I finally got off my duff and tore into this 350 that I have had sitting in my garage for the last 2 years just to see what I have. What started out to be just a simple gasket change and prep to go into my 86 Chevy turned into my tearing the upper half down to find out what I had after I dropped the pan and saw what I did. This engine has BARELY been used!

The old man that I got this thing from sure wasn't lying to me about it. It is a VERY well built unit. It is a 350 4-bolt main with TRW forged .030 pistons, a stock .010 .010 turned crank, Melling high volume oil pump, and Comp Cams valvetrain including a 280 Magnum cam and roller tip rockers!

On a hunch I ran the numbers on the pistons as TRW since the guy that built it back in the early 90's worked for O'Reilly and they sold a lot of TRW pistons back then. I ran them on the Summit Racing website and sure enough they were the forged TRW pistons. They call them Speed Pro these days, but they are the same part #. http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=TRW%2DL2256F30&autoview=sku Supposed to have an 8.62:1 compression ratio with 76cc heads.

As far as the cam, it was stamped right on the front what it was. I just pulled it and the lifters to inspect. They checked out perfect! It has a GM double row timing set. I wasn't aware that GM even made these. I only thought that the aftermarket manufacturers made them. I'm still thinking that I may install the gear drive when I put this thing back together.

I knew what the oil pump was as soon as I saw it. A Melling 55 H.V. I have bought many of these through the years, so I recognized it right off.

Looks like the heads are 76cc with 1.94/1.50 valves. I have a new set of stainless steel 2.02/1.60 valves that I am going to talk to my machinist about putting in these heads if they check out to be okay.

I had bought a 280 Magnum cam for this engine, but since it already has one in it, I'll just use it in the 383 that I'm going to be building soon. I am going to be taking the heads in to my machinist to get the once over as a safety precaution to make sure there are no cracks or warpage to worry about.

Then I'm going to put it back together and get it ready to run. A little bit of cleaning, painting, and some new gaskets and this little sucker will be ready to drop in and run! Best thig about this one is that I won't have to break the cam in. I hate having to do that! I've attached some pics of the teardown for you to check out. ...Joe

A few more pics. I'm glad that I tore this thing down because I found some dirt and debris in the cylinders from it sitting on the stand for so long without the exhaust ports being covered up. That's the main reason that I'm getting the heads checked over as a safety precaution. ...Joe

That's sweet Joe! Really scored there! :) Sorry I missed a couple calls from you earlier, was in the middle of crap. :)

Everything looks great. Congrats on the score!

DON'T mill the heads! If you do there won't be enough surface to hold around the spark plug water jackets. If you are going to do anything while it is down I'd recommend a line bore.

I'm not planning on touching the botom end at all. It appears to be in excellent shape. The only thing that I want to do to the heads while they are off is get them checked for cracks and get them resurfaced.

I also want to get them cut out for the larger 2.02 and 1.60 stainless steel valves that I have. I may change the double row timing set to a gear drive that I have. Other than that, I don't plan on making any other changes to it. It's pretty much built the way that I would have built it. ...Joe

Oh I forgot to ask you Bobbo. Did your friend see the pics of that parts truck yet and is he interested in it? That's why I called you the other day. And I wanted to see if you had found the price list on machine work with your machinist like we had talked about.

The machinist that I have used for over 20 years is located near Bolivar. He doesn't balance or turn cranks though so I need to find somebody good in this area that does so that I can get this 383 rotating assembly balanced when the time comes. ...Joe

My friend hasn't said what he wants yet, he needs to fix the tranny in it first. Will let ya know.

The charges on the machine work are as follows:
$75 to deck
$50 to acid clean and check the block
$100 to bore and finish
$40 hone cylinders (torque plate hone)
These prices are for the block, I will need to call him to find out about head work...

Sweet deal! The one thing that would only take a second to fix is to get rid of that oil pump drive with the plastic sleeve and replace it with a metal sleeve one from ARP.

My friend hasn't said what he wants yet, he needs to fix the tranny in it first. Will let ya know.

The charges on the machine work are as follows:
$75 to deck
$50 to acid clean and check the block
$100 to bore and finish
$40 hone cylinders (torque plate hone)
These prices are for the block, I will need to call him to find out about head work...

