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I have an 80. I have been where you are. I can not say this enough times,, Buy the crate stroker, drop it in the car and drive the wheels off it. You will have a lot of fun and almost no headaches. Do a new aluminum radiator at the same time. Just suck it up and do it and then in the spring when you light it up you will have a hard time wiping the smile form your face. I went the other route and that is why I say this. Life is too short to chase a half *** rebuild. Do it once and be done!!
This is really good advice.
Please don't put heads on an old motor. You will end up with a new motor if you do.
I read your question and thought "Man there's a lot of us that are taking this path!" Good stuff, 's why I like this forum so much. Here's the route I took in case it helps.
In Jan 2015 I bought a 74 coupe (L48, TH-400, 3.08) that had been sitting for across the street from my house for 15 years. Pushed it into my driveway. Got it started after a weekend of work. My 11 year old was the one who turned the key; when it rumbled to life, we both were hooked. (more me than him, but his eyes lit up somethin' fierce.) After pouring through a gazillion posts on how to wake up my L48, the hunting & gathering journey started. My application, really a bucket list item since I was my sons age, was to build (not buy) a good lookin' 12 second car I could drive to track and take cruise trips.
I met a guy here in S. NJ who is a racer. In fact, he sold his '68 firebird to Jeff Verdi. If you're into bracket racing, you'll know who he is. My new friend is the one helping with the engine build. Without him, I'd have taken much longer and had more expensive lessons learned.
I still have the original 2 bolt main, numbers matching L48. (does that really matter in '74?) It ran fine; compression test showed 180-185 psi in all 8 cylinders. But I knew I'd be testing limits. That will become a stroker later.
On Craigs list, i found a guy selling a 355 out of his 1964 vette. motor had 12k miles. it came in the car, so he said. He was upgrading to an LS. The story was plausible, so i took the risk. I knew I'd be tearing it down anyway. End result: Carb -to-pan, ceramic coated 1 3/4 headers, holley 750 DP, RPM intake, Patriot heads, (64cc, 195runners),hei dist with tach cable, ceramic plug boots, a couple of nice water pumps (these are good for horse trading on craigs list). End result: $2200 for the lot. After tear down, the guy was accurate. crank was cut 10/10 and a few bearings showed and smelled like overheating. so i put a plain ol' uncut eagle crank, new oil pump, and a com cams muthr thumpr. everything else was good. Should make about 425 hp & tq.
The drive train has a similar story: 700r4 & 2800 stall from S. NJ craigslsit (barter deal), shortened drive shaft, and a few parts & driveway mods to make it fit. The rear is currently the 3.08, but a few folks here on the list advised that i need to increase the gear with my call & stall. My friend helping with the engine also said i really need to consider changing the read. So that's the one item I'm really splurging on: another craigs list find was a diff core from a '75 and sent it off to Mike (Traccogg2). He'll do his magic and make it an HD-10 3.73.
There's more, I've already made this reply too long. My point is that yes, the advice listed in other posts are very correct; its risky buying used stuff. But that risk can be mitigated with a slow approach and thoughtful resources. In my case, I'm trading my time and hustle to make used stuff work. If i had the budget, I'd go all new just like Tyancey00 says. Some days I wish I did what he said. But I kinda like the process and enjoy talking to all the like-minded people along the way. Just like this post. Good luck, it's a funner-than-hell project!
not everyone has the ability to build an engine themself and that's fine, but the added satisfaction of a job well done instills a sense of pride in a person that will never be matched by having it done for you.
Got the engine and trany out! Found that one of the engine mounts was broke, and one exhaust manifold has a good crack in it, good excuse for getting headers... Had one problem though, when I was trying to get the transmission lines off the trany I was trying to get the trany tail to drop down a little for better access. I ended up going to far and everything dropped with a bang. Found that the oil pressure sensor (second picture) got slammed against the firewall and broke the pipe to the sensor flush with the top of the block . Also in taking out everything can see all the bushings are in real sad shape.
12-19-2016, 01:12 PM
This is really good advice. 
. Also in taking out everything can see all the bushings are in real sad shape.
