The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Machining a 235

I have a 235 out of my 59' and it is in half good shape. It could use to be boiled down and cleaned up, it cranked real easy when I first got it but when I took it apart some of the rings fell apart and there was a bunch of carbon and gunk on the tops of the pistons from sitting for so long. It supposedly ran when it was parked. So I guess my question is do I need a complete rebuild (new valves, hardened valve seats, bored, new bearings and rings, etc..) or can I use some of the old hardware? Also If I do a full rebuild how much does a machine shop generally charge for all the labor?

IMO, if you have apart you should do a full rebuild, especially if some of it is starting to fall apart/all gunked up. It'd really suck to do half of it just to have something that you didn't replace fail 3000 miles down the road. If you're doing just a stock rebuild it shouldn't be too awful. It's near impossible to say it's going to cost exactly $xxx because things come up and prices of parts change. My guess is to have the engine completely rebuilt with all new parts and reassembled would be about $2000. Mine was over $4000, but we did lots of non-stock "improvements."
Hope that helps

ok thanks!

The carbon and gunk didn't get there from sitting.

The best way to determine whether it needs a valve job is to do a compression check before you tear it down. Too late for that in your case. Since you have it torn down and you broke rings, it needs a rebuild. The rings were probably broken because of a ring ridge in the cylinders.

A machine shop needs to tell you if the ridges can be cleaned up or if you need a re-bore.

So you need a rebuild on the entire engine, block and head.

I'm with cletis on this. when I had mine done, it ran me about $500. That included boiling the block and bellhousing, boring the block, new rod bushings, core plugs, all oil passages cleaned out, planed head, new valves w/installation, polishing the crank, and resurfacing the flywheel. I think I have arond another $800 or so in parts, some from Patricks (cam, intake, exhaust, distributor), the rest came from the flaps (gaskets, rings, pistons, etc). I did the assembly myself.

I can tell you. It was $530 for the head, and $1,880 for the block. Same engine as yours - and I'm also in California (where we pay a 30% premium on everything). This was a complete stock re-build, from top to bottom (parts and labor), except I provided the labor to re-assemble the engine. It's painful when you're shelling out the clams, but it's worth it at the end. I would recommend you do the same.

Thanks for the input. Cletis, I checked the compression before I took it apart and it only had good compression on 4 cylinders the other two I could actually see the ring cracked in the cylinder just after i removed the head. I know the carbon dint get there from sitting, but the gunk had moss growing on it and there were spiders and crap in the exaust so im guessing that was from sitting haha. I will deffinatley take your advice on this one though. Thanks for all the guidance!

Save your money & skip the hard seats.
Doug

I wanted to rebuild my 235, but machine shop ran the costs at $3500.00.

"Ya Right"

If you have the money, go for it. But there are other options!