Engine rebuild wish list

Just any old stainless bolts may be too soft and weak to use on exhaust manifold. Use 'Perfect Seal' or Permatex Aviation gasket/thread sealer. They protect the threads from water/air which prevents corrosion.

Studs are generally hardened so stainless studs may work. Something to check on.
 
Well, after much cursing, 3 drills, a bunch of drill bits and several beers, both manifolds are off, and all broken bolts removed. For what ever reason, there were 2 different type bolts in it, some were carbon steel and they are the ones that broke, the others were of a coated type and they did not. All 8 on one side, and 2 on the other broke, all carbon steel. Intake manafold is off and all the external stuff. Tomarrow is spent taking all the decorations down and putting those up so dont know how much I will get done. But next is the heads and the oil pan.

Wasn't planning on using just any old stainless, there are hardened versions available. Either way, it is going to have to have all new manifold bolts, and the intake bolts didn't look to sporty either. Lots of rust and corosion there. You never know, I might be the guy who has to take it appart next time, or it could be you Charlie. And I want you to be able to say hey this guy did it right.....D........
 
Next time you go after old rusty bolts, try whacking them a couple three times with a punch and BFH. It will relieve the pressure on the threads and hopefully break some of the rust free. There are a lot of people working on engines who don't think to take care of the threads.

I have 400ci sbc's and they're pretty rare these days are are worth taking care of.
 
I actually did do that, large punch and a 5lbs shop hammer, hit several times each, plus heating the manifold with a torch and spraying around the bolts with PB blaster while the engine was tilted, they still broke. The rust had eaten the end of the bolt near the head that there wasn't really a chance they were going to come out. That coupled with they had pretty well fused to the manifold, made for a couple fun days. Just lucky I guess I was able to extract them from the heads with out damage to the head. I had used transfer punches in the manifold to get the bolt centers which helped greatly........D.........
 
You guys are way oner my head mechanically. My only recommendation would be a crank mounted pump vs a mercruiser pump. Impeller changes are minutes vs hours.
 
Wished I had room for one. Not enough space for it to mount......D......
 
So it takes much less time to take it down than to put up decorations. Got both heads off and found one blown head gasket and got the pan off and I see 3 spun rod bearings for sure. Not sure about the main bearings yet. Can't find my balancer puller so have to get another one tomorrow. Once I get the cam and crank position then I can pull the main caps off. Did pull one rod cap and well I will have new rods and pistons when this is done to say the least. 3 of them are toast for sure. Don't know about the crank yet.......D......
 
So I am now down to basically a bare block. I see two rod lobes and a main lobe that will need attention. So the big question, have the crank turned and use oversize bearings, or replace it? There are cranks available for it, and prices seem fairly reasonable considering what I am buying. The block appears to be in great shape, I still see cross hatch in the bores, and no detectable ridge on any of the cylinders. just a little deglazing and I will probably have the block faced since there was a blown gasket. It was a small leak, number one piston, detected by the lack of carbon on the piston top.........D.......
 
Generally, you get everything turned so everything is 0.010" smaller or whatever it needs. Gotta mic
everything to see where you are.

You might think about getting a crank kit. They're a lot cheaper than buying all the parts individually.

You'll have to start reading about all the specs and how much higher than stock you can go without interfering.
 
I think you know the cause of failure now but were the bearing webs over stressed? I have had limited but unhappy results with crank regrinds so a crank kit is a good idea IMO But way back in the dark ages there was a way to mount bearings without the crank and check bore alignment. I don't know if that can be done any more.
 
Actually since I work in an engine plant I have access to stuff to check alignment with. I can get a crank, factory original size, brand new for 355 bucks plus freight which is about 40 bucks. I haven't measured it yet but I can easily feel the groves so it is likely more than 10 thousand groved. And the bearings were stacked on 2 cylinders. One main is hurt as well.

Cause of the failure is not a doubt for sure. I did not expect a blown head gasket though, that was a surprise. The block and cylinder walls all look perfect though. Still had cross stitch visabl and no measurable ridge on any cylinder.......D........
 
don't you think trying to compress water could blow a head gasket?
 
Not enough of a leak, was very minor. Had a swath down the center of the piston that did not have carbon on it was the only reason I even noticed, valves were covered in carbon as well as the top of the combustion chamber.

