I picked up an olds 350 this past weekend to put in my 70 cutlass. If you would like the full backround story on my car you can find it under (Rocket 350 sluggish) thread in small blocks. I believe the motor in my car is around a 75'-76' as it has a factory HEI distributor. I found a 77' olds 350 on craigslist for $350 so I bought it. The owner said it came out of a 77 cutlass and had 79,000 miles on it when it was pulled. I pulled a valve cover to see how clean it was, and made sure it wasn't froze up. It still had oil in it that looked pretty clean. It did not have the alternator or distributor but thats fine as I can use the ones off of my current motor. I did get the 4 barrel q-jet though. Which brings me to the reason for my thread.

This motor has been stored since 1990. It needs to be cleaned up which I started on yesterday. I pulled the valve covers and cleaned up the carbon, removed the dried on gaskets. I pulled the old plugs and put some other old ones in just to plug the holes for now. Did some degreasing etc. I am eying the carburetor next. As I said this thing has been sitting for 22 years. What should I do with it? Should I take it off and clean it? Get a basic rebuild kit for it? Or should I just wait until I swap the motors and see if it works? I would rather know that it works before I put the motor in but I am new at this and would love some advice. Also what else should I do to the motor before swapping it in. I know I need to put new oil in of course. Any thoughts would be great. Thanks

 

The chances that that carb will work fine are slim. It should be opened up, cleaned and rebuild parts installed. Make sure the engine turns over by hand and is not frozen/stuck.

 

That is what I figured. The motor does turn, I made sure of that before I bought it.

 

There are (at least) two schools of thought on this.

One says that since the engine is already out of the car, you may as well put it on an engine stand, pull the intake manifold and have a look at the pushrods and lifters (a bent pushrod would tend to indicate trouble), then turn it over, pull the oil pan, pull and inspect all the bearing caps and the oil pump, and have a look at the cylinder bores.
Then, when reassembling, you've got the chance to put in new gaskets and a new rear main seal (the old one is pretty much guaranteed to leak after sitting for twenty years).

Pulling the heads to inspect the pistons and rings is also possible, but you will lose compression on reassembly if you use a new-style head gasket, and since this engine is starting out at about 8:1 (I think 8.5:1 in theory), you really don't have any wiggle room.

The other school of thought says just do a cold compression test to make sure there are no holes in the pistons, etc. (you should do this regardless of whatever else you may do), squirt some oil in all the cylinders, give the carb a good cleaning and maybe replace the float, crank it over with the plugs out until you've got good oil pressure, put in a clean set of properly gapped plugs, and start 'er up.

Depends on how cautious you are.

- Eric

 

Ok, thanks for the suggestions. Regarding the head gasket are saying I should just leave that alone then?

 

I probably would, but then again, the last time I did, I got a nasty surprise of ALL top rings broken, ring lands pounded (pistons shot), but NO scoring (would be visible from the bottom without removing the heads), and normal cold compression in 7 out of 8 cylinders.

Depends on your sense of adventure and confidence in the seller.

- Eric

 

Wanted to update this thread. I decided to just pull the oil pan and replace that gasket. I pulled off the carb as I am going try using the Q-jet off of the old motor first. I pulled the intake manifold to replace that gasket as well. Everything looks to be in great shape, and very clean so I was pleased with that. I am going to soda blast the engine as well to clean it up and paint it. This is good practice for me as I am going to tear apart my original rocket 350 this winter to start the rebuild. I am new at all of this but am really enjoying it. Thanks for the help

 

look at the timing chain? now is the time to do all this stuff while it is still easy, check all the freeze out plugs, look at the lobes of the cam etc. I don't know how adventurous you are, but I would do as much as you are comfortable with while the engine is out... unless it was rebuild prior to you getting it, it might need a timing chain, water pump etc etc etc. As was said things with seals will be suspect after sitting for twenty years...

just a thought

 

That is a good idea. The motor is currently apart and I am trying to check everything I can. I am enjoying this learning process.

 

Well it sounds like your adventurous enough, why not also check your bearing clearances (plastigauge etc), you run the serious risk of falling into the "might as wells" but you will know exactly what you have. Not trying to cause you more work, but looking ahead and getting the motor as fresh as possible with as little as possible.

 

I'd sure be putting a timing chain in it while it's down, if for no other reason than to get rid of the smog chain (I think they retarded the cam in all those years for emissions purposes). Use a chain set for an older engine, can't tell what years but I'm sure if it's from the 60's it will be closer to straight up.

 

A set of 5, 6, 7, or 5a heads would certainly help...

 

I agree with Eric, replace the rear seal, one gets you twenty it will leak.

I believe you can fire up the engine briefly with it out of the car, if the rings are shot or other nasties show up you can prepare to tear down the engine without fitting and removing it twice.

Roger.