Hello everyone! Getting right to the point, I bought a 1970 Cutlass last summer, I believe its a Cutlass S, so if anyone can tell me how to know for sure, that would help for starters. I am now in the process of completely going through the engine and money is really tight. AND I KNOW ALMOST NOTHING ABOUT AN ENGINE!!!!! This is a dream of mine to restore a muscle car and everything I am doing is new to me, but I'm loving it. I have the fenders, inner fenders an hood removed. I plan on taking the front bumper, radiator and other stuff in the way off tomorrow. My main question is do I just start taking the engine apart in an orderly fashion or how do I go about this. I'm not looking for anything special here, just a nice, clean great running 350 with as least cash in it as possible. There is oil residue all over the bottom of the block, but I've seen no oil under the car in the garage. I'm taking a ton of pictures, and have a 1970 Assembly Manual to help, but that's it. I don't even have any good friends that do this to help. That's why I'm here. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks

 

I don't know anything about engines, but one thing I do know is a good shop manual or repair/rebuild manual would be a necessity, I would believe.

 

Take alot of pictures of your engine before you take it apart. This way if you forget how something goes you have a reference. Also get some ziplock bags and a marker so you can keep all the bolt marked and separated. It takes a little longer doing this when taking apart the engine, but it will save you tons of time when it comes to rebuilding the engine.

 

Welcome to the forum. First whats your location. Someone may be close to and willing to help. The S model is the fastback design. The Supreme is the notch back design.

You will need a service manual and fisher body manual.

You will need a engine stand. After you get the engine out, take the flywheel off. Put it on a stand start with taking the intake off, then heads, next the balancer, then timing chain cover, then you can take out the lifter, cam, and timing chain.

Next rotate the engine over with oil pan up. Take it off, then the oil pump, then you will need to number the rod caps, rods and main caps so you will need a punch set. I always number the rod caps and rods on the same side. Haber freights has punch sets cheap.

Next will be removing the rods and pistons, then the crank.

This is just a basic rundown of a engine tear down.

The things you can throw away is the cam, lifters, timing gears, timing chain and oil pump.

Things you will need to keep bolts, the shaft that turns the oil pump, oil slinger which is on the front of the engine on the crank inbetween the timing chain cover and timing gear. The fuel eccentric which is bolt to the cam shaft.

Then take what you have to a machine shop they will tell you what you need. Be willing to spend some money on the engine, you will have a better engine in the long run.

Good luck.

 

NOTE: If the lifters don't come out easily from the top DO NOT FORCE THEM as you can damage the lifter bores. Just pull the cam out CAREFULLY as to not damage the cam bearings and then just push the lifters out the bottom and let them drop into the oil pan.

 

1) Wasted advice is correct, tag it bag it. Keep all lifter, push rods, and rocker parts for each bore together in one bag and mark location from which it came, for example ‘intake #1’. All parts wear ‘together’ and if you do not place the parts back from where they came; they will wear even more after the rebuild. Also tag and bag the Pistons.
2) De-carbon the pistons if you reuse them
3) Buy new rings and hone the bore.
4) Buy new Main and rod Bearings.
5) Google several online auto part shops, for example rock auto, to find the cheapest.
6) Buy a how to book. The ‘HOW TO REBUILD A SMALL BLOCK CHEVY’, explains things at a beginner level.