Been following Bryce's questions and comments on rebuilding his 216. And I would have to say I'm in agreement with him on staying with the 216.
I'm doing a complete frame-off on a 1951 3100, back to original, and I certainly want to stay with what came in the truck. But that's just my preference. It ain't for everybody, and that's ok.
The block that came in the truck had apparently been bored years ago, and had way more wear in it now that what we could find pistons for. I'm not up for a .060 bore anyway. So we have decided to sleeve it and go back to standard bore. We sleeved round track small blocks years ago and never had a problem with them, so why not?
As for re-babbeting the rods, my machine shop resized the rods, taking all of the remaining babbet out, and we're going back with standard rod bearings. All we had to do was machine a slot on the rod cap and the rod for the bearing tang. Anybody ever done this, or seen it done? Any reason why this wouldn't work? I sure hope it does, cause we're gonna try it.
Any pros or cons, I'm open to hearing about it.
Mike (Kades pawpaw)
