Hey, I am really wanting to crack open my motor and start building it up. But to be perfectly honest I know next to nothing about the insides of one. I know what the pieces are, just not enough to know how to build them up or anything like that. Are there any good books you guys can recommend that would help me along. Looking not so much for a how to on how to take apart the engine, I'm ok as far as that goes, but more along the lines of explaining the difference in the individual pieces, heads, cams, rods, pistons, and the like. Just wanted to get a knowledgeable opinion on a book rather than just going to Amazon and buying the first one that looks pretty. Thanks in advance...

 

Anyone know of http://www.parts123.com/parts123/yb....Z5Z5Z50000050G
is any good?

 

corvette magazines usually hav enging rebuild books in them, try lookin at mid america, i know theyve got at least one in the back of their magazine

Miles

 

The 350 that's in my Vette right now is the first engine I ever rebuilt. I bought the car and rebuilt the engine all in the same year, roughly a decade ago. When I did that I knew nothing about the engine and just started taking it apart. I documented everything, and bagged every bolt or set of bolts and kept like bolts and parts together.

I bought everything I thought I would need in the way of bearings, gaskets, and worn parts like timing chain and even things like cam and lifters.

I replaced the crank with a stock crank, and just honed the cylinders and ground the ridge down using rented tools from Autozone.

I ended up calling a few guys, like a friend at a machine shop and my Step Dad who's a bit of a shade tree mechanic.

All in all I needed very little help. It's all very easy to grasp once you get in and see how it all fits.

Some tips...

If you have it bored it will need new pistons. Hone if you can.

Use the proper rented tools for removing and installing pulleys and balancers and NEVER hammer a pulley on anywhere.

Keep track of which bore the lifters came out of because it will need to go back in that same bore IF you keep them.

Keep track of rod caps and main caps. They need to be organized and installed as they came off. They are marked with the proper order but it's hard to tell if you don't know how or where to look. Pistons too, go in a certain way.

Don't buy cheap gaskets or bearings. This will cause problems later.

Mark the distributor in three places to show where top dead center was, the position of the distributor to the block, and the rotor to the distributor.

I sand all my gasket surfaces down with a jitter bug sander and light grit paper. It won't remove any material and cleans things up very nicely for a great seal. Much better than a razor blade of you can get it in everywhere.

A book will be a great reference for things like torque specs and such, so it's a good tool to have, but nothing beats just jumping in and doing it.

With a forum like this for help you should be fine.

 

Wow thanks for all the tips ... im assuming the assembly manual will have the torque specs correct?? ill prolly have to hold off until the summer when I can use my motorcycle for my everday, but i will be bookmarking this for just that. Thanks again

 

Very welcome. Are you going to be rebuilding it stock or will you take the opportunity to modify it a bit? It's a great chance to build a couple hundred extra HP into it.

 

Probally will be building it up a bit. That is mostly what I am concerned with. I like to think of myself as somewhat mechanically inclined, and taking the engine apart is not really a concern. Mostly apart from slapping a supercharger/turbo onto an engine I don't know enough about the internals to make a good decision when it comes to upgrading them.

 

Well if you can post what you want to get out of it, if you want to stay with the 350 you have or get a new engine or block to start we can help you go through all the options you have and what you want out of it.

Your budget is a big factor so that needs to be considered first.

 

Well the 350 was rebuilt stock about 10K miles ago. So I would prolly just keep that. Im hoping to 3-4K saved up for the engine. im looking for anywhere between 350-400 RWHP...

 

Wondering if it might be easier to just slap on a S/C and call it a day? How would the stock internals hold up to that?

 

if you're still looking for some good books to use, go to amazon.com, and do a search for 'david vizard'. he's got a lot of very good books about rebuilds, performance builds, valvetrains, etc.

 

If it's all in good shape they'll hold up to a low boost super charger, but then you're paying a lot of money for a small gain.

I was actually just looking into a $4500 kit that bolts on onto a 350 and comes with everything needed to turn the key and go including the fuel andn EFI management system.

I would think you would need all forged internals for that kind of system though, so it'd be too much for a stock rebuilt engine.

 

Hmm. Well what kind of upgrades would I need for a 350-400 hp N/A?? I would infact be more proud of my car that way.

 

Stroker kit, appropriate block work, heads, manifold, cam, lifters, carb, and maybe some work to the transmission and rear end.

 

And here inlies the problem. I know nothing about the specifics of any of that stuff lol. Well guess there is no better time to learn than now.