The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop First Engine Rebuild - What I learned

Finally got my 216 engine back from the machine shop last week. WOW! Can't believe it . . . it's been on the far horizon for so long, it's amazing to me that the truck and the engine are actually in the same building again, after several years.

Thought I'd share some of my mistakes.

Background: Rosie is a 1941 Chevy Fire Truck with a 216, which is the 2nd or 3rd re-power in the life of the truck. This one had a crack in the water jacket (don't they all?), which had been poorly J.B. Welded, and which leaked, slowly but consistently. I lived with that for the first few years.

I wanna say it was three years ago when, on the way back from a muster, the truck kept quitting on me, vapor lock-ish. Got a new fuel pump, but in the process thought I'd do a compression test, which revealed poor compression, and two adjacent cylinders were VERY low, so I'm thinking blown head gasket. Take the head off, figure I may as well have it rebuilt while it's off. Turns out it has cracked valve seats. Cylinders in the block are rusty. I decide to do a total rebuild, get the crack fixed right, etc.

Here's what I learned:

1. Everything is easier to work on with the engine out of the truck.

Removing the engine and tranny as a unit turned out not to be too difficult - just a LOT of work. With the engine out, it was far easier to properly clean the crack (six inches wide, just above the main gallery on the manifold side). They drilled the ends, cut out the crack in a "V" shape, and used DevCon to patch it. Don't know yet, but I'm very confident this fix will be permanent. CRACK REPAIR

2. BE ORGANIZED!!!

This is the most important thing I've learned so far. I took the engine apart, and took the parts to the machine shop in dribs and drabs. First the head, over a year later the block, several months later an assembly of the other parts. Next time, I will take everything to the machine shop at the same time, AND I will have a written INVENTORY. In the two+ years of my rebuild, the rocker arms and push rods "went missing". Because I wasn't organized, I couldn't blame them, because I wasn't sure I had actually ever delivered them. Also, the dipstick tube and I think a manifold clamp either didn't get to them, or didn't come back - either way, I have to replace them. Just plain unnecessary.

3. Get everything ready, Get set, then . . . GO!!!

This is a hobby for me, and if the rebuild took longer than a few weeks, it didn't really matter. But two years?!!! The longer the engine is out, the more likely parts will get lost or damaged. Next time I will wait until I have the time to follow the process more closely, and work out a maybe 6-week schedule with the shop. I will phone once a week to check progress, ie. be a nudge. You can be a squeeky wheel without being an A$$ about it. I know my project may not be the most important work they have at any given moment, and they know I'm anxious to get my engine back.

4. It's possible you may know things your rebuilder doesn't.

When I tore the engine down, I apparently snipped the oil line going up to the rocker arm. Because it was so long ago, I don't remember why, but I'm guessing I couldn't get it out whole because of a kink or something. Anyway . . . the rebuilder was [censored]!!! They moaned and groaned to me, because they spent 3+ hours fabricating a new line, said that I.D. tubing wasn't commonly available anymore, they had to search far and wide, etc. etc.

Well, I won't belittle their work, they did a fine job, and I'm sure it was aggravating, but . . . I found the same line in the Chevs of the 40s catalog for $12.00. Stovebolts are my thing, I know the suppliers, and I have this wonderful web-site. A 60 year-old Chevy six is an oddball engine to a shop whose bread and butter is modern BMW and Jaguar engines. The owner is a genius, and can rebuild ANY engine, but I've got the stovebolt braintrust at my fingertips.

The bottom line

The engine was rebuilt from stem to stern. Hot-tanked, magna-fluxed, decked, and dressed for dinner. .040 over on the cylinders, .020 on the crank, insert rod bearings, hardened valve seats, and aluminum pistons. New everything on the heads. Grand price, including new rocker arms and pushrods: $4300.00.
Lotta money, LOTTA money, but, I will own this truck FOREVER. And I will just plain be happier knowing the engine is fresh.

