okokko... Culprit is....

Totally burnt valve on #3, semi burnt valve on #5.

Going to take the heads in and have them redone. All else looks decent.. pistons are a little carbon-ed up, but probably just clean'em off and let'em eat.

Having looked at the bearings and all yet, Will probably do that one night this week coming up or next weekend.

Probably going to repaint engine and heads Red... Chrome Manifold and Carb, new hoses (maybe braided, not sure yet).

Will post progress.


(Anyone have any recommendations on what to use to strip the paint off the block, etc?)

if your going to be completely dissaembling the engine, send it to a mchine shop and have em tank it and install new plugs in it, it isnt expensive and takes everything off

yeah, tanked and/or media blasted on the outside.

paint it Hugger orange.. mmm..

cast aluminium valve covers, semi-polished intake.

Just make sure its high heat paint. Another thought is why did those valves burn?

Well... everything else seems to be in pretty good shape. My buddy said what I called "sludge" is a little dirt, not actual sludge... called me a big fat newbie, which I can't deny. Strip it, paint it, do the stuff that I want to... send the heads out, have them painted the same color, put it back to gether and let it go.

I believe I'm going to opt on the side of frugality... not getting block tanked. freeze plugs were recently done, lifters are brand spanking new, and everything inside under the heads appears to be ok. Piston heads are a little carboned up, but nothing serious... at least that's what he said. (Having 14 old cars and doing all the engine work himself... I put some weight on what he says.)

I AM going to replace oil pump, water pump, (maybe pushrods because I mixed them up... yeah I know), manifold, carb, headers, and plumbing. When I do the oil pump, I'll check the bearings, etc. and replace them if they need it.

(Honestly, I'd like to have it takned and redone from the bottom up, BUT it's not having it tanked that's expensive... it's putting it back together with all the new shit....right?)

I'll see if I can post pic's - maybe somebody will find them useful, or be able to tell me something I'm missing.

Just spoke to machine shop... said without looking... Valves are burnt because someone cut them too thin... can replace them for $12 a piece.

WOOOOHOOOO! (I don't have to do anything and get them back in a week or so!)

bearings are the kind of thing were if they have even like 1000m of use on em if you have it apart, replace em

:iamwithst You have it apart, once you start pulling bearing caps most of the work is done anyway, might as well change the bearings. That only leaves rings, pistons if you bore the block, and oil seals. Might as well do all of the job if you are going that far. Just make sure you use the right plastigage to check your bearing clearances.

It's not the work that's expensive... Especially considering I'm going to have someone helping me do it. Bearings, pushrods, rings, etc are bad enough, but having the block prepared isn't a 5$ job, or is it?

Cylinders need to be honed, so I'd rather not pull them out, especially if the valves were the problem in the first place.

Believe me guys, I'd like to do all that stuff, but I think I"m up to about $1400 in engine stuff alone (headers $300, Carb $400, intake manifold $250, oil pump $120, Water pump $200 plumbing and bolts ~ $150), and that's not even going to make it drivable... still gotta do the interior (gauges, dash, etc). If replacing the bearings, having the block tanked, the clyinders honed, etc is gonna be like $50-100 then maybe I'll do it depending on how much the bearing, rods, etc cost to replace. But I have a feeling that all that is gonna be too much.

Most of the block prep can be done yourself. You can hone cylinders, just get the tool for it at an auto parts store or rent the tool. It mounts in a drill and they usually come with instructions. Bearings are fairly inexpensive, I think around $100 for the full set, mains and rods. Seals aren't that bad, but what is the killer is pistons for a big block. I did a 350 4bolt main for about $900 for the entire kit, rings bearings, valves, gaskets, etc. Price kits before you start buying parts, might be able to save some money.

I personally wouldn't suggest trying to hone the cylinders yourself. Really easy to mess up and really expensive to fix, that is, if the block isn't ruined itself. But you would have to resleeve it if you messed it up. And I've heard that's expensive.

Really easy to mess up and really expensive to fix

Which is why I ain't messing with it... if the pistons and such are fine, no reason to mess with them.

I am doing the seals, etc everything that has to be done, but if anything is ok as is... its staying that way.

I figure it this way... I'll know how to take the engine out and apart for next time. WHICH by the way, will probably be a swap for something a little less radical. Or I might sell RD and get my money back and start anew with something older.

Or I might just buy a fucking bike and be done with it.


EDIT - I did price out some kits.. but not sure exactly what I need at this point. I'm gonna geta whole new set of bolts, just because the ones that were on it were mis-matched and the heads were rounded. When I peek at the bottom I"ll have a better idea.

Anyone have a good way to mark the lifters so I put them back in the right places?

so is the okokok trend coming back or is this a new one... okokko?


haha just screwing with you

I personally wouldn't suggest trying to hone the cylinders yourself. Really easy to mess up and really expensive to fix, that is, if the block isn't ruined itself. But you would have to resleeve it if you messed it up. And I've heard that's expensive.
honing is far from hard, a monkey will a good ball hone can do it, get a full gasket kit and a set of head bolts, take a serious look at the timing chain too, bearings like i said, but please just plastigage them, it dosnt take long and gives you piece of mind, make a tray for the lifter and mark the front and just put them in the tray as they would be in the engine(separated by wood or plastic or something, or do what i do wipe off the oil and get out the ole sharpy and assuming you know which cylinders are which # label them 1I 1E, 2I 2E etc...

I would like to say 'Poor' has honing mixed up with ridge reaming (which still isn't that bad.)

