I even found bits of destroyed journal material in the oil filter fitting valve – see the triangular bit on the right of the valve opening.
I pulled two frost plugs and found very little in the way of corrosion crud. I’ll let the block dry out completely and then use high air pressure to blow out any rust residue.
The bare block and the starting point of the rebuild 🙂
Using the ridge reamer I removed all the ridge material from each cylinder leaving a smooth surface for my hone.
With the ridge cleaned up I checked the top and bottom wear. Each cylinder showed less that .0005 – that being the max acceptable.
Buddy Don loaned me his ridge reaming tool. I took off just enough to get the pistons out of the bore.
The pistons all appear to be fine. Some pins are looser than others – some floppy and some downright stiff. I’ll have to check that out.
The harmonic damper was very tight on the crank.
The timing gear and chain looked fine. I may keep it as it is a low mileage engine. I have a dual sprocket unit for the engine that will be coming out of the L48. This is a failed engine so I’ll be looking for any causes.
Mains out. Nice to have a 4 bot main block. All bolts packages and labelled. Centre caps are all marked to go back in as they were removed.
Crank and cam out. Can’t really get a shot of the cam bearings, but there is noticeable wear. I”ll be buying a set of cam bearings and also the tool to extract and install them.
The crank is in poor shape. Three rod journals and the three centre mains are all damaged enough to require a grind job – likely just .010 under I hope.
Looking at the crank, rod and cam bearings leads me to think that the engine was run on low levels of oil and maybe even next to no pressure. If the truck had an analog gauge the problem might not have been noticed soon enough. That and maybe no oil changes – just topping up – may have caused the excessive wear.
I borrowed this heavy duty valve spring compressor from fellow car buff Don. It was needed as the valve springs on this engine are very stiff.
The springs are doubled with an inner spring. Two were extra hard to compress for some reason. They happened to be the only two with damaged oil seals. Oddly there was only the O ring style rubber seals in place – no umbrella seals at all. The number relates to the cylinder they were taken from.
Lots of carbon especially on the intake valves likely from absense of umbrella seals on the stems. The Exhaust has more than normal carbon deposits. The faces look OK.
The valve chambers are not carboned up and the valve faces don’t look too bad.
I cleaned the valves with my electric wire wheel being careful not to his the valve faces. I then lapped the valves with proper lapping compound and a lapping suction cup on my drill at low speed. I ran it for a bit until the sound of grinding stopped then I lifted the valve to get more compound on the face and lapped again. I did this for four times then added more lapping compound and did it again. There are a some dark spots on the exhaust valve, but the intake is nice and clear.I will try lapping the exhaust valve a few more times to see if they clean up a bit better. If not I’ll go with them as is. This is not going to be a high mileage engine and since I live in the country it should run clean.
Next: ridge reaming and checking the cylinder run out.
Checking the lifter wobble. Less than .001 so all’s good. The face of the lifters is shiny and not showing wear. I suspect the cam will be OK too.
I checked the lift on an exhaust and intake valve to verify the cam and I got a reading close to .401 and .383 resp. that is listed for that crate engine.
Other than a minor bit of surface rust on a couple of cylinders all the combustion chambers look OK.
Tim arrived with the engine in the back of his truck. We off loaded it with an engine hoist and then I got it onto an engine stand.
The engine block # 10066036 is a ‘hencho en Mexico’ GM Goodwrench crate 350 from around 1990. The heads are #93417369 (or 33417369) also made in hencho en Mexico. They are 76 CC heads with 1.94″ intake and 1.50″ exhaust. This engine as it stands is supposed to make 250 HP @4300 rpm with 350 lbs of torque. Respectable as a donor for the Chevy until I can get the original motor rebuilt.
First thing removed. I was surprised to find out that it is an aluminum unit. I’ll save it in case someone needs a 4 bbl intake.
When doing over an engine I like to keep all the bolts, etc marked in bags. The lifters, and push rods are all marked so they go back in as they came out.. I”ll likely use the original cam. It is supposed to be good for low end torque – something like a stage 1 replacement cam which is often used to improve towing. They is a replacement truck engine so that makes sense.
Heads off and time to check the cylinder wear – ignore the numbers on the pistons.
This is my handy-dandy cylinder checker. I was gifted it from an old mechanic friend Arnold Legrow of Springhill, NS who sadly has passed away along with the love of his life Doris.
The bar on the bottom has a number of collars of differing sizes. I used a combination that gave me exactly 4″ between the uprights. I then used a combination of gauge extensions so the gauge fits between the uprights. I then set the dial to 0 and I was ready to check the cylinder wear. I’ll use it also to check the top to bottom cylinder wear when the pistons are out.
I checked each cylinder one at a time while rotating the engine. All the cylinders ranged between 4″ and 4.002″ Satisfactory for a re-ring with the original pistons.
Using a compression calculator I came up with a ratio of about 8.9:1 Which is quite respectable. The parameters I used were 4″ piston, 3.5″ stroke, 4.03″ gasket bore, .026 compressed gasket, 76cc combustion chamber, dish depth -5 and deck clearance of .025″.
The gallery is quite clean and free of sludge. there was however quite a bit of sludge in the pan. Also in the pan were bits of rod bearings – not all showing.
