank.

I used degreaser to help losen the "glue" and then wipped it off. I then sprayed WD-40 on the cam and wrapped it up in cling wrap. Do you think this well help prevent any rust appearing untill I can resemble??

Now, to be honest I know some about cars but this is my first time do this. I'm so excitied though. Any advice would be great!

I would also like to begin to prep the block because I want to paint it. Who makes a good high temp paint? I'm going for black.

Oh and I think this might be a problem but I'm not sure how serious. 7 of the 8 cylinders were well oiled up and freely and smoothly move.. except one. It looks completely brand new and I can hardly pivit the rod and the cylinder.. how do I seperate the peices?

I know this is a long post but I have so many questions and tring to be as patient as possible to make sure I put this thing together right the first time. The cylinder walls seem to be stained from where the pistons were sitting for so long. Will this be an issue??

I'll have pics up soon!!!

I'v heard that after wd40 evaporates it can cause rust. use marvle magic oil. the cylinder walls shoulden't be a problem unless there uneven where the stains are.

Dupli color makes a good engine enamal or high temp paint good for 1500 degrees, the engine paint is good for 500 but is available in more colors like chevy orange and ford red. thr high temp 1500 comes in aluminum or flat black.

Any kind of mark on the cylinder walls other than the correct cross hatch hone pattern will have an adverse effect on ring seating and break in problems. Did you mean to say you can't move the rod back and forth on the piston??? If that is the case, you need to have the rod, pin, and piston checked at a competent machine shop. At the very least, the block should be rehoned to remove the "stains" on the walls, new engines hate any type of contamination.!!!!!!

Great thanks for all the info. I'll have the piston checked out at a machine shop but my friend told me (My car advice guy) that we could hone the cyclinder walls ourself so with his help. I think I'll try that.

But you say at the very least it should be rehoned. What are some other options? sleeving it?

A good quality hone job should clean everything out. I'm probably a bit fussy, but I get my blocks honed at the machine shop with a power stroke hone and with deck plates installed. This will maintain concentricity in the cylinders, and ensure proper piston to wall tolerances.

Well I'm not looking to spend too much money. But if it's reasonable I would be down. How much do you pay for the service?