So I'm getting ready to do this and I'm starting to get cold feet LOL!! how many of you have actually assembled the bottom end of your motor and not had anything go wrong?

 

86 miles and good so far. Read and use lots of printed reference material so that you know you have covered all bases. I used the factory manual and this for reference. Having built a few engines in the past didn't hurt, either.

 

I am in the process of doing it right now, but it helps that my dad is a Chevy mechanic with 32 years of experience.

 

Lets see started at 16 since then I would say I have built over 25+ bottom ends. thats only two years worth of work too.

 

Got alittle over ten thousand miles on mine now. Although it was my first and I did a few things twice on the stand everything turned ok.

 

I assembled my stroker myself, but I had a couple of buddies around drinking my beer, uh, I mean watching me to make sure all went well.

 

NO NO NO.....lol. My machinist told me "make sure its a beer free zone when putting that together."

Anyways I got 3k on my stroker so far and knock on wood nothing yet. I did like Shoebox and did a lot of reading. I double checked everything. Until this motor the most I did was change a water pump. I felt bad coming on here and asking so many questions over and over but everyone here was so helpful. No one busted my ***** for being a pain in the ars. Gonna take it to the track in the next couple weeks. That will be the true test.

 

350 miles and counting, easy as can be, just torque everything by the specs. you will do fine. I'm only 20 and have done it five times. You gota start sometime, good luck

 

Do it every year for the past 3 years.... Not hard but can be VERY intimidating if you don't know what your doing.. But how the hell you gonna ever learn if you don't try it

I would say one of the most important things that you don't wanna f' up on is the RING GAPS and the ring gap placement... If your going to gap your own rings be VERY careful and go SLOW cause those lil gaps get REAL BIG with just a lil filing

 

O yeah......forgot one thing. It was way easier than I thought it would be. (CONFIDENCE BOOSTER)

 

The important thing to know is that I wasn't the one drinking!

Well, it's been 2 years of 600+ fwhp so I think I did ok.

 

Bolting it together isn't hard. It's the machine work in preparation that's the hard part and the key to a good motor. Coupla things to be careful of. Rings, as mentioned (get the end gap right). Also, cleanliness is VERY important. Proper use of sealants and thread lockers is a detail that is easy to overlook. Be liberal with assembly lube where it is needed.

Reading a bunch is a good place to start.

Rich Krause

 

I have almost 20K on my rebuild, it is holding up bigtime so far.

One of the most important things which hasn't been mentioned yet is balancing of the rotating assembly. I had mine balanced by a local shop, and I don't think it was done correctly, they ****ed it up. I have a vibe around the 4000 rpm range, and it lasts a few hundred rpm. You can feel the vibration, but it isn't that bad. There has been lots of confusion regarding how you balance one of these motors. I think the best way is to have it balanced internally, which costs more money. That way if you ever swap out the clutch assembly or front balancer, you can have it neutrally balanced to match the motor. Make sure the shop knows what the hell they are doing before having it balanced there.

Other than that, if you use main studs instead of bolts, watch out. The studs will actually increase your oil clearance. Mine went from .0025" (stock) to over .0030", too much. I guess you could use oversize main bearings to correct this problem. Just make sure you check the clearances thoroughly. I suggest you buy a book on rebuilding a small block Chevy or Lingenfelters book. It explains which clearances to check and which tools are necessary.

 

well I've been reading for nearly two months and have asked a ton of questions, good to see there have been so many people that have done it successfully