My original buick 350 started to knock so I changed to good running buick 350. I put the injured motor on a stand and turned it upside down. I have never taken appart the bottom end of a motor before. I will replace all the bearings and whatever else I need before it is run again. I know I have to label everything and put it back the same way. Any tips for tearing it down?
teardown/re-assemble lots of pictures , lots of tags , and notes . easy to teardown , but difficult to re-assemble . would advise u to have a qualified buick engine man / shop perform the work on the engine . cheaper in the long run.
Most of you guys agree that I souldn't try to rebuild the bottom end, or is it worth a try if I do my homework first?
First I would like to make a few points clear for you. 1. If your engine has a lot of miles on it, upwards of 75,000 you should consider doing more than just replacing the bearings. 2. You should not be afraid of tearing the block apart. There are more than enough people here that can help you with any aspect of the tear down and re-assembly. 3. There is no real secret to taking apart the bottom end but you must realize that the whole motor has to be disassembled. You will have to remove the intake and heads before you can consider removing the pistons which are connected to the rods. I don't know of any way to remove the Crankshaft with out taking out the pistons and you wont really be able to evaluate the condition of the bearings to determine which one causing your knocking and how many other berings have been affected. 4. You must take into consideration the cost of such a project. Are you going to have the rods checked? You may have to replace one or more or have them reconditioned. You may have to have the crank turned to remove scoring caused by a bad bearing. 5. There isn't much taking it apart as long as you do it mythodicly and pay attention to detail. You can always take pictures to remind you of how things should look. Keep all the caps with the right rods and look to see if they are stamped with a number corresponding to the piston they are connected to. If they aren't you will need to mark them when taking them out so you will know where they go back later. If you still think that you want to take it apart your self let us know and we will be happy to help.
The tear down is pretty easy. Make sure you do NOT mix up the connecting rod caps and the rods, keep them together as units. You may as well plan on having the rods resized form the get go, have the crank checked and probably resized as well. After alot of miles , you will usually find that even thought the crank journals may look really good with no scratches , usually they will be slightly worn down and possibly out of round. I have measured numerous cranks tha t looked realy good, but the journals were .002 under the spec, this will lead to lots of bearing clearance and poor oil pressure. You say the motor is injured, so this will most likely mean a rebuild , and not just rings and bearings. Jim Burek P.A.E. ENTERPRISES
Yeah, I will follow that advice. I want to get the above done aswell as the rotating assembly ballanced. I realy want to pull it apart so I can see what broke or spun. It will get a rebuild done here in town and the heads may come your way. Thanks.
