What website can I go to rebuild an 76 stingray's engine with stock internals except ftermarket camshaft? Or should I put more aftermarket parts in while i have it all apart? my budget is $1,500

 

With that budget you have a good option. I would say, rebuild the bottom end with stock bearings and rings from Oreilly or Napa. Buy good Fel-Pro gaskets and seals and build your short block stock. Your crank might need a turning and if it's a running engine you may not have to bore the cylinders and you won't have to buy new pistons.

You might get away with just a good honing and any local machine shop will be able to hone, test, and clean your block. They will also be able to check and turn your crank if needed, and can sell you the bearings you need.

My machine shop is also a good place to go for rings and if you buy them from them they will even install the rings.

Once the bottom end is done I would suggest a set of used Vortec iron heads. There were only two castings and both are just fine. The only difference is the grind on the exhaust valves and I doubt you would ever see or notice the difference.

Have a the machine shop test and clean them, and maybe install screw in rocker studs and guide plates.

Then, all you need is an after market Vortec manifold, a nice cam and lifter combo and all the small details you go through when rebuilding an engine.

The Vortec heads, if combined with good exhaust and a smart cam choice, can net you close to 100 extra HP.

This is the cam and lifter combo:
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...3&autoview=sku

I can even aid you in finding some nice used Vortec heads that are in a salvage yard near you if you PM me your ZIP code.

 

If I wanted to replace the pistons could i use this kit or any other kit from ebay? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Chevy...QQcmdZViewItem

 

Those kits are fine and all but you lose a lot of control over things like your cam and level of quality for gaskets and seals. Kits are a good way to bundle but maybe look for a smaller bundle.

Replacing the pistons is helpful for compression if you have a lot compression motor or if the cylinders were bored over. With the stock L48 pistons, and the Vortec swap, you get right around 9.5 compression. With flat top pistons, like from an L82, you would be getting dangerously close to 10 and detonation.

By the way, using your Zip, I found a few places for you to call Monday during the day for prices and condition. Both of these places have a set of Vortec heads, and both are within 25 miles.

Scott Street Auto Parts, Inc.
Houston, TX
1-800-955-0210
1996 Chevy Truck C1500
5.7L, VORTEC, GOOD Part #964857

Bingle Auto Parts
Houston, TX
1-800-464-1631
1998 Chevy Truck C1500

Call them Monday and discuss condition and price if you pick up. They may require core so negotiate that part.

If they fall through I have some other cheap options for you, under $100 each, that may have to be shipped to you.

 

Thanks for all the info! So If I were to rebuild a 76 stingrays engine, with new stock internals, but aftermarket cam, vortec heads, and vortec manifold, how much HP would I be looking at? thanks again

 

If it's an L48, add around or under 75 - 80 HP to your stock HP rating. You'll do even better than that if you have free flowing exhaust of some kind. With exhaust, around 100 extra.

 

ok, so when I do an engine rebuild, I would need new pistons,rods,bearings,crankshaft, aftermarket camshaft, vortec heads, manifold, new seals, gaskets, anything else?

 

Probably want to replace the timing set too.

With the Vortec heads, you can use your old rockers if you have a machine shop install guide plates and have the spring seats milled for .500 springs. Also, with the guide plates, you will want hardened push rods, stock length. The guide plates and push rods are cheaper than self aligning rockers.

 

For a basic stock rebuild, try Northern Auto Warehouse and buy a complete kit, was $159 a few years back. You can get a cam and lifters from them or Summit or Jegs. I used to buy a lot from PAW in California. Not sure if they are still around. Years ago they had multi-page ads in all the car mags every month. They had a great catalog and great selection/variety of kits. Might try them too.

 

Good advice across the board from Durango Boy and I don't have much to add. Note that you'll need to reuse all of your sheet metal, so talk to the engine shop about tossing your oil pan, etc. in the tank with the block. Bottom line is to save EVERYTHING (except torqued fastners) during teardown. $1500 isn't a ton of money for an overhaul, so you do need to budget wisely. I'd guessimate around 300 HP at the flywheel assuming ~ .450 lift cam.

I think you'll find that by the time you add screw-in studs, guideplates and hardened pushrods to reuse your stock rockers, a set of CompCams self-aligning rockers may look like a good deal Just do the math before deciding.

The Northern Auto Parts kits are a pretty good deal; they offer upgrades and if you select carefully you can get a nice kit with the brand names you want for around $350. I've built a couple with their kits and been happy with them.

http://www.northernautoparts.com/

 

PAW is still there & has a huge catalog just for GM parts. Other than that DB summed it up well. One other thing to do is search for Lar's papers on Q-jet rebuilding. You pick up some pep there too.

 

If you go to a Vortec intake manifold, I'm not sure your hood will close anymore---- better check --- . What carb are you going to use and what air cleaner??? If you're changing the carb, you need to replum the fuel line ---- don't just run a rubber hose to the carb. not safe.

