N.O.S. short block 350.

Hi, I found a guy close to me with two nos buick 350 short blocks in the factory crate. I am thinking about grabbing one, I mean how many of these is a guy gonna come across in his life right?

I asked him what year the engines were, he said 68-69, he was saying something about how these years oiled the rockers up thru the head while later years oiled thru the pushrods, is this true?

he picked up a dozen of them back in 1984 he said, from a dealer buyout. he has two left.

he want $1,000.00 each, do you guys know of any reason not to buy one of these for a fresh build? if they truly are 68-69 motors any pros/cons?
he has this part number listed in the ad. GM# 1394433
someone told me that they would rather use a "seasoned block" because of the oil pressure issues but if I do the mods I cant see this being an issue. anything I should look for when I go to see these engines?
Thanks....

 

I would be concerned about assembly lube being dry by now.may be fine, not sure about what gm used back then. And see which piston is in it, as it could be 9.2(hi compression)8.2 (early low compression ) or 7.7 (latest piston shared with v6) .
You can plug oil passages and use 70 and up lifters pushrods and rockers. 68-72 heads. Late 72 -80 can be an issue of coolant ports in center of heads that would need to be plugged.
I would do oil mods and pickup tube. Has 40 psi oil relief spring. Does it have timing cover and oil pump? Harmonic balancer? 1000 isn’t bad for a short block. But check for surface rust.

 

how do I tell which pistons it has?

 

Measure piston depth at top dead center. .060 is early piston both low 8.2 and 9.2. Then check for shallow piston dish.
Here’s a pic of shallow and deep dish
7.7 compression piston is .090 below deck

 

Not sure how the 350s are, but my NOS 455 I got was drowned with cosmoline. Took a long time to get it off, I had to break it all down, the oil passages were plugged full...........they had to dip it not spray it.

 

I would definitely break it down regardless to inspect but I feel like that new old stock stuff is better quality than anything you can buy today.
Did you have any other problems with your build?

 

I just used the block, sold the crank, still have the rods and pistons, the stk rods and pistons are 700+hp parts. But all the parts came out very clean, bearings showed some scratches I'm sure where we had to force turn it to disassemble, 1 ring was broke, but other than the local shop dropping the Blick and cracking the China wall no issues

 

I show that part number to be a 68-70 Buick basic 350 engine (Group number 0.33) but I have to believe it has the 68 and 69 oiling. It should not include the timing cover.

 

Thanks, I searched that part number but didn't come up with much. I wish it had the timing cover. do you think it is a fair asking price? also are you thinking it has the low compression pistons in it then?

 

Nice score!

Is only better than a "stock" crappy cast jobber made in India piston rebuild anyway.

Even if the engine has the "good" and I use that term loosely, small dish high compression 4 bbl pistons, they're still cast pistons. Not to mention the crappy factory cast rods that can't handle much RPM over 6,000 without the risk of failure! That year had the weak prone to failure nut and bolt rods.

But being a NOS block and crank, you have a good foundation to start with. Ditch the pistons and rods, do the oil mods to the block, have it torque plate honed to the same size and order a AutoTec piston and ring kit for the size it is honed to.

Have the deck height measured so you can dial in the compression ratio of choice by ordering the pistons with the compression height they need to give you zero deck. Should shoot for about .005" in the hole in case you ever want to rebuild and the deck needs cleaned up. From the factory the deck won't be parallel to the mains but Buick machining wasn't as bad as other manufacturers so probably only a couple thousands off from end to end and a couple thousands off form side to side. Just measure the 4 corners add them all together and divide by 4 and that should be in the middle to split the difference for your deck height dimension when ordering pistons.

Or if you have access to a good machine shop that can parallel deck the block WITHOUT having to "mock it up" that would be a good thing to have corrected(but not absolutely necessary). This will give a better dimension without having to split the difference to order the customizable AutoTec pistons.

Either get a set of nascar take out rods and have the crank offset ground to add stroke or get a set of Molnar rods and keep it @ 350 cubes, dealers choice.

Stroking crank, or offset grinding would cost about $200 without having to touch the mains, nascar take out rods about $150(could be $50 to $300 depending on what you find and which ones you buy), about an extra $120(vs re-using the factory ones) for rod bearings and about $50 to alter the rods to fit the crank for a total of $520.

A set of new Molnar rods are just under $600(IIRC they cost $595?) so just a tad less expensive to do a stroker build than doing a standard stroke build with good rods AND that is with re-using the factory rod bearings.

Either way it should be re-balanced. Being that it is the older style nut and bolt rod crank it would need a lot of heavy metal to internal balance the new rotating assembly so either way keep it external balanced will be way less expensive. If you use the later cap screw rod crank because those rods are heavier it takes less to internal balance one of these cranks with the new rotating assembly.(but I think the Molnar rods are heavier than the nascar take out rods are, closer to what a factory rods weighs so heavy metal may be needed for either crank with the Molnar rods to internal balance?)

Or if you just need something lackluster to just propel a car, slap it together the way it is and run it? But definitely disassemble it completely to make sure its clean inside and out and re-assemble it before running it at the very least. GL

 

I suspect the pistons are for 68 and 69 compression ratios thus the factory part number. It should be in a wooden crate with paper around the engine. The preservative on the engine is something like cosmoline. It will need to be soaked in a vat to remove this. I would have it disassembled, and reassembled. If you need a 350, yes, I think it is worth the asking price.

Also the part number is usually stenciled on the wooden crate.

 

I found on on CL a while ago, NOS '76 shortblock. Still kicking myself for not picking it up for 800.

 

1976 a bit different then a 68-69 the 76 would def be a smogged out low HP version of the 350 but **** what do i no coule be wrong

 

My intentions were to clean it up, TA cam bearings, Crower 3, and just have a really nice cruiser that would drink 87 while I built my other engine for 450hp and aluminum heads. But, some guy bought it. Oh well. I now have a '70 GS350 engine, so I think I made out well.

 

My Nov.'71 parts book has that engine assembly listed as 'Export". I'm not sure what my be different than the domestic 1394431 4bbl or 1394885 2bbl, but, I'd guess it's in the piston comp ratio.

Is the guy selling both of them?

Thanks, Matt

 

Good deal i was def not doging on it by any means just was pointing out that you def dont here of a 68-69 motor in the crate still that would def be a good score my 72 skylark has its orig 350-2 in it trying to figure out were vaccums gool up and what not runs rough but dont smoke and i believe its to do with the vaccum advance not being hooked up along with any of the other vaccums i just got the car and its dead of winter here cant wait for spring so i can play with her with our freezing my but off im a poor boy redneck lol that fell into a sweet deal kid disnt no what he had i have stage 4 cancer at the age of 31 and wanted one last project in case i dont beat this monster

 

Put the grand into your original eng. You know what you have already.

 

A 350 Buick still in a crate from GM to me isn't worth a $1000.00, maybe 200 bucks.
Its a novelty, a zero mile never run engine from 4 or more decades ago, nothing special.

 

"someone told me that they would rather use a "seasoned block" because of the oil pressure issues but if I do the mods I cant see this being an issue"

Using a seasoned block has nothing to do with oil pressure issues and everything to do with thermal movement from hot/cold cycling.