I am doing an eng rebuilt 355/383 but anyway, Should i hire someone to do all the work .....or should i just get someone to do all the machine work and i put it together...

Pro's and Con's of both....

thx

 

Do you know what your doing? Do you have a friend thats a mechanic that can stop by and make sure your doing it right? Do you have the tools? Do you have the time? Do you have a place to do it?

Just some things you should think about. I'm a "do it myself" kinda guy, usually not worried about breaking something cause i'll just replace it, but an engine...i dunno, i'm more toward someoen building it for me.

I know someone that got a LT1 built all forged, 355, ran easy 10s and he got it all done either for 2000 or just under 2000.

 

pro's ... 1 if they mess up..they'll fix it..
2 may come with a warranty
3 you can say... "yeah i built this"

con's
1if you screw up..you have to buy the new part...
2it's very frustrating if you only halfway know what you are doing


its possible for you to do it, but you need to read into it real good...like plastigauging the bearings, torque, ect.ect.

 

All the price is in removing the engine and stripping it down to the shortblock. What I would suggest, if you have the resources, is to pull the engine, strip it down to the shortblock and take the shortblock to a machine shop and have them build the lower portion of the engine. Then from there you can reassemble. That would probably cut the price in half and still gives you the true "I built this" feeling. All the lower parts of the engine should really be precise if you want it to last. Plus, if you have the time, most machine shops will let you watch as they build, which is nice for any future overhauls.

 

Most DIY mechanics don't have the tools to check everything with.Plastiguage don't cut it when you are checking brg clearances.Might be one might be two.Just isn't close enough.How about bore size,got a dial bore guage??
Most everybody has a 9/16 wrench,but if you don't have the money to get the proper tool's and learn how to use them it is best left to a pro.

 

I agree with Scoob and 1Racer. I did my rebuild about 1 year ago and built what I have below without knowing crap about an engine. The farthest I went before that is pulling a waterpump. With a LOT LOT LOT of help from everyone here on the board I built my own engine with lil or no help from anyone. But if you do have access to tools and room to do it, I would say DEFINATELY do it yourself. If not at most just send out the shortblock and have the assemble the bottom end. I can't tell you the sense of pride you have when people ask who built your motor and you say "I did." Let me know what you decide I'll help as much as possible.

 

What would be a list of tools need to do this project...

 

Just by that last reply alone.... forget it. Send it out. At minimum you need to borrow or rent and engine hoist or do like a lot of others do and drop it out from the bottom. But you'll need a compressor, air ratchet, impact gun and a lot of tools. Oh yeah a digital camera and a lot of ziploc bags. Oh yeah and of course a jack.

 

Plus mikes to cover the different sizes,a dial bore guage,a intrimike to mike cam brg's,torque wrench,engine stand,dial indicator.This is about $3000.00 worth of tools to get the sizes right.O,instruction manual's for each tool $250.00-300.00.So now that you have the price of a short block in tools,are you going to build engines for a living,like me(starving) or use them one time and put them on the shelf to rust???

 

I didn't have any mikes or dial bore gauge and I don't think your gonna be doing that. When you send your block out to be clearanced and internals balanced, they should have that all done for you. My block came back cleared internals balanced and cam bearings installed.

 

Are you going to take someone's word that it is "right" on a 10-12,000.00 dollar engine.I won't I have caught Toooo many mistakes since the '60's on machine work and new parts.Stuff that would have blown the engine had it not been caught.
People can do their engine building the way they want,but I give a guarantee with my work,and don't have an extra 10,000 dollars laying around to replace a blown engine for something that should have been caught on assembly.
When yours came back,I bet you don't even know the sizes that were machined into it.That is an awful lot of trust to put into a shop that is rushing to get the work out.
A crank can be .001 to big and ruin the brg on that journal and it only takes 1.If you don't check how will you know."O" you put it together and see what happens.NOT me,it WILL be checked.

 

i'm gonna have to agree with 1racerdude. i dont trust machine shops to make sure its all right unless they're putting it together because then its THIER *** then. where as if you put it together well then they just say you f***ed it up and thats it, its all on you. and take it to a GOOD SHOP hell i've seen shops mess up stuff that they assembled. i recently did some work an an existing 454 boat motor (gen 6) my uncle bought and it was done by a very reputable shop (who shall remain nameless) i tore it all down to swap out the cam and springs. well the springs were all over the place on installed hieghts i'm talking like .100 difference and they used shims so somebody pretended to measure them before. and when i went to reuse the timing chain since it had zero slop and almost no wear. when i degreed the cam and the timing set had 8* of advance in it.. while installed in what was supposed to be straight up. ordered a new timing set problem solved. and the guy who had it before wondered why he floated the valves and didnt make power worth a sh*t. i guess the point i'm making with all this rambling is not only take it to a shop but make damn good and sure you TRUST the shop and have a good relationship with the guys there. after all you're trusting them with several $k, and thats probably a good way to think of it if you wouldnt leave 2 grand sitting in the guys office dont let him do the work.

 

just make it so that if the motor screws up you can take it back... then you don't have to trust them. get them to gaurantee there work for 30 days or something.

 

Why don't you do a little research into a machine shop. Any decent shop wouldn't even think about rushing a job. Especially with the fact that most people that build up their engines go to races and talk talk talk. An engine builder would be ruined if he produced a few bad seeds. If you're going for budget, then forget HP. If you're going for HP, forget budget. Its as simple as that.

 

OK..if i do go to a shop..

-What questions should i ask

-What are good and bad signs to look for

-How do i no they are the right shop to do the job...