Small block crankshaft endplay

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Well, we pulled the engine out, tore it down and took the block, crank and rods to the machine shop. Before we even got it all unloaded the owner of the shop said, that crankshaft is no good, he pointed to the lobe nearest the thrust bearing and showed me the damage from the lobe riding up against the thrust bearing which I completely missed. It had ground a path the entire way around the lobe. The rods need to be resized at the bearing landing area, the cylinder walls he said would have to go .30 over at least, and probably a line bore of the main journals. We have several crankshafts to use, we're going to have him tank and magnaflux the block to be sure it's not hiding anything else. From there if its usable it will get whatever machine work it needs, going with the edelbrock upper end set with aluminum heads, intake, cam and lifters. They say it's a 417 hp making kit, torque converter and shift kit to match as needed. I know, why not put the 360 in it, my son wants to keep the original block in the car so that's what it will be.
 
pittsburghracer said:
Take a look at Scat rods before you spend to much on stock rods. Nice upgrade.
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Good idea, we will definitely look into that. He said it would be a couple of weeks before he can get to it, so we'll have to do some research here quickly.
 
I'm pretty sure my son is planning to order the edelbrock aluminum heads kit from summit, which is a $2300 order, so a 10% off coupon would be awesome. Thank you very much.
 
And I am going to call the machine shop and ask him what he charges to resize the rods, because that's not a bad price for the scat rods at all.
 
My son brought a '68 318 engine up the hill from the barn to pull the crank out to see about using it in his rebuild of the valiant engine. It was the one in his fury 3 that got wrapped around a tree a couple years ago. Now when he pulled it from the totaled car he set it on the ground, threw a tarp over it with the plans to move it to the barn for dry storage. I harped on him for months to move it. Well it sat there for a couple seasons before he got around to moving it. I told him when we put it on the engine stand to drain the oil so we can pop the pan off. After a gallon of water came out of it, clear water. Nasty chunky grayish white oil came out. Took the pan off and oh my gosh I wasn't expecting it to look good, but it's very questionable what it's going to look like when we get the main caps off.
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It does still turn over by hand.
 
I agree on ditching the stock rods....but I'd use Molnar if I could.
 
gregcon said:
I agree on ditching the stock rods....but I'd use Molnar if I could.
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I'm not familiar with that brand, but will definitely check them out. In talking with my son he agreed that at this point if it's going to need to have his rods resized he may as well pony up the cash for new ones. Why bother going halfway and not all in. If he's going to go with aluminum heads and full machine work on the block and a crankshaft for a few bucks more why question not knowing if the rest is up to the end result.
 
I noticed you're going to have to get a new crank (you said you have a few), you'll need new pistons and rods resized or new rods. At this point, it seems to me you're pretty close to a stroker setup. If it's not in the cards I understand, just my two cents.
 
RammerJammer75 said:
I noticed you're going to have to get a new crank (you said you have a few), you'll need new pistons and rods resized or new rods. At this point, it seems to me you're pretty close to a stroker setup. If it's not in the cards I understand, just my two cents.
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That conversation has definitely come up. Its not a completely off the table possibility, I think he's just waiting to hear from the machine shop as to the overall condition of the block. Its a 205k miles worn out engine and while I think it's going to be usable, who knows what the magnaflux will show, if that's good, are there any significant issues with the cylinders that would not be able to be cleaned up with bore work. If its a scrap piece of metal, then the 360 would be the route with upgraded aluminum heads and whatnot. Or even the possible sourcing of a 340.
 
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