That's not too bad. Is this the guy over here in Republic? As him what he charges to clearance the block for a stroker crank while you are at it please. And I'd also like to know what he charges for cam clearancing the rods and balancing the rotating assembly. ...Joe

Sweet deal! The one thing that would only take a second to fix is to get rid of that oil pump drive with the plastic sleeve and replace it with a metal sleeve one from ARP.

Yeah I agree that plastic sleeve wasn't one of GM's better ideas. I need to replace that as well. This engine will do me well while I'm building that 383. I built one identical to this 350 for my 82 K20 Silverado some 12 or so years back.

It pulled like a freight train. I have often wished that I had kept that engine when I sold the truck. I may even like ithis one enough that I just keep it in there and keep the 383 for a future project. ;) ...Joe

Update: I have the whole thing at the machine shop. Decided to do a complete teardown and rebuild on the whole thing after I got the heads that Larry May gave me back from the machine shop. The heads looked so good that they made the rest of it look bad. Glad I tore it the rest of the way apart.

I found a tight wrist pin on #7 so I'm going to be using the powdered metal rods that I had originally bought for the 383 on this one, and am having them set up for floating pins. I'm going to be using a set of Speed Pro 2 valve relief hypereuectic flat top pistons. Bore size will remain at .030. I'm also upgrading to a factory forged steel crank. The bottom end should be plenty strong for what it will be used for. Should get everything back from the machine shop within the next week so that I can start this build.

More updates and pics to come. Stay tuned... ...Joe

I'm finally getting around to posting some updated pics. This is as far as I am right now. Not done yet, but it's very close now. Makes the rest of the truck look ghetto now! Need to rip the body off the frame and do it up right. Putting this into my truck as is just wouldn't do it justice. Anyway, here goes...

I was able to keep the bore at .030. I bought new Speed Pro 2 valve relief flat tops, and had my machinist set up my new GM powdered metal rods for full floating pins. I added a .010/.010 GM forged steel crank, #1182 as well as the #487 GM heads that fellow board member Larry May gave me. After a trip to the machine shop, they came back with 2.02/1.60 stainless steel valves, and a little port work done to them.

Some more assembly pics. I chose a Comp Cams 268 Extreme Energy cam and complete valvetrain. Cam has .477 lift on intake and .480 on the exhaust side. Duration is 224 @ .050 intake and 230 @.050 exhaust. Should make 375 horse easily with the parts that went into it.

More pics of assembly.

More pics. The intake manifold that I chose is a GM Performance Parts dual plane. Should work really good with the cam and heads that I have.

This is the last of the pics for the time being. I spent a lot of time this week getting this thing as far along as it is. Worked on it just about every night after work and most of this weekend. Hard to go straight through with a project like this with all the distractions around here! I forgot to buy some hardware that I need, and the Mr. Gasket timing pointer that I bought won't fit the chromed aluminum timing cover that I put on it. Got to find another timing pointer now! Details details! I'll post some more pics when it's closer to being done. ...Joe

That's looking great, Joe. :) Getting close to putting it in!

A few more update pics. I'm still waiting on a few more parts to show up from Summit Racing, which should be here tomorrow (Friday) then it will be a complete, ready to run small block! ...Joe

I kinda went nuts on the chrome for this one! I even bought a chromed aluminum ball milled air cleaner to match the ball milled chrome valve covers and wire loom brackets! I wanted it to look as good as it's going to run!

Wow that thing is sweet!!

Thanks Kyle! She's all done now. Here are the updated pics. I had to change the alternator brackets. The chrome ones that I had wouldn't work, so I bought this billet setup off of skipwhite on eBay. Really trick looking setup, and should be really easy to get belt tension just right. I have seen these for the power steering pump as well. Going to look into getting one for my power steering pump while I'm at it. Now I need to get the body all lined out! Got LOTS of work to do in that department! ...Joe

You gotta be a happy man! Sweet engine!!!

Thanks! I am happy with this one. Can't wait for the day that my truck is down to the frame so that I can drop this thing in! I can't wait to hear it run for the first time! Should be a fun rig to drive once all the work is done. Still have a long way to go. I'll just plug along on it one project at a time!;) ...Joe