Also, don't forget to replace the easy stuff while the engine is out. Replace the water pump, fuel pump, spark plug wires, upgrade distributor cap, chip & coil, remove and reseal the radiator or replace the radiator with a Dewitts Aluminum one, replace all hoses. If you're adding 100 HP she will run hotter and your existing radiator will probably NOT handle the additional heat. Lots of things to consider once you change from stock ---- ask me how I know

 

Before you do anything take the engine out and strip it down. At 90K miles I did this to my tired engine and found a few things that surprised me. On my block you could still see some of the original hone marks which is a tribute to the longevity of the small block chevy. The pistons and crank still were within tolerance and there were no cracks in the block. In my case all I did was get an engine refresh kit although I can't remember whether it was from Northern or Summit. I believe it was Summit. I cleaned the block and crank with hot water and soap and cleaned the pistons and rods in carb cleaner. I also bought a set of World Products SR Torquer heads with 2.02 x 1.60 valves and 67 cc chambers since my original heads were junk and it was more cost effective to replace them. I then bought a Crane HMV 272 Max Velocity cam (now called Powermax), Summit lifters, Summit roler rockers, Summit hardened pushrods and Summit double roller timing set. I finished off with a high volume/high pressure oil pump from Summit with the pickup welded already. I then cleaned the cylinders with lacquer thinner and paper towels to get them spotless and honed them with a hand hone in a drill using honing oil. I only honed them enough to get a cross hatch pattern. Clean the block again after this step. I then installed the crank in the block using plastigauge to measure clearances which were within factory tolerance. Next the pistons were installed using the moly rings that came in the rebuild set. The rod bearings were installed the same as the crank bearings and were within tolerance. I then installed the cam and timing chain matching the marks on the cam gear with the no. 1 piston at TDC. I didn't using a timing wheel or anything fancy to set up the cam, its basically installed right out of the box. Next the heads were installed using the gaskets supplied in the kit along with the roller rockers and pushrods. Everything went together well with one exception. The temperature sender hole was too small. I took a drill and increased the size of the hole and tapped it using an NPT tap for the larger sending unit. So far (about five years) nothing has leaked.
Finally I installed the oil pump, oil pan and front timing cover and the engine was basically done except for intake and exhaust manifolds and accessories.

Now I know this sounds very shade tree but it works for a street engine. If you are not going to race the car or subject the engine to extended high rpms this type of rebuild can be done for less than $1K and is very serviceable. The engine runs smoothly and uses no oil and has only a very minor seepage at the rear seal. I'm not sure if thats because of an installation problem or the fact that the high volumn/high pressure pump is exceeding the capacity of the seal. Either way its not enough to tear it down to fix and I've had cars that leaked far worse with much less mileage on them.

I've got about 10K miles on the engine since I rebuilt it. The engine feels strong and has a nice noticeable idle with the cam in it. It will idle at 850 rpm and still pulls about 14 inches of vacuum. I asked someone to run a Desktop Dyno on the combination and their answer is in my sig pic. It fels like about a 300~325 horse engine so I figure I boosted the hp by about 100 including the performer type intake and Dynomax headers. Maybe its more but I like to be conservative. In any case it pulls strong in each gear but will still lug down to 1000 rpm in 4th gear.

If you are thinking of doing something like this you can get books from many sources on how to rebuild a SMC. I also bought a nice video (again I think from Summit) which showed the step by step process. I bought a few special tools to do the job but nothing extravagant. I got a set of telescoping gauges and a couple of micrometers to perform measurements with and the hand hone to hone the cylinders. I also bought the tap for the temperature sending unit hole. Other than that most of the tools you need to get the job done are basic hand tools that you probably already have. You'll also need a decent torque wrench. I have a 3/8 inch and 1/2 inch Husky torque wrench which I purchased at either Home Depot or Lowes. They work well and have lasted me far longer than the POS I bought from Sears (but that's another story).

Good luck in whatever you decide to do.

 

If your sbc350 rebuild including boring ... and you wish to have/retain dished piston ... suggest using an OE-type vortec piston ... it's a good hyper design and has the far-superior thin 1.5mm,1.5mm,3mm ringpak that delivers good seal, mimimum friction (fuel efficiency&power) & mimimum bore wear & excellent durability. Dome volume about -11 to -13cc ... Sealed Power P/N H815P . Over past decade, ALL OE have gone to thin ringpak ... for good reasons as above. Traditional 5/64",5/64",3/16" ringpak is old tech & the new IS better. Sealed Power ringpak for these is E921K . I've pulled several '96-up iron head vortec motors apart & they show remarkably little bore wear ... like most others' reports. FYI ... many Mahle, JE etc race pistons use 1.5mm,1.5mm,3mm ringpak. You'll have to dig to find H815P - E921K and you'll pay more too ... but it's better.

-correction- H815P

 

GREAT info.