I'm getting close to finishing my frame off resto. Body, paint and interior are about done. I tore down the original 350 over the weekend. Those oil changes paid off...no sludge at all. The original nylon cam gear still looked great. Anyway, I plastigauged the bearings all rods are at .002, mains are between .002 and .0025, the valve guide clearances are between .0015 and .0025. All the valves look great as well. Cam and bearings are good too. I'm not seeing any reason that it needs much done, the milage makes me a little nervous. I'm planning on leaving it stock, I have a 455 for a future winter project....... Are there any known problem areas I should double check before putting it all back together?
Karl, Other than the rings and cylinder walls, check for wear on the oil pump housing and also the inside of the timing cover. Chain still tight? New gaskets, plenty silicone, good to go! Good Luck - post pics soon!
Karl I'm sure that you already know this but I hope that you have kept all the bearings in their proper order. If not you will likely kill the engine in short order upon reassembly. Enough of that. I would recomend that you put a new oil thrust plate in the pump. You may be surprised to hear this but you can buy one for $17 at your local Checker/Shucks/Kragan auto parts store. And they will likely have it in stock. You can get it for the 455 if they don't list it for the 350. They are the same plate. This will help bring up the oil pressure with out any adverse affects. The other thing that I would do of course is replace both main seals with neopreen. The rear seal is actually a ford part number that I don't have on hand right now but I'm sure that some one here has it. I had a friend a long time ago that had the same experiance as you with his engine and ended up gettine 300k miles on the engine with only honing the cylenders arond the same time as you are. Good luck with the reassembly:grin:
Good tip, I'll pick up a thrust plate. If anyone has the number for the neoprene seal I would appriciate it. All bearings and other parts are marked and going back in the same location.
Hey Karl did you also check the Cam bearings? Might be a good idea to replace them if they show any grooves especially on the first or last bearings. What year is your 350?
There are great tips here, so I can barely add anything. Yes, put an oil pump rebuild kit and thrust plate in it. Personally, I would consider having the heads "freshened up" with reground seats and new seals. If you don't rev it at all, just toss the old valve springs back in - or have the machine shop shim them. I say this because, no matter how many times one changes oil, the valve seats still wear, and 129k miles is a lot Just my $.02
350 rear seal This is the number that is on the neoprene rear seal. D2VE-6701-AA I guess these are for 351 Fords. Cleveland or Windsor? Beats me. I know I put one in my high milage 350 and it works great. Dan:grin:
Thanks for all the input. The valves were all good, cleaned up the seats and installed new seals. I'm going to put main bearings in it, the lower rear one had some small cracks from a previous poor repair to the rear main seal. Upgrading to neoprene seals and honing the cylinders. I'll go with the thrust plate on the oil pump and a new flex plate (the old one was cracked). The harmonic balancer rubber doesn't look too good either so I'll be replacing that as well. If anyone doesn't know it they are still availble from GM ($85 shipped thru GMpartsdirect.com).
Thanks for the update Karl. Keep up posted on your build up. Just remember to torque every thing down to spec. If you have any questions on making sure you get your engine tight so it doesn't leak let me know. I'm sure that I or some one else here can help steer you in the right direction.
