Taking bets(no money involved) How long will this engine last?

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A friend of mine back in high school ( 1976 ). Rebuilt the engine in his Buick wildcat, everything was cleaned up at the local car wash, he used a ridge reamer, and a electric drill to hone the bores. Oil holes were cleaned up with a barrel brush for his gun, cam bearings were driven in with a piece of wood, crankshaft journals were cleaned up with ultra fine sandpaper. The valve's were cleaned up in a drill press and we used rough valve lapping compound, the valve's were put in the cylinder heads and then we put the stem in a hand held electric drill, this was better than lapping them by hand, the final phase of the valve job was the use of a fine lapping compound. The chamber side of the cylinder heads was cleaned up with a board with sandpaper glued to it. Before he put the engine back together he took it to the car wash for a final cleaning. The only new parts bought were the rings, rod, main,cam bearings, oil pump, timing chain, gaskets. It ran for a good 5 years that I know of. I think that he did a good job considering the money he had to work with as he also was helping his folks out with money.
 
6PakBee said:
The only comment I would make is that after the brake cleaner/carb cleaner douche I always finish up with hot soapy Dawn detergent. It'll remove particles that the cleaner won't dissolve. But other than that, should run fine.
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Simple Green works great too.
 
Wally-T said:
Hey folks.
Well I've broken all the rules with this one!
First let me say that I know I should have taken this engine and it's parts to a machine shop to have them hot tanked. But I didn't lol ! Anyway, I pulled my 273 apart after sending the heads out to be done because I found that it was pretty grungy inside. Well I lost my grip on the snowball and it started rolling down hill FAST! This thing wasn't just a little grungy! There were chunks of solidified oil and crap though everything soooo...I disassembled the hole mess then:
I visually checked the bearings and found that none were burned or scored badly so...I am reusing them :D. I removed all the oil gallery plugs so I could clean out the galleries and passages. I pulled a bottle brush back and forth through the galleries using a piece of a throttle cable wire then flushed everything out with "MANY" cans of parts cleaner. Flushed out the crank and cam with more cans of cleaner and blew everything out with compressed air. Popped the plugs out of the rocker shafts and used the bottle brush to clean the shafts out the best I could. Then I reinstalled all of the plugs and reassembled everything with assembly lube (had to do something the right way lol). I used new gaskets and seals etc. Oh and by the way I didn't even remove the pistons :p. It sure was a trick getting the crank back in while juggling the rods by myself haha. I had pieces of hose on the rod bolts to avoid scratching though and that helped tremendously. And I guess I was holding my tongue the right way though because all went well (I think).
So now to the bets!!!
Who bets this thing will flush some of the leftover crud through and rip up a bearing or two on first start up?
First road test?
First week or?.....
Give er yer best estimate folks. I'm not betting at all but you sure know what I'm hoping for... Years of faithful service haha ya right :realcrazy:. I won't have the engine reinstalled for a week or two since spring things just take up a lot of time so I'm working on it when I get a minute here and there.
Ok. Let the games begin
:icon_fU:
Thanks, Wally
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I knew a guy that wanted to cut corners on his rebuild and he couldn't understand why his oil pressure was poor, he didn't have the cam bearings replaced and he used the old lifters. I think that the engine had like 100,000 miles on it. I've always replaced the rings, bearings, oil pump. I don't believe in reusing bearings unless they have very little run time on them, same thing for the rings.
 
HOPE IT LASTS YEARS did that on a 318 years ago ran for 100,000 mile sometimes you get lucky
 
Hey guys. Thanks for all the positive feedback! I'm almost ready to install the engine. I'll get back to ya'll after the first start.
 
Well the engine is back in and running! No bearing knocks so far but I haven't gone over 3000 rpm yet. I'm really happy with how it's running so far except for the nasty leak from the oil filter adapter. The gasket kit didn't have the proper gaskets so I'm on the hunt for a kit or even separate gaskets for it (any part numbers would be appreciated)
Well that's it for now. I have to get the car certified for life on Alberta streets and then maybe I'll see if the bottom end will put up with some full throttle up shifts :thumbsup:.
Ok, take care folks and thanks for the well wishes.
 
Wally-T said:
Well the engine is back in and running! No bearing knocks so far but I haven't gone over 3000 rpm yet. I'm really happy with how it's running so far except for the nasty leak from the oil filter adapter. The gasket kit didn't have the proper gaskets so I'm on the hunt for a kit or even separate gaskets for it (any part numbers would be appreciated)
Well that's it for now. I have to get the car certified for life on Alberta streets and then maybe I'll see if the bottom end will put up with some full throttle up shifts :thumbsup:.
Ok, take care folks and thanks for the well wishes.
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how is the oil pressure ?
 
I know this is a old post but I would like to add, sometimes cleaning an engine internals is not a good idea unless you are adding new parts, such as rings, bearings or any other WARE items. Cleaning could pop-up pits and other imperfections as is known in automatic transmissions. Refreshing the heads, cleaning out the oil & water galleries and checking all the lifters for a slight dome. Run for 50 miles and change the oil and water and you should be ready to go. Using a cleaner unless completely taking the motor apart can be more detrimental with floating debris than not doing anything. Sometimes doing Less is Best.
 
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