Well I got it home Saturday night. I got her from a kid off cragslist for 1000. The poor guy had spun a rod in his old motor and the shop who said they had an extra laying around installed what I think is an L99 that also ended up having a spun bearing, thing sounds horrid. Those guys also chopped up the harness pretty bad,left the interior and engine bay in various states of disassembly. I pulled the heads on the original motor yesterday, the bores look ok and the pistons indicate its already .30 over. I'm gonna pull the pan tonight to get a look the the rods and crank as its going to machine shop tomorrow morning. I want to rebuild the bottom with some quality parts and install a new valve-train with a larger cam. I'm wanna go as big as I can with stock flowing heads. Its just gonna be a weekend car not a race car but I'm planning on running a 100-120 shot just for kicks.
Not sure on much but if the block is serviceable I'll be studding the mains. If the rods are serviceable I'm reading here that arp bolts are a must? Anywho any advice on what do to while the motor is out would be much appreciated.

 

Not a bad buy. Should have came and got my 385 m6 firebird for 3k. I just want it gone at this point.

Anyways things I would do.

- If the harness is chopped up find a good 94/95 harness and swap it in. Nothing like chasing wiring when a new harness will fix 99% of it.

- Headers. If the engine is out it makes it a lot easier to install them while the engine and k-member are out. Do that now you wont regret it. Pacesetter ceramic coated are still good while on a budget.

- As for the cam grab a cc503. Makes good power everywhere on stock heads. Not sure if you plan is to go drag racing with it. (I went more for the curvy roads over the drag strip. My last visit was 2009.)

- Dont forget a line hone with the arp main studs. And keep the windage tray. Rods I would get some arp bolts.

- One thing to check is the pistons. I had a motor with .030 over and they were sbc ones not lt1. So make sure you know the pistons so you can get either lt1 rings or sbc ones. No fun with its super smokey

- Now would be the time to slap in a new clutch.

- GET A STOCK GM OIL PUMP!!! Do not skip this. After 3 different brand aftermarket pumps I will only trust factory. Skip the melling for sure as mine failed in 137 miles. Buddy who also has lt1 cars has had them all fail within 1000 miles. He and I will only use stock pumps. It will be better than having to rebuild the engine again.

Otherwise enjoy your project. Mine has been off the road mainly since 2009. At this point I am ready to let it go and say goodbye to my first car. But that is a whole other story.

 

Well I pulled the rods today and the engine builder had put a few of the rod caps on backwards which I'm sure caused the failure. Machinist will tell me is the crank is serviceable tomorrow. The bores look good so I'm hoping just new bearings will do the trick there. Motor was supper clean though I don't think it ran long before it started knocking.

 

Made some progress, Pulled what was left of the accessories and the trashed harness.Driveshaft is out so not much needed to drop the motor when I'm ready. The terminal on the alternator is broken its just spins in there bolt and all so I'm add a new one to the list.





when I'm ready.

 

I spent most of last night cleaning the interior,ripping out a crappy alarm/ stereo wiring and beating my head against the floor wondering why the the locks and power mirrors wouldn't work knowing I did the rewiring correctly. I had power to the switch but nada. Turns out the number 7 fuse was blown and feeds whatever else they need to work the way the factory intended. Got the call this morning and my crank is shot, there's another machine shop here in town that says they have some. They may even have a standard sized one he says. $195 with bearings. Is that not a bit high? Bores and mains look good so I'm not to worried about that its the rods I'm more concerned with. It's already .30 over so if more than one rod is bad I may as well suck it up and stoker or get a short block of eBay. Seem to have good reviews.What do you guys think?

 

If you can get a std crank that is good price. Depends on what brand bearings come with it. But a good factory crank is getting hard to come by.

As for the ebay short blocks I have herd good and bad. I would want something that I put together with good parts. Plus I have learned to trust nobody else for car work. Only thing people can touch on my car is the alignment and even the last few times they have screwed up. So do your own work with your own parts.