rebuild suggestions

ok, since I know that my cracked block wont last forever glued together.

I am looking for direction on rebuilding the spare. don't want to go broke rebuilding it so the pricey rod/piston combo are out. mostly a cruiser for the street.
is a re-bore with stock style replacement pistons and milling the block ( .120 off the current )my best option?
I have a Ported head, Hurricane intake and Clifford header on the current engine with a erson cam. 904 with a decent stall. Hoping to reuse most if not all of these on the rebuild.

Thanks!

I would think that the most economical rebuild would begin with a good used engine. Tear engine down and hopefully it doesn't need a re-bore. Hone the cylinders, knurl the pistons for better fit, iron rings for quick seating. All new bearings. Bump up the cam, head mods, your choice of intake. This is about as cheap as it gets. Good luck.

vitamindart said:

ok, since I know that my cracked block wont last forever glued together.

I am looking for direction on rebuilding the spare. don't want to go broke rebuilding it so the pricey rod/piston combo are out. mostly a cruiser for the street.
is a re-bore with stock style replacement pistons and milling the block ( .120 off the current )my best option?
I have a Ported head, Hurricane intake and Clifford header on the current engine with a erson cam. 904 with a decent stall. Hoping to reuse most if not all of these on the rebuild.

Thanks!

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I didn't want to have to yank an engine after I had redone the car so that's the way I went. no fancy combo since I'll turbo it after I get some (2000) miles on it. I really want to drive it some before I take the exhaust apart and replumb it again
I re-did a good used engine but it had some miles on it and one of the bores was tapered too bad to save without a rebore. sooo. .030 over pistons cost me a whopping $93. crank was okay and I just cleaned it up decked .100 to get the pistons up a bit and ended up with a total cost of 450.00(including pistons and rings). I bought the gasket kit (don't remember the exact price but under 100)and brought it to the machinist to do my valves and seals , then I ended up adding getting the head done by installing seals and bigger valves. took .060 cut to flatten and raise compression that added another $325.00 to the cost including me ordering the valves I stayed under a grand so far, well maybe I blew it since I got the cam reground by oregon grinders to the #819 grind. so I might be over a grand now. your head work will cut a lot of the price off a rebuild since you have already put out that money. I'm getting ready to add the lifters and head next weekend after cleaning up the mating surfaces.

looks Great 66Dvert ! boost was in my original plan for the current motor but, when I started driving it as it is. I found its pretty peppy and fun to drive as it is.
sounds like a re bore and milling of the block on my spare will be in order. who knows at some point down the road it may see boost still.

With the head/block milled that much, you'll want custom pushrods made to make up for the change in geometry in the valvetrain. Don't want anything binding up after a rebuild

i am currently running a block that was milled .120 and a head with maybe .010 taken off it using the stock pushrods. its close but they work. next engine I will oder a shorter set for.

RussellSullivan said:

With the head/block milled that much, you'll want custom pushrods made to make up for the change in geometry in the valvetrain. Don't want anything binding up after a rebuild

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I've got one of those adjustable rods that you use to get the correct length. acutaly I think I have 2 types the ball on both ends and the cup and ball type. once I've mocked it up I'll order custom length ones to make it perfect. (I'll cheat and order for a v8 since it's usually cheaper than trying to get them to send you a set for a /6 that way I'll have a few extra just in case.)

66Dvert said:

I've got one of those adjustable rods that you use to get the correct length. acutaly I think I have 2 types the ball on both ends and the cup and ball type. once I've mocked it up I'll order custom length ones to make it perfect. (I'll cheat and order for a v8 since it's usually cheaper than trying to get them to send you a set for a /6 that way I'll have a few extra just in case.)

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Usually you can get away with stock pushrods, to a certain extent. .120 just seems like a lot off the block. I believe you can take up to (or more than) .100 off the cylinder head as well. If you want high compression.

RussellSullivan said:

Usually you can get away with stock pushrods, to a certain extent. .120 just seems like a lot off the block. I believe you can take up to (or more than) .100 off the cylinder head as well. If you want high compression.

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I just did 0.100 off the deck and it's still in the hole a good bit. (but i was afraid to do more on this engine.) but I did the head 0.060 with larger valves. I'll clay it up and check things when I get more down time.

I went conservative (future turbo?) and only took .080 off the head, none off the deck. Using stock rockers and pusrods with no apparent problems.
Don't forget the head gasket. Im using a composite which is thicker than the stock steel so I lost a little there. Unless you source a steel gasket, take that into account.

vitamindart said:

i am currently running a block that was milled .120 and a head with maybe .010 taken off it using the stock pushrods. its close but they work. next engine I will oder a shorter set for.

Click to expand...

Hi, I am doing a rebuild as well. I have some questions if you don't mind. How thick is your head gasket? What spark plugs do you run? What is your initial advance? What was your break-in procedure? Can you still use 87 octane gas? Thanks

it is a standard felpro kit head gasket ( .040 thick? ) , plugs are the ones recommended by Dan over on .org , still trying to find the sweet spot for the timing.
cam was broke in per its instructions, then just started driving it, venturing a little further from home each time as I felt comfortable.