Now the big question, since this is a high performance GM 454, when they built it, they compensated for variations in their tooling sizes when they done the bores by using 3 different pistons, they are either 8, 9, or 10 over, so in other words they would measure 4.2508, 4.2509 or 4.2510. I don't have a micrometer here that will carry out the dimension past the 3rd digit so I will have to borrow one from work to confirm. I read a lot about this but the one thing I did not read or find was if when you replace them, you try to match that or just use standard which is for a 4.250 bore. Anybody ran across this yet? I have to admit this is the first time I have ever ran into this, the oversize is actually stamped into the oil pan seal surface on the bottom of the block under each sleeve, and is also printed on the bottom of the piston and stamped into the piston top. From what I read, the block is stamped after machining and when it goes down the production line, the assembly worker checks this and picks the piston that matches the number and it can be over or under up to .0010. So being this is such a super small amount, should I attempt to get pistons that match this or just go with the standard size? I have rebuilt countless engines in my time, but this is the first time I have ever encountered this, and there really isn't much info out there on it.

So progress comes to an end for a while today as back to work tomorrow, so I am down to the week ends I am off. I have it down to the bare block, have deglazed the cylinders, stoned the sealing surfaces and chased all the threads on the block. Cleaned and painted the exterior and applied rust preventative to all bare metal surfaces. Cleaned and painted the flywheel as it was rusting just sitting in the garage. Will take the block to work and give it a bath, we have washers designed to wash heads and blocks with a wash solution that also contains a rust preventative, this should clean all the water and oil galleys out of anything that may be in there.........D..........
 
I would recommend pulling the 3 threaded plugs behind the flywheel as well as the 3 corresponding plugs on the front. These are main oil galleys the oil the cam and crank and lifters. You will see how they work when you pull the cam and crank.

Pull the filter adapter plate and the plug just above that to clean those galleys. The last plug is under the port head. All these plugs hide galleys that can collect filings that cause engine failures.

And about the bores, I would just have them all bored the standard .030" over with a new set of pistons and rings.
 
Soooooo I go to take the manafolds and risers appart. Risers come off, and look great, go to pull the extensions, that did not go well. The first one finally came appart and the side to the manafold was paper thin, ok so I need one new extension. Then I go to take the other one appart. Well it is for the most part fused to the manafold. Must have had some kide of super super glue on it, because once it finally let go, it took part of the casting of the manafold with it. So nowwwww I get to buy new manafolds, and might as well get the risers too. Looking at the aluminum manafolds, not that much more cost wise and would probably be a bit less subject to rusting. The root cause of the casting failure was the fact that this manafold had carbon steel bolts for the risers and the other was stainless. I am not understanding why half this engine is carbon steel and half stainless as I see no signs of anyone ever being in there and there is nothing in the maintenance records to indicate it.............D.........
 
At the risk of stepping on toes, there is no such thing as marine pistons or marine valves etc. A engine doesn't care if its in a boat or a pick-up truck, its the combination of the parts for the application and RPM range , you need to have a useful torque range. Remember Horsepower sells the boat Torque is what moves it. A boat engine is a industal style of engine low RPM torque You can spend a huge amount of money that is not needed , just match up your combination with what you are going to do. Just make sure your clearances are where they need to be don't make the mistake and do the ( ITS CLOSE ENOUGH ) thing. The clearances are dirrerent for a High Rpm Race engine than a Marine engine , but it dosen't care who makes the parts . Hardened valve seats are because of unleaded fuel. If the exhaust valves are getting that hot then you have a fuel issue of being to lean . If you bore your block get your pistons first and bore and hone each cylinder to the piston going in that hole you will find that .030 pistons are not the same size they will be anywhere from .025 to .030..... JMO Wheatley Racing Engines
 
I didn't think Dave got that far yet Jamie. But yeah, good machine shop wants all the pistons and will bore each cylinder to match the piston and number each piston to the cylinder. The good machine shops will bore to within a certain undersize and finish with a power hone.

Had to re-read Dave's last reply. I haven't run across different bores in the same block. You mentioned sleeves. Maybe that's what they're referring to about the different sizes. So this block was machined before. Id like to know the reason for different size sleeves. Was there a problem with the block? I found porosity in one of my 400ci blocks. Actually, it was my first good stock bore block, having bought 3 400ci engines before I found a standard bore. #8 cylinder had porosity but I did a full machining, including decking. It was a great engine so I ended up looking for another 400ci block(found 2) and built one block, machined the same as the first. Transfered the internals to the second block. and sleeved #8 cylinder of the first block. Makes for a simple 'rebuild'. Just need bearings and gaskets.
 
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