The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Engine & transmission dress up...

The PO had the 350 and T400 rebuilt, but it looks like hell. Cruddy paint job, gasket materials oozed out from the heads, tranny is leaking at the speedo cable and just generally a lack of attention.

Short of a total rebuild on an engine and transmission with 3K miles on it. What is the best way go about cleaning up both the engine and tranny?

Thanks -

Get a can of foam engine cleaner & go to the car wash. Wash it all down real good. Take a can of WD40 & a couple of tools. If it won,t start pull the dist cap & wipe it out & spray with wd40. They usually don,t give any problem. Get a can of engine paint & masking tape. You can do a pretty good job with a little time & patients. If you want to paint the inner fenders & radiator get 2 cans of Krylon semi-flat black.

I've done the degreaser route. Th ereal issue is a that the mechanic did a pretty lousy job. Gasket sealer is oozed out of the heads, manifold and they painted the engine with at least 5 gallons of Chevy orange.

So the way I see it is I'll probably have to disassemble the engine a bit when I install the IFS. Redo what is needed, scrape off excess stuff, repaint and hopefully that should do it.

Is there anything else I should look at when the engine and transmission are out? What are some key to do's? Again, short of rebuilding...

There is a shot of the engine at my WebShots site. Look at the front manifold behind the water pump.

Tough question. The more you dissasemble the better job you will get. Eastwood has an exhaust manifold paint that makes em look like new cast iron. It lasts too.

are you SURE ????

skraps,

The area you point out in back of the waterpump..the front of the valley, is a tough place to seal sometimes. Some mechanics leave the rubber gasket out and make their own 'ribbon of RTV'. The truck is beautiful and I don't think the engine looks that horrible.

Stuart

Paul - all this does not add up. you stated PO had rebuilt. Did you see build sheet/receipts? I have to stop and ask you, from what you are discribing with bad paint, crappy work and no attention to detail, does this sound and look like a rebuilt to you? Not to me. most likely a wrecking yard special with a fast coat of paint and bad cosmetics. To get the absolute most bang for your buck might I make a suggestion. IMHonest opinion before you spend any money on anything for this engine you need to find out what you are dealing with and in fact do you really have a rebuilt, in good mechanical shape, and up to standard performance expectations. Might I suggest you head to a reputable mechanic/shop and have them run a cylinder leakdown test on this engine. Also have them put ignition on the scope/analyzer. Have them run a vacuum test also. Any leaking/sticking valves or bad seats or guides will cause vacuum gauge to bounce and shift between cylinder firings.These quick checks will tell you if your engine has in fact been rebuilt. Any headgasket or valve, guide, or seat problems will be apparent. The leakdown testing will tell you the condition of each cylinder as to ring seal and compression, valve seat and head condition, and or variances between cylinders The ignition tests will verify the mechanical tests, and confirm if you do have valve or ring sealing and or firing/timing issues. This is the best avenue to take with your dollars. before spending any money on a big anchor, find out if you have the real deal or you just throwing money at a piece of crap that you will not be happy with. If this engine has really been redone, the proof is in the pudding, as the saying goes. the numbers will never lie and you will have the opinion of you mechanic as to your next move. I try to look at these kind of things from a dollar viewpoint. unless of course you have money to throw around.

You can't see it in the photos, but the PO painted the truck body and it's very orange peel. They laid it on to dry. They didn't take off door handles, sprayed the chrome window trim and didn't even remove the bed to shoot the paint. So the back of the cab is a mish-mash of previous colors and red over spray.

As for the engine, I talked to the mechanic that overhauled it prior to my buying it. Quite frankly, it runs like a scalded ape. I had an independent shop that specializes in hot rods, ASA certified and the owner is the past ASA Colorado chapter President & ASA National chairman check out the engine and do a leak down test and everything checked out to be a very sound engine.

So that has led me into this quandary. How do you clean it up without a complete rebuild? Also note that this truck will be a resto-mod daily driver, so my aim isn't trailer queen perfection. But I won't settle for status quo.

Opinion, rants and stories are welcome.

hey skraps are you happy with your T400 I also have that tranny on hold ready to be put in my 51 with a small block 350. I dont mean to change the subject. I have seen some nice looking heads and air filter covers at summitt racing

Anchondo -

I'm happy with my T400. The truck runs pretty well and I anticipate that it will shine up nicely when I get done with it.