CALLING ENGINE GUYS/GALS

CFD244 said
Man, I'm taking a beating here.......The engine was pulled about 8 years ago by the owner. A running engine with 75k on it. The plan was to throw it back in after the bodywork was done, but they decided to do a "little" on it before they put it back in......The cyls were de-glazed, the valves were lapped, the rings were changed, and the oil pump was replaced. He made no claims that the engine was "re-built". They eventually gave up on the project with tons of metal and body work left, which is what I have now.

I bought a leak-down tester, and thought I'd play with it. When I found the results, I simply asked if "break in" would change the crappy results that I got.......Now I've got guys telling me that I have a "piece of ****" etc.

Of coarse, I am eventually going to do the engine up completely, but after spending thousands on the rest of the car, I was hoping to drive it for a year or two then go balls deep over the winter with the engine.

I am planning, however, to tear it down before running it to make sure that nothing done will compromise the future of this engine. A set of gaskets and some plastigauge will be cheap insurance.

Thanks for everyone who responded to the question. Lots of great replies, some, not so much.

Is that the original engine from the car? If that's the case, finding usable a garden variety or a later hydraulic roller cam 318 for cheap (if that's possible at your location) and using the 340 intake, carb, and exhaust manifolds may be the best option for now, providing you could get into one for minimal investment. That would allow you to use and enjoy the car some while buying time for the 340 until you can go through it and check things out or send it on out for rebuild. At least enough to make sure that there aren't greater issues at hand or that if any moly assembly lube has been used that it hasn't drawn moisture and corroded the crank journals and that everything is at proper torque spec. The real question that needs to be answered here is "Was the engine gone through and put back together with the intention of the prior owner to keep the car and get it back together and if so so did they do it with enough competence for it to run reliably without risking major damage?" "And what was wrong that merited them going through it to start with?" A quick indicator is seeing if the rocker arms and shafts have been changed or if they are the original ones off the engine with the rocker shaft holes egged out on the bottom. If it's the original shaft and it's off of the head, pull the end bolts and spray some carb cleaner from one end to the other to see if it has been cleaned inside. Look around at the places dirt and sludge hide and see how clean things are. That's going to let you know a whole lot about what you can expect. And as noted, if you do elect to get into it just to clean and reassemble then a dial bore gauge and some Plastigauge will let you know if you need to wait until you can machine it or go ahead and run it. If this were a 318 or 360, I'd give give it the bare minimum and let the budget build fly. But all the checking, cleaning, gaskets, and probably a usable donor 318 is going to be less than replacing a 340 block.