I have sleep and drinking mixed up with school and work.

okokok (yes it's back) what is everyone saying? Hot tank it, hone the cylinders, (WTF is plastigage?), replace bearings, re-use pushrods / lifters (practically new) / and rockers (again practically new), and re-ring it?

Cylinders look great except the last 1/8" or 3/16" at the top is sort of rough / carboned up... that's the part that is making it need the honing.

You know what... I'll have to post pictures so you guys can see what I'm talking about.

(Babs, head bolt appear ok... all the rest look just like the used what they had on had and shimmed them up with 2, 3, or 4 washers. The kit I was looking at didn't include the head bolts, but did have everything else.)

You need plastigauges as a easy way to determine your journal to bearing clearances, unless you want to learn how to use a micrometer and t-gauge. Which in all reality, you should do anyway, and the use the plastiguage as a means to doulbe check.

plastigage is a thin little piece opf plastic that is used to check oil clearances btween the crank journals and the bearings, its placed on the crank journal between the main bearing and the journal you torque the main cap to spec(id torque it 3 steps, and you compare it the the measurements on the plastigages package, usually available in increments of 0.0005" or 0.001", ball hone is super easy to use, but if you knock the glaze off the walls and the carbon spend the money and buy a set of rings(buy the right size depending on if your engine has been bored over 0.010", 0.020", 0.030" etc) also not to sure on BBC's but with aftermarket SBC pistons, there are different top rings thicknesses(top 2 rngs) ive seen them in both 5/64 and 1/116", BUT like i said i dont really know on BBC's also before you buy bearings make sure you know if the crank has been turned and how much(if any), easiest way to tell(if the machine shop that did the crank didnt mark it) look at you old bearings, both main and rod, they may say STD on the which mean, they are for a standard dia. journal. or they may say 0.010" or maybe 0.020" depending on how much the crank has been turned. As far as head bolts, there never a bad thing to replace when you have the heads off, they will actually stretch when you torque them, which can kill the threads in the block if you re-use them and you may not get an accurate torque reading off them. OK THAT WAS LONG WINDED IL SHUTUP NOW

okokOK! New head bolts it is. I have no idea what that other stuff meant. (I'm serious too, I have no idea what you guys are talking about. :disappoin Crank journal bearing clearances??? )

Took heads to speed shop... Between $350-$500 to have the valves sleeved new valves, and all the bs he said they had to have so that they'd run :crying: . He said that they've been ported.. although whoever did it didn't know what they were doing, and took too much out of the exhaust ports and the result is that is kills the exhaust flow and power. :sly: Now... if you can feel the exhaust from like 15 feet away from the car when the engine is revved... how much effect does over-porting the exaust ports have? :dunno:

He also said that the valves are SO bad that they are definitely the source of ALL the issues the engine was having... compression, vacuum, etc. :banghead:

ALSO... I found out that the previous owner put an oversized pulley on the water pump which made the v-belt wear on the radiator hose WHICH... accounts for the burnt rubber smell I mentioned a while ago. :disappoin

ALSO I found out the friggin header bolts were too loose, accounting for my exhaust leak. :disappoin :eek7: :newburn:

alrightalrightalright. :lol:

Bearing clearance: There is a razor thin, thousands of a inch gap, inbetween the main bearing and the crankshaft. The crankshaft journal is the area of the crank that is nestled up inbetween the block bearning and the main cap bearing (hope you didn't mix those boys (mains) up yet :eek: You also have the connecting rod journals as well, same concept but apply the connecting rod to it and you get the picture. This allows oil to do it's job.

Here's my problem thus far with what your'e saying. The burnt and hung valves are the cause of your currnet ill running motor, great :thumbsup: BUT, what burnt the valves??? :sly: Overly bored exhaust ports in my opinion may have let the exahust kind of lumber around and "wait it's turn" sort of like a whole bunch of people trying to exit a sports arena all at the same time, you know how a cluster of people end up sutck to the side waiting their turn to get to the exit? So I think it was causing a poor unorganized lfow and not getting pushed out the way it should and there is your burnt valves. :2cents:

If the head bolts are not torque to yied you can reuse them. Yeah, but againg, me? I'm there, replace 'em if the cost is not of issue as in some cases may be. Just do not use you garden variety hardware store bolts :nono:

350-500 is kind of a wide range :sly:

BTW - my car woke up from it's winter hybernation just fine!

350-500 is kind of a wide range :sly:

BTW - my car woke up from it's winter hybernation just fine!

Looked up the ARP head bolts on summit... getting them in addtion to new bolts all the way around.

I though that was a wide range myself but I did ask him for a best to worst case scenario so I didn't have a friggin stroke when I went to pick them up. I figure it this way... even if it runs $500... I've got a decent shop with an excellent reputation who says they stand behind their work (and I've heard they do from other people too). If I spend $500 and the damned things will be right by the time they get done with them and I pretty much won't have to worry about them for a good long while, then $500 is worth it.

AND - just spoke with the owner... porting has nothing to do with the burnt valves in this case... thinks someone "cut" the valves and they had bad edges, which made them burn. He said, basically whoever did them the last time had an idea of what he doing, but either half assed it or rushed it, all the way from the porting to the springs. The springs and retainers don't go together, he said they also used cheap valves. All I know is that for $500 or so, they better be fucking right or they're gonna get a set of heads upside their head.

(He said that had they not been ported they would have been extremely valuable:banghead: , '66 427 heads were a limited run, single year head. He acted genuinely upset! )


Glad to hear your vehicle's doing well, you bastard. :lol: