Engine

The New Engine

After deciding that the Big Block Chevy 427 was just too big, bulky, and heavy I went in search of Small Block Chevy 350. I came across one on a nearby farm that was going to be scrapped so I picked it up for free, the engine was in a Chevy C60.

At first glance the engine looks pretty junky but underneath all the dirt, grease, and grim there is the most popular, well regarded engine ever made.

The first step was to get the engine out of the truck so with the aid of a cutting torch and forklift I torched off the front end and everything that was connected to the engine and tranny and yanked the dirty thing out of there.

After being pulled out of the truck the engine went through it's first pressure washing to get most of the dirt and grime off.

After being sprayed off I tore all the accessories off, such as the power steering, cooling fan, hoses, wires, carburetor, etc. 

The final few parts were taken off, including the 4 speed manual transmission, then the internals were covered up again and the engine went through it's final, deeper clean. The next step is paint.

After the cleaning, it was time to paint. I put back on the valve covers and taped up the intake and exhaust ports to keep paint from getting where it wasn't wanted.

The engine was painted with 3 light coats of Dupli-Color engine primer allowing 10 minutes of drying time in between each coat to prevent runs. Then 3 more coats of Chevrolet Orange Dupli-Color Engine Enamel were sprayed on in the same fashion.

After allowing the paint to properly cure for 3 days, the old valve covers and masking tape were taken off. The new fuel pump from Jeg's with the blue fuel hose fittings and Edelbrock Performer intake manifold with the lift plate were installed.

Next the crankshaft and water pump pulleys were refurbished, painted, and installed. The same was done to the alternator bracket. The starter was also cleaned up and bolted back into place.

Then I pulled the distributor from the other motor, the Big Block Chevy and installed it on this one. Since this is a small block I had to make a 1/4 inch spacer to go between the block and distributor in order to make up  for the drive shaft being made for a big block. The distributor still works great this way and saved me the cost of having to buy a whole new distributor. The front engine mount was also cleaned, painted, and installed along with the ram horn exhaust manifolds.

The alternator was cleaned up and installed along with the water pump/alternator belts. These will need to be replaced soon but will do the job for engine testing. The next step with the engine is to get some new valve covers, probably fabricated aluminum ones, install the carburetor, and hook up some fuel and breather lines.

The Old Engine 

The previous engine I was going to use was a 1980 Chevy 427. This engine came from a small dump truck. When it was pulled the compression on it ranged from 90 psi to 140 psi with the average being around 120 psi but had no spark and a bad carburetor. It had no spark due to a faulty distributor. 

When pulled from the truck it had the original 13 speed transmission with it which got taken off and a 5 speed from another truck will soon be put on. 

The air filter followed by the carburetor where then taken off. The carb was torn apart and cleaned, then reassembled with new gaskets. 

The intake manifold, valve covers, and exhaust manifolds were all taken off to be cleaned and painted. Here's the bare engine and newly painted manifold. 

The engine was then reassembled and parts were then ordered to fix the spark. A Jegs HEI Street Spark Distributer and 8 new plugs and wires were ordered from Jegs (link on right side of page). The distributor and wires were installed. Here's a picture of the engine put back together.