Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 350 chevy rebuild advice

And by '96 even marine engines were equipped with roller cams.

I rebuilt the motor in my old 92 1500. it was a TBI engine. raise the compression to 9.25:1 a set of Headman Headers, ported and polished the heads added a Comp Cams Cam kit to it. It pulled great up to about 4000rpms then fell flat on its face anything more than that and it was just making noise and wasting gas...... But it did sound good. IMO the cam was a total waste of $400

Oh, if the ol' girl doesn't have an electric fan for the radiator - get one. Ridding the engine of that damn fan frees up 15 hp, and provides a nice bump in economy.

Ya know we took the rotating valve caps off the exhaust valves around '96...

You ever seen a set of Ford 3.0 or 3.8 heads?? I bet we did 10 sets of those a week



These engines also had Aluminium heads which disapates heat better and reduced detonation

what ever chevy aspires to be.

Indeed there is no replacement for displacement.......

Thats the 2nd time I have said that this week. I bet its been 8 years since I said that before this week..

I have a 98 Chevy 350 and it had to have the intake gasket replaced at something like 90K miles.

LT-4's also had Crane roller rocker arms...

6:1 ratio/ 10mm studs. Those were kept under lock and key.

Three different Summit kits have worked good here over the years. Due to lack of zinc in modern oil, I would consider a roller cam setup - unless you will use a zinc additive.

I believe that was in 96 with the introduction of the Vortec, although they may have started in 95 with that engine already. I never thought I'd be a mechanic, but now that I'm doing it it's not so bad I guess. Lots of frustration and cussing involved, but it pays the bills.

IIRC the V-8 Vortex truck engine was introduced in '96, it was designated a Gen1-E engine. By then all V-8 blocks were machined to accept either a flat tappet or a roller cam. That change was made in conjunction with the 1 piece rear seal and the high rail heads.

The true Vortex engines have the extra coolant tubes that run to the back of the heads.

I don't know about a lack of ZDDP in oil, I use this stuff in my old 1976 van with a 1985 350 in it: http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/aro.aspx It has a high dose of ZDDP and a TBN of 12.1. Or how about this one designed for flat-tappet cams http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/zrf.aspx

Run this stuff in my DuraMax diesel: http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/hdd.aspx It too has a high ZPPD content and a TBN of 12.1. I run it two years or minimum 25k miles before changing, with oil analysis, even then it has a lot of life left.

There are plenty of oils available with zinc. They just cost more and aren't compatible with the API CJ-4 specification.

Nice engine porn. When I drag raced down in San Angelo TX my buddies would use the adage "The only thing that beats cubic inches is cubic dollars." That looks like both to me. Not sure the OP is looking for all that but I enjoyed the pic!

May not translate to today, but 20 years ago a buddy rebuilt two 350 pickup motors and both gave good performance and decent fuel mileage.

First one was pretty much just a stock rebuild on a 2 bolt '76 half ton motor w/2bbl carb: rings, bearings, seals, etc, plus a new TRW RV Grind cam. Heads were surfaced, valve job w/knurled guides. I had that truck for years and it ran like a bear, had plenty of climbing power.

There is a long, steep hill up near Williamsport, PA on the route that we commonly traveled to my hunting camp. As-issued, that truck would kick into passing gear about 1/3 of the way up that long grind, to maintain 55-60MPH.

First trip up with the "new" motor, it climbed that hill @ 60MPH and never kicked into passing gear. I enjoyed the hell out of that little truck, while I owned it.

Same buddy later built a 4 bolt 350 for his truck, but added new pistons, rods and a similar RV grind cam. That one was also pretty stout.

Only problem he ever had with that motor, was oil "drain by" on the valve guides at about 90K miles after the rebuild. He'd asked the shop to install bronze valve guides when they redid the heads, instead of just knurling them, but they f'd that part up and forgot the bronze guides, went with the common knurl process.

No biggie, as that motor ran for well over 200K afterwards when he sold the truck and it was still on the road at 350+.

My '95 was a throttle body.

With 270,000 miles on the engine, it might need to have the cylinders bored. If you want more power, I'd look at making it a 383 with a stroker kit. I think the block needs a few modifications to make the long stroke crank fit, but any good engine machine shop should be able to do it when they're boring the block.

with that kind of mileage i would check to make sure it is re- buildable like someone else said if the crank needs replaced it might just be cheaper to buy a crate engine even with the freebies you get with your shop class

gene

I currently work part time at my family's engine shop doing cylinder heads and some other miscellaneous work. I worked there full time for over ten years doing the same work. I am 3rd generation.

You are limited on the power you can put into the engine with the rods, crank, and two bolt main block. Upgrading all three will cost a lot of money.

Cheap, poor quality components and sloppy work will make the engine worse and it will not run very long like it did.

With the mileage your engine has a simple rebuild will give you some more power.


*My suggestion for an every day runner and light tower:

-Disassemble and check that all major components are usable first.

-*Buy a quality kit from a local and respected engine shop, *not a part timer*, *a company that people make their living at*. Also since you buy the kit off of them they may answer some questions you may have and give suggestions.

-Put a *slightly better cam in the engine.(A major change may cause computer issues.)

-Put new ARP bolts in the rods and mains.

-Do a multi-angle valve job on the heads and *lightly lap the new valves or fresh ground valves. Surface the heads. Put new springs that match the cam on the heads installed to the correct height. Maybe put new, quality, stainless, spiral flowed, undercut valves in the heads also. *Do not knurl the guides; if they are bad put new guides in and ream to proper clearance, not too loose or too rough but enough clearance. *Do not use umbrella seals; *use positive type seals on the heads, preferably metal clad type as they last and function a long time.

-Bore the block .030 or .040(.060" is max). Use quality pistons with stock compression; no need for ridiculously expensive for this application. *Make sure the bores are perfect on size and *finish for the rings being used. Check ring gaps.

-*Use Clevite bearings.

-*Do not make the mistake of using synthetic oil until the engine is broken in. Break the engine in until you horse on it.

-Maybe upgrade the rockers. If they are bad then when buying new buy quality roller or roller tip rockers.


This will give you an engine that is fresh, slightly larger cubic inch due to boring, slightly better cam, and slightly better heads, all for a little more power over a new stock engine.

The rods, two bolt mains, and cast crank are the weak links for a more powerful engine, in that order along with the computer to tune a more significant engine change.

I'm considering going to a late model (2003-up) 5.3L for my 1990 K5 5.7 Tbi, big boost in HP, about 90hp & better gas mileage to boot!

check this out
google = 5.3L turnkey reno 4x4