Master 355 Rebuild Thread
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 28
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From: From Texas..live in Southern Maryland
Master 355 Rebuild Thread Alright, so I have been searching for tips on how to rebuild my LT1 to a 355.
Problem is, although there are many threads about 355's, I don't see many describing the process or steps. Maybe we could "dumb" this up a bit and really outline the 355 rebuild (parts, sizes, tolerances, etc...). I know i'm not the only one that wants to do this and doesnt feel confident enough to do it myself yet. We really don't want to pay someone a rediculous amount of money either.
Let me start.....
1) Engine pulled out of car.
Problem is, although there are many threads about 355's, I don't see many describing the process or steps. Maybe we could "dumb" this up a bit and really outline the 355 rebuild (parts, sizes, tolerances, etc...). I know i'm not the only one that wants to do this and doesnt feel confident enough to do it myself yet. We really don't want to pay someone a rediculous amount of money either.
Let me start.....
1) Engine pulled out of car.
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 28
Likes: 0
From: From Texas..live in Southern Maryland
yeah, i have it. is that the thread killer? buy a book. how bout we just kill the whole site....there are books out there. lol. sorry, it's just you kind of are defeating the whole purpose here.
Well most probably aren't gonna bother replying to this because it's basic and search has what you need if you know what you are looking for. I'll brief you since I was there once too. Basically all a 355 is is your motor with a .030" overbore for cleanup. Most reuse the stock crank cuz it's pretty stout for what it is. You have many options in this process like splayed 4 bolt main caps over your stock 2 bolts. This strengthens the main journal area by stabilizing the caps with extra bolts and removing flex by using billet steel (stock caps are powdered metal). You can also polish the stock crank which removes the "casting lines." By smoothing out the high spots, this eliminates the possibility of cranks forming there. If the bearing journals are slightly worn, your machinist will turn the crank or machine it down and use a larger bearing. You can also deck the block or shave it down to straighten up the mating surfaces or to achieve a higher compression ratio. You can get these parts off the shelf and in most cases you can buy a kit and it will have pistons and rings in there. Then you buy your choice of connecting rod (that is if you want to upgrade, they have piston kits for stock rods too). The most common setup for 355 is .030" over pistons with a 6" rod. There are some very strict clearances in a motor and two important ones are the compression ratio and PTV clearance. So all that's gotta be checked. That's a very basic description for you. To put it politely, start doing a lot of reading if you want to go this route cuz you've got a lot of work to do. Picking heads and cam is really the meat of the setup and we didn't even talk about that. Dropping your car off at a shop and letting them do all the work is $$$ and you can easily get ripped off if you don't know what you want to do, how it's gonna be done, or what they're doing to the car.
Last edited by dhdenney; Oct 2, 2007 at 02:09 PM.
Yea the build is not the hard part... your main concern is to get the block prepped properly with the right clearances and machined correct. I would definately reccommend a machine shop to prep the block, bore and hone cylinders, line hone crank, balance rods and pistons, and install bearings.
Well most probably aren't gonna bother replying to this because it's basic and search has what you need if you know what you are looking for. I'll brief you since I was there once too. Basically all a 355 is is your motor with a .030" overbore for cleanup. Most reuse the stock crank cuz it's pretty stout for what it is. You have many options in this process like splayed 4 bolt main caps over your stock 2 bolts. This strengthens the main journal area by stabilizing the caps with extra bolts and removing flex by using billet steel (stock caps are powdered metal). You can also polish the stock crank which removes the "casting lines." By smoothing out the high spots, this eliminates the possibility of cranks forming there. If the bearing journals are slightly worn, your machinist will turn the crank or machine it down and use a larger bearing. You can also deck the block or shave it down to straighten up the mating surfaces are to achieve a higher compression ratio. You can get these parts off the shelf and in most cases you can buy a kit and it will have pistons and rings in there. Then you buy your choice of connecting rod (if you want to upgrade, they have piston kits for stock rods). The most common setup for 355 is .030" over pistons with a 6" rod. That's a very basic description for you. To put it politely, start doing a lot of reading if you want to go this route cuz you've got a lot of work to do. Picking heads and cam is really the meat of the setup and we didn't even talk about that. Dropping your car off at a shop and letting them do all the work is $$$ and you can easily get ripped off if you don't know what you want to do or what they're doing.
