The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 56 235 .060

I'm working on the donor motor for my 49 3600. It is a 56 235 w/848 head. 2 yrs ago when I drove it home it ran great. It is on a engine stand currently so I am not able to do a compression test. I built a leakdown tester to ck ck it. All cylinders are above 90 lbs except #3 which is at 82. I could hear some air at the head when I did the test. Last night I pulled the head and plan to take it to a machine shop to have checked. Looking at the top of the pistons and cylinder bores. There is no ridge at the top of the cylinders, and the pistons have a fair amount of carbon on the top. On #3 I can clearly see .060 stamped on the top of the piston. I'm going to pull the pan and look at the bottom end tonight. I am torn as to how far to go,between doing everything while it is apart (not really in the budget), checking, cleaning etc. I'm supposing I shoould pull the bearing caps and look at the bearings, plastgage? them. Rebuild the oil pump? How do you ck the cam? I can look thru where the fuel pump mounts and see the cam, and it looks shiny, but worn. Should I clean the carbon of of the top of the piston?. Do I pull the pistons and hone the cylinders? I don't have the tools to check the bores. I'm kinda leaning towards cking the bearings and leaving the pistons alone, since ther is no ridge and the leakdown test came out well. Just looking for some comments from the collective wisdom.
Dave

It sounds like you have a recently rebuilt motor. If it were me, I would look at the bearings, and probably also install a new set of rings. You could plastigauge the bearings if you wanted to.

There are probably many opinions on whether to remove the carbon from the pistons but definitely you would do that if you installed new rings.

Update:
Pulled the bottom end off of the 56 235 over the weekend. Main and rod bearings look fine, bottom of the pistons look fine and very clean. The oil screen on the pump was also very clean. Pulled the cam. The lobes are still pointy, but the ramps? leading up to the tips are very worn and pitted, cam bearings look great. So I think I will go shopping for a 261 cam. My 47-53 shop manual mentions oil plugs at the front and back of the block, I don't see anything like that. Are the later blocks different? The same manual also has you trying several thickness gaskets under the front cover, Is this the same on the later blocks?
I've never removed freeze plugs before. Do I try to knock them sideways with a punch or knock a hole in the and pry them out? Do I remember someone saying brass freeze plugs?

Dropped the head off at the machine shop. Any other suggestions?

Update again:
I went ahead and pulled the pistons, crank etc. All the bearing looked good until I came to the top rod bearings on 5 & 6. They had significant wear with copper showing. Took the crank to the machine shop for him to ck. Looked at the head while I was there, no cracks, intake valve's were ok, he wants to replace all the exhaust valves. The ex valve seats were receding, so will put in hardened seats. No 1 main bearing cap had 1 shim on each side, and #2 had 1 shim on the camshaft side. I'm going to discuss this with the machinest, but why would there be shims there? I'm going to take him the block to ck also. I'm thinking about doing the full flow conversion since I'm this far. Any one done it? Comments? Would you them use a spin on filter or could you use the old style filter?