Finally got the QuickJack to work, but it is still a bit wonky. Not sure what the problem is. I bled the cylinders a couple of times to get it to go up and down. I then tested it with the car on it and it went up OK, but the right side wouldn’t lower to the locking point. After leaving it overnight it did lower to the locking point. Hopefully it will lower when the time comes. QuickJack sellers haven’t been able to help much.
Getting the old paint off the rocker trim. Used a razor scraper, dental pick, copper cleaning pad, etc plus 400 grit wet sandpaper to remove the old black and red paint. Fiddly but they came out OK in the end. I’ll use a primer filler to remove all the fine scratch marks left over from the grinder used by the paint and body man. I’ll hang them up until the warm weather arrives and then give them a coat of reflex silver and clear coat followed by a black pin stripe in the groove.
I’ll use the same technique to clean the rear window trim and then paint it up the same as the rocker panels. Not sure if I’ll add a pin stripe or not.
This is the location on the passenger side where the front rocker trim bolt mounting hole used to be.
I fashioned up a small piece of aluminum as a repair to the body fibreglass.
I loosed off the front body screw and slipped the repair plate in behind. The repair plate needed to be curved a bit to match the white area of the fibreglass.
Three aluminum pop rivets and tightening of the body screw and the patch is securely in place. I’ll drill it for the rocker panel bolt when I re-install in the spring.
I used up the last of a tube of automotive seam sealer using a popsicle stick – I keep a bag of used ones on hand in the garage. They seem to come in handy quite often.
Back in place and cleaned up with paint thinners for the next step.
Spray covered with rubberized rock guard. That will make sure it is sealed and also keep the screws from rusting. The spray is still wet and will become dull when fully dry. It’s actually paintable.
The Chevy is back up on the QuickJack. The jack worked fine a couple of times, but when I left it overnight and then went to lower the car one side wouldn’t drop. A pain in the neck if I have to get it off the QuickJack. I’ve got an email out to the company to see if they can help. I’ll also check the internet.
Replacement car cover from CarCovers.ca. Fits perfect and no flaws this time:-)
My QuickJack unit is giving me grief. One side doesn’t want to lower. I had to get the car off the QuickJack and on jack stands which isn’t easy with the QuickJack under the side frame rails where normal jacking takes place. Got her down safely, but I will loose garage time finding the problem and fixing it!
Rear window trim came off without too much work. I was able to release the clips using a plastic trim tool and a dental pick. I didn’t break any that I removed, but five were already broken. I will have to see if I can get new clips fitted with the window in place. I really don’t want to r&r the rear window.
Meanwhile, a little Spray ( to clean the inside of the rocker panel trim before I go on the sanding.
Removed the rocker cover trim for repaint. They are aluminum and had the paint sanded off. They will need a finish sanding prior to prime and paint. I’ll be doing them over in VW reflex silver and clear coat. I’ll also add a black pin pin stripe in the upper groove.
The rocker panels are for the most part good. The side frame is now exposed. It only has light surface rusting. I’ll clean them up a bit and coat them with heavy Rust Check.
A little hard to make out, but the front end of the right rocker panel has been broken off where the rocker panel front bolt is located. I’ll need to do a repair here before re-installing the rocker.
Most of the rocker bolts came out OK. I used a dental pick to clean out the screw head grooves and then used a philips head socket and a 3/8″ drive to snap them loose. Only a couple needed to have the nuts held in place on the back for removal. Only one had to be drilled out. They are specially formed machine screws with small heads. I’ll pick up a new set for the re-install. They come in black and will blend in nicely with the black pin striping.
There are three screw fittings on each side in the centre of the panels. Fortunately they area all in good shape. It would be a real problem if they are damaged as it would be very hard to get a nut in back to secure the screw. The two front and one rear screws are accessible from the back to use nuts.
Next I’ll need to remove the rear window aluminum trim. It also needs to be sanded, primed painted and clear coated. Hopefully all the clips are in good shape as I believe the window has to be removed to install new clips.
Had the Chevy out for a last drive. A bit of salt on the road and it looks like the fall rains are starting. So time to take the L48 off the road and get at the winter work. I have trim work, dash work and ‘donor’ engine work to get done. I’ll also fit in some Studebaker work as I can.
First things first. Grease job and tire rotation. I won’t be changing oil or filter. No need as they engine will be coming out. It’s using about a quart every 100 kms or so, but not showing up as blue smoke thankfully.
When removing the rear tires I noticed an access plate on the front side of the wheel well. I decided to open them up to check for rust on the body mounts.
What I did find was the remains of a mouse nest. Fortunately the body mounts and rear bird cage assembly had only surface rusting.
I gave the cavity a good coating of the heavy duty (green can) rust check.
The inside of the access plates where somewhat rusted – bare metal from the factory. So I gave them a quick going over in the bead blast cabinet.
I gave them a coat of Rock Guard spray undercoating. I find it stands up well. I like to use it on the front end A arms, etc.
Next: my first bit of restoration will be the rocker panel trim and the rear window trim. Both are aluminum and were sanded off for the quickie paint job to sell the car. I found out the car came into the province in 1988. It apparently sat for 20 years before the sale – from 2003. So it was driven for about 24 years. which works out to about 6,000 km’s per year with 144,000 showing on the odometer. Definitely time for a complete overhaul!
