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Thanks. Well i did manage to locate a vehicle not far from me that might be a good donor. Said owner bought the engine (400 c.i. Chevy) that someone had destroked to a 377....long story short the bearings went bad, so he had redone, put it back to a 400 stroke, now he says he lost his job so he's selling. Good thing is i can try before I buy. Not sure how untame it's going to be with a 510 lift cam with 302 duration. (so he says)
Thanks. Well i did manage to locate a vehicle not far from me that might be a good donor. Said owner bought the engine (400 c.i. Chevy) that someone had destroked to a 377....long story short the bearings went bad, so he had redone, put it back to a 400 stroke, now he says he lost his job so he's selling. Good thing is i can try before I buy. Not sure how untame it's going to be with a 510 lift cam with 302 duration. (so he says)
Ask for a cam card. If he says he don't have it, or the machine shop kept it, he may be right, but I am sure you will know when it fires up if it's an advertised duration number. (I'd bet the "302" duration is a .003" lift duration type hot "RV" cam ). Good luck on your search.
Ask for a cam card. If he says he don't have it, or the machine shop kept it, he may be right, but I am sure you will know when it fires up if it's an advertised duration number. (I'd bet the "302" duration is a .003" lift duration type hot "RV" cam ). Good luck on your search.
Thanx....he says he has the card. I tried asking him the duration at .050 but I don't think he understood what I was trying to ask. He starts rattling off a bunch of numbers over the phone but clearly you could tell he was unsure of himself. Of course I didn't think to ask what brand cam or if it was a flat tappet (probably) or roller (probably not) or if it was a hydro or mechanical...at least he did mention the 3500 jegs off-the-shelf converter in it.
And while it takes longer, there is nothing wrong with building the new engine yourself. It cost more, but you know what you have without doubt. May I ask what part of the country you are in?
Location: Butler County Ohio and Winters in Florida
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I bought a 2002 Ram 1500 4x4 a few years back with a bad engine, killed due to lack of oil changes.
I bought a used 4.7 from a local auto used car parts place. The engine had a mid year change and we installed the wrong engine. We finally got the right engine and the trucks worked well.
And while it takes longer, there is nothing wrong with building the new engine yourself. It cost more, but you know what you have without doubt. May I ask what part of the country you are in?
True...just I don't really have the time or tools to build an engine. I'm in Missouri, 60 miles east of Kansas City.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GTOlover
Hey Deez have you thought of going with a Built T-56 6-speed over a Muncie 4-speed engines and trans Combo?
Only if it doesn't involve hacking up the trans tunnel.
I have had good to fair luck with private party used engines and transmissions. Certainly for the engines you can at least pop the oil fill off and look inside with a small flashlight, see how clean or dirty it is. If you can get your hands on a borescope, you could pull a plug and look at a cylinder, and you could go in through the carb/throttle body and look at the intake, intake valves, etc.
Once you have bought an engine, particularly, you *could* for example pull the oil pan and take a look at the bottom end, maybe you can use a dial indicator to get at least a rough idea of big end clearances (I have never done this but would think it would work - anybody ever try this?) Of course, look to see how much "crud" is inside the pan. Using a flashlight you can see some of the cylinder bores from there. If all looks good, put the pan back on with a new gasket, if things don't look so kosher, you could continue the teardown, partial or full. One thing you can check with a dial indicator is the thrust bearing clearance, and you can do this with the engine fully assembled, if you have a dial indicator, set it up on the block with the indicator on the harmonic balancer or crank pulley, then use a pry bar to push/pull the crank. You need to know what the spec is for the engine in question or you won't know how to evaluate the measurement of course.
One thing I would think about is how easy or hard the R&R is for the engine/trans. If it's easy, put the used unit in and try it out. If it's hard, check things out before you do all that work.
If I bought an assembled engine and trans, I would be real tempted to pull them apart and put a new clutch, throwout bearing in. Way easy with them out of the car.
True...just I don't really have the time or tools to build an engine. I'm in Missouri, 60 miles east of Kansas City.
Only if it doesn't involve hacking up the trans tunnel.
I am 6 miles west of Six Flags Over Mid America. About 3 or so hours from you.
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). Good luck on your search.
