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Old Apr 27, 2010 | 10:32 AM
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Default Engine Buildup

I purchased this 1980 Corvette about 6 weeks ago for 2 reasons, the frame is perfect and almost completely rust free and the previous owner told me he had about $7000 into the motor. Long story short the motor is bad. The bottom end is solid but the heads have a couple of bad valves and there is oil leaking out from everywhere. Instead of putting more money into old heads I decided to upgrade a little.

Today I should be receiving a set of Dart Iron Eagle heads, new cam, a set of roller rockers, Dart intake, timing gears, and a full set of gaskets. I also plan on adding a new carb and ignition system later this summer but that will have to wait for my wallet to fill up again. Also the intake will not be able to be installed untill the winter when my new high rise hood arrives (looking for a good used one), the Weiand intake will have to do for now.

Yesterday I tore it down to the heads, tonight the heads come off and the clean up begins.



Before the work began



Everything all set to TDC



At this point the wife said enough, time to come inside.
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Old Apr 27, 2010 | 12:01 PM
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If the heads are still on you should do a leak down test @ TDC to see if everything is fine.
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Old Apr 27, 2010 | 01:04 PM
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I can't tell from the picture, but if the dots on the sprockets are aligned, I believe that is TDC for firing on number 6, not number 1. Correct me if I am wrong...
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Old Apr 27, 2010 | 01:20 PM
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Originally Posted by BLOCKMAN
If the heads are still on you should do a leak down test @ TDC to see if everything is fine.
It was a leakdown test that told me everything was not fine. There are a few leaking valves. New heads will fix that.
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Old Apr 27, 2010 | 01:42 PM
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Originally Posted by JGreen
I can't tell from the picture, but if the dots on the sprockets are aligned, I believe that is TDC for firing on number 6, not number 1. Correct me if I am wrong...
Could be, I guess I really meant that the timing marks were lined up and distributor and rotor position were marked to I can easily start this engine back up.
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Old Apr 27, 2010 | 02:17 PM
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$7K bogus build ... valley & heads are coked-fouled ... in addition to $500 of intake, VCs & headers ... it even has OE retainer-shroud ... but somebody did stick a timing set in it ... $7K you sure rings & bearings OK? ... come on, is that an "absolutely" or a "hope so"?
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Old Apr 27, 2010 | 03:03 PM
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Originally Posted by jackson
$7K bogus build ... valley & heads are coked-fouled ... in addition to $500 of intake, VCs & headers ... it even has OE retainer-shroud ... but somebody did stick a timing set in it ... $7K you sure rings & bearings OK? ... come on, is that an "absolutely" or a "hope so"?
I pulled the bearing caps off one by one and all bearings look perfect and check out ok using plastigauge. I recorded everything and took the results to the local engine builder I am purchasing the top end parts from and he said everything looks good. I can't say that the bottom is 100% but I am going to take a chance on it based on what I can see and test for. Oh and oil pressure is very good as well. I can always pull the motor over the winter before I strip the car apart for painting and have the bottom end gone over properly if needed.
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Old Apr 27, 2010 | 03:09 PM
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Sounds like a decent plan. You might want to assess the condition of the oil channels in the block. With the 'caked-up' condition on the top side, you want to be sure that the oil galleries/passages are not plugged up or full of crud that will damage the engine when you start it back up.
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Old Apr 27, 2010 | 03:13 PM
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Originally Posted by 7T1vette
Sounds like a decent plan. You might want to assess the condition of the oil channels in the block. With the 'caked-up' condition on the top side, you want to be sure that the oil galleries/passages are not plugged up or full of crud that will damage the engine when you start it back up.
That sounds like a good idea. I think the pictures may be making this look a little worse than it really is. I thought the inside of this engine looked pretty clean. But thank you for the suggestion I will look into that.

Can anyone tell me if this 1980's original engine (this is not the original block) was a 2bolt main or a 4bolt main?
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Old Apr 28, 2010 | 08:19 AM
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Pulled the heads and the cam last night. I have no idea what the cam is from, one of the numbers on the distributor end of the cam looks like an incomplete Comp cams number for a 60's SBC truck. The heads are listed as castin number 3991492, a service edition of the LTI camel hump heads. These should be worth something to somebody....right?
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Old Apr 28, 2010 | 02:42 PM
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Originally Posted by Bogdon
Pulled the heads and the cam last night. I have no idea what the cam is from, one of the numbers on the distributor end of the cam looks like an incomplete Comp cams number for a 60's SBC truck. The heads are listed as castin number 3991492, a service edition of the LTI camel hump heads. These should be worth something to somebody....right?
What version 492 the 1.94 or 2.02 intake valves??
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Old Apr 28, 2010 | 07:41 PM
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Originally Posted by Bogdon
Can anyone tell me if this 1980's original engine (this is not the original block) was a 2bolt main or a 4bolt main?
L82 had 4bolt bottom but L48 had 2bolt. If a CA car then it was a 305 with 2bolt but you should refer to the Black Book on that because I am wrong most of the time
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Old Apr 28, 2010 | 08:31 PM
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Originally Posted by BLOCKMAN
What version 492 the 1.94 or 2.02 intake valves??
They are slightly smaller than the 2.02 valve in my new dart heads so I would assume they are the smaller 1.94 version.
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Old Jun 11, 2010 | 04:56 PM
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All finished, way over budget but very happy with end results.









The some buddys came over to witness the first start up



We ended up scrapping the Edelcrap Carb in favor of a Holley Street Avanger 670, major improvement.
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