A Wonderful New Powerplant

For the third now, I have went on a search for a new (to me) engine. The last Chevy 350 I got out of the C-60 farm truck had some pretty bad compression, with cylinders as low as 70 psi, making it not a very strong runner. It had problems starting and idling and didn't get close to producing its full potential of power. So I went on a search for a better one, here's what I found. I went with another Chevy 350 that was said to have came out of a Monte Carlo. This engine didn't come with a carburetor or distributor but I knew it was going to be a good very strong runner as soon as I saw the compression results. Some of the cylinders had double the compression as the old engine had, with the cylinders ranging from 135 all the way up to 150 psi. Here's a picture of what I got.

The engine came with new rods, a high capacity racing oil pan, a new water pump, an Edelbrock Performer intake manifold, new valve covers, all new gaskets, a new alternator, a new fuel pump, new wires and plugs and a bunch of other new little parts along with the engine stand. I then scavenged the 600 cfm carburetor, ram horn exhaust manifolds, and Jegs high performance distributor off of the other engine and put it all on this one along with the parts that came with the engine and here is what I got.

After many hours hooking up gas lines, vacuum lines, battery cables, priming the oil pump, putting in final plugs and much carburetor tuning and distributor timing here is the outcome.

I still have a little more carburetor tuning and timing to work on to get it running a little smoother, but I am very happy with how it is turning out.

Just as a side note, here is a couple pictures of the oil pump primer I made for the new engine out of an old distributor. This saved me over $70 from buying a new oil pump primer online and works just as well. It is easy to make, I think this one took me less than 5 minutes and if you've got an old distributor lying around or can find an old junk one it's also free. A simple "how to make a homemade oil pump primer" video will be put up soon.