The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Reuilding a 216

Has Anyone in here had much experiance with rebuilding 216's. I am pretty mechanically inclined. I have never ebuilt an engine before though. My only setback would be the babbit bearings. Thanks, Jess

Jess, the hardest part of rebuilding my 216 was finding a machine shop that had some knowledge of them. After asking around at shows and quizzing several VCCA members,I located a shop about 40 miles from me that had experience with them. They converted the rods to insert bearings so that eliminated the shims there. After that, the only thing that took a little time was setting the shims on the main bearings. Other than that, it's basically the same as building any other engine. Pistons,bearings,etc. are readily available from federal Mogul,etc.

Jess,

I am rebuilding my 216 too. You can go inserts or you can send the rods to a babbitter. I elected to keep my rods and have them rebabbitted. I gave him the crank rod journal dimension because they were machined .010. He will cut the babbitt to match. If I understood him correctly, I may get away without having to install the shims. There are many threads on babbitt vs inserts. It's what ever you want. Let us know what you decide and progress.

new question...
To re-babbitt do you just get the crank worked on? Or does the whole block have to be there as well? I'm thinking this will be easier to just buy a rebuilt 235. Too muching thinking on my part going on here.
Boy I love my truck...

and by crank i meant rods. Jess

Jess-

All you need is the rod journals on the crankshaft to be machined true-so they are not egg shaped. The block does not have to go to the babbitter. Get the dimensions from the machinist and send the dimensions and the rods to the babbitter. I have been told by my babbitter that if I didn't care about keeping my rods, that as soon as he has my cores and dimensions, he would cut and send some that he has on the shelf. In this case, you would have fresh rods in about a week.
Hope this helps.

Mark

The way the original rods were done, they came out of the factory with .004" of shims in the rods. With reconditioned rods, I would think that they would be set up the same way. It sounds like there is an independant shop that will make them precise enough to be used as is.

I had my rods machined to take inserts. The inserts are made of more advanced multi layered material. They are of similar makeup to other modern inerts. They should have a longer service life than the old style rods.

On the 235 quetion, a more modern full pressure 235 would take more abuse and would do better at the higher RPMs.