Finally got my motor

andysleds

andysleds

New Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2005
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Home:Kernersville Work:Greensboro
So after a year of talking about it, I finally got my engine for my Jeep! I brought it back from Michigan yesterday. It has decent power and needs to be cleaned up, but now I have a starting point to figure my drivetrain. It is a race motor and has been sitting for 2 years. Any suggestions on what I should watch for and replace from sitting.? I am going to take the intake off and make sure that no critters got in it and also drop the pan and clean the bottom end out.

I am looking for some parts in the wanted section, if you have anything that I have listed let me know.

Andy
 
At the least, I would do all gaskets. This will give good opportunity to check everything out. Seals too. You didn't say what kinda engine, but crank seals are a must. I would also while I had it down and uncovered, check the wear on the bearings. Keep them in order. You can check bore wear too if you go ahead and put on new head gaskets.
 
Sweet let's drop that baby in!
 
Oh yeah, it is a Small Block 350 punched 30 over. It only has about 1000 miles on it. I used it in my Enduro car when I raced in Michigan. I bought it rebuilt. It was a very strong motor. Not huge horsepower, but I am planning to change that down the road.

Thanks for the advice
 
Sitting there unused, I guess you drained the water out? May want to change out the expansion plugs too, unless you have brass ones in it.
 
I have heard of spraying a little WD-40 in the spark plug hole to decrease the chance of breaking the rings.

Since you said it was a race motor...... It wouldn't hurt to pull the valve cover and look at the springs/ excessive play in the rocker arms. I know they pull some insane RPM's.
 
New cam?

Just wondering if you were planning on changing it out as you may not want the high RPM band on a 4x4 vehicle.

just my .02.
 
Oil in the cylinders was a good thing. If you can't immediatly spin it by hand with a wrench id put a few squirts of oil in there to let it sit.. If it still doesnt spin you can get more drastic... more oil. you can also fill the entire engine up with Kerosene or Diesel fluid and let it soak in, try spinning etc.. Then drain it out, and refill with oil etc.. Next step is coke/pepsi.. in the cylinders.. You guys laugh but if you atempting to get a cheep motor running why spend $$ on gaskets etc. on somthgin thats just setup up a bit.. its not broken (yet)...

Id find out what cam is in there or was put in there.. back home enduro could mean basic stock rebuild with a RV type cam, or somthing bigger.. but Id say your prolly fine with the cam as is.. cams (and lifters) are easy to change, but if your asking about it, i'd get a $15 good ol standard 'how to rebuild chevy small blocks' manual as it will cover all the details with tons of pics.. What are you doing for induction ? propane? TBI? etc that might influince your cam choice anyway...

Speeking from experience, don't make every single part of your project a seperate rebuild project to itself, or you'll be there for years.. Get it togeher then address issues... I'd simply inspect the gaskets for leaks, and maybe stick to valve cover gaskets and skip opening the whole thing up, Its really easy to mess up a good motor with some simple mistakes.. Ie don't wreck a good thing... Besides its not like you can't address them at a later date...
 
Thanks Yager. I took the valve covers off cause they were leaking. Everything looked very good. No build up, everything had some oil on it and so on. I was able to turn it over with a little pressure (it rolled over fairly easy) I think that the cam is a little aggressive. I do have a stock one that I already bought. As far as induction I am sticking with a 4bbl carb for now. This will be more street then crawler
 
A cam isn't hard to change. But if this was a race motor are the rings really sloppy for high RPM runs? I helped a friend put a Cup motor in a 69 camaro once. It ran fine at wide open throttle, but cruising anthing below 4K RPM and it blew oil badly.
 
It really depends on what kind of "race motor" it is. My buddy runs late model stock cars and they run a standard crate 350 in his car. But like everyone else said atleast change the gaskets and look at everything when you do that. Being it was a race motor i would think about a teardown just to check everything.
 
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