Yellow carryall (1959 3100) is sitting forlorn in the garage, it's soul ruthlessly torn away and mounted on an engine stand.
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The original radiator would leak water very quickly, and my guess is that someone back in the 80s didn't really care. Thus my cylinder head had cracks inside combustion chambers 1 and 5.
I was really tempted to swap in a newer chevy 6, or something... but decided to stick with the 'nostalgia engine' for sentimental reasons, but also hoping this will be the less time intensive solution. I'm committed to this path now that I've acquired a new cylinder head.
The block casting indicates it's a 1956 block, the head on it was an '848' head from 1959... my new head is also the 'high' compression 848 version. I'm pretty sure the last time anyone did serious engine work was back in the late 60s... I don't think my family drove it all that often because the internals look surprisingly good for their age. There wasn't much sludge, just some thick rust deposits under the valve cover where moisture from my coolant leaks was condensing for years on end. During the few month's i've driven it, I notice that coolant would slowly contaminate the oil pan (presumably from seeping past the pistons under those head cracks), mainly after sitting in the driveway a long time, or after town driving... not as much of a problem on highway trips when the oil gets hot.
questions:
1) What do you guys think about my crankshaft? I'm tempted to keep using it.
It looks pretty good, all scratches are circumfrential around the journals. Main journals 1 and 4 mic out to 2.684, and 2.777 which is right on the larg side of spec. (Note: the spec has a 3 thou acceptable range
235 manual)
However, main journals 2 and 3 are right at their minimum spec. They taper just a little from their centers out to the edges and are 1/2 thou smaller than spec on the edges.
2) What about the rocker oiling?
I have the post 1958 rockers where the oil groove is offset from the squirt hole... however the block has an intentional plug in the lifter supply gallery. So my lifters are relying on the hollow bolt (1/16" hole) to supply all their oil. They aren't horribly worn, but I thought these pressurized style rockers were supposed to run without the plug??
3) What are your favorite pistons and cam for a street/highway performing rebuild?
I'm spinning 2200rpm at 60mph with my sm420, 3.38 gears and 32" tires
So far all I'm seeing are OE style pistons with the thick 3/16 rings, rock auto brands like engintech or sealed power? Are there lighter weight options, with better rings or compression?
I noticed that sealed power had a bit warmer cam with 184/189 int/exhaust @ 50 lift. Will that hurt my low end ~1500-2000 rpm?
My goal is to make the engine a reliable powerplant for long roadtrips & camping adventures... cams optimized for performance above 3000 rpm are likely useless in my case, but are there any 'torquer' style cam available that beat OEM?