I'll let you know how she runs in a few weeks. (Hopefully!). FRESH ENGINE

There's MY two cents worth . . .

-Michael

$4300? YIKES!

And that's all I'm saying.

WOW ...$4300 .........GULP...I passed out for a few ...

And you wonder why some guys would buy a new crate 350 for around $2300.

Mikestem,just feel good about having the 216 home despite your trials. I'm rebuilding my third inline and still discovering things I didn't know or expect.

Dale........
could be a new business venture.......
CRATE STOVEBOLT ENGINES !

and hey....a slogan to go with it........
"Avoid the wait, Get a STOVEBOLT crate"!

Well, in defense of the machine shop, (sort-of), if you subtract the rocker-arms and pushrods, and include the work-up of a second cylinder head I initially sent to them, the price drops some.

Did I mention they also tapped the front timing cover bolts?

And they turbo-charged it . . . yeah, that's it. . . .

-Michael

Did you say they kept your 216 for 2 years? I feel cheated. I have a 1954 235 that I droped off at the machine shop to have rebuilt 4 years ago. I have been going down every two to three weeks this year and he keeps saying, "I'm getting ready to do it in the next week or so!"

I'm not going to embarrass you by telling how much it cost to rebuild my 235 but I had it back in 3 weeks, from the time the mechanic picked it up, disassembled it, sent parts to the machine shop, re-assembled it and dropped it back here. That included the full-pressure oiling mod, timing cover mod and drill/tap for water pump adaptor plate on top of the "usual" rebuild stuff.

There is absolutely no reason why it should take longer than a month or two at the most if they are actually intending to do the work.

Years? That's BS... IMO, of course.

Woody,

Too late . . . I'm already embarrassed.

NEXT TIME, I will be more on my game. Truth is, I wasn't ready for the engine to come back sooner. I'd rather not have a rebuilt engine sitting on a shelf for 2 years, waiting for the rest of the truck to be ready. Better, I think, to wait until your closer, then ship the engine for rebuilding, so it's "fresh" for install & first starting.

That's what I'm thinking now, anyway . . .

So far, my lack of organizational skills has resulted in:
Lost rocker-arms & pushrods, missing dipstick tube (?!), one missing manifold clamp & bolt, missing manifold rings, lost water pump, lost fan, . . .

My morale is sinking faster than Wall Street . . .

-Michael

well i think even though it sounds a little expensive i think it's money well spent. hr

I was very happy with the machine shop that did my 261. It took about a month and they phoned several times to ask it it was OK to have parts sent here from California and stuff like that. They were apologetic that it took so long because they had to wait for parts.

Michael, I really don't think a freshly rebuilt engine is going to suffer any damage by sitting if the rebuilder knows that and you keep all the holes plugged up. Mine will probably sit for a year or more and my rebuilder (a mechanic who specializes in vintage Chevrolet) reassured me that there would be no problem.

But I agree that if you tell them you're in no hurry the job will constatly be put to the end of the line. I told him I'm in no hurry for my SM420 and it's been over there for 6 months, but if I told him I was ready for it I'm sure it would be here in a week or two.

Hey, you learned your lesson and I learned mine when I found out what a POS truck I paid through the nose for. You have two options... you can either get depressed and [censored] off or you can move on. Trust me, moving on is much more fun.

My first engine was out of a 1962 Austin Healy Sprite. 1098 cc before cylinder cleanup. I didn't have much done at the machine shop. Cylinders bored, block deck and head mating surfaces flycut. Pistons knurled. (Worked great) I guess I had it tanked.

I made three mistakes:
1. Didn't mark the main caps so I installed all three backwards. Engine didn't crank. Broke the rear end trying to tow start.
2. Didn't replace the oil pressure relief valve piston. It was running 85 psi and blew off about four filters before I caught that one.
3. Painted the block white.

The first one is always a learning experience. It's beyond price. The second one will cost a lot less and take a lot less time . . . but you have to do the first one to get the benefits.