Hard to believe. This friend of mine got a supposedly running 350 crate motor in exchange for some welding work. He says it runs but the #8 cylinder fouls the spark plug. The guy that gave it to him is no mechanic and amazingly preferred to buy another brand new crate motor rather than figure out why his engine was fouling one spark plug.
He approached me because he knew I was looking for a replacement engine for my 52 GMC and was considering a transplant because I didn't want to replace a weak 235 with another weak 235. He said it's mine for $100 bucks, or free if I give him a K&N air filter I've got and my old Holley spreadbore carb.
Sold.
So I'll get it in the next day or two, put it on the engine stand and clean it up good. Then I'll pull the heads, send them off for a valve job and new valve guides, flip it over and inspect the mains and caps. If they plastigauge okay, but a little loose, (which I expect from a used motor), maybe I'll just throw in some new bearings.
If the hone is good with no scoring, I think I'll leave the pistons in. My mechanically minded friends want me to re-ring it too, but I know myself, and I'll end up wanting to overbore it and buy forged pistons and supercharge the motor.
KISS still works. I keep telling myself "keep it simple, stupid". This motor is a runner and merely needs freshening up...if even that.
What I would LIKE to do is run a compression test to see what I've got. Not possible on an engine stand though.
I'm looking for torque, not a horsepower king. But I do wish I knew what cam was in it. If it's an unmolested 290 horse GM crate engine, then it's a 4-bolt block, powdered metal rods, cast pistons, and a 222/222 degree @ 0.05 cam, which will do the job.
I know I'm taking a chance on the rings, but a good ring job can last well over 200,000 miles with proper maintenance. If I can talk to the previous owner, I can find out how it ran before he pulled it.
I don't know, maybe I should re-ring it. I just didn't want to rebuild an engine...just throw in new bearings and freshen it up a little.
