What to do when your numbers matching engine is not rebuilable

[Terry L.]

When I bought my 64 Corvette it came with the original engine ( 365 HP not in the car) there is a 327 in the car but not the right one. Anyway when I took the original engine apart I found it was already .60 over and worn out. I took it to the machine shop and he said he may be able to find some .70 pistons. Before I spend a lot of money on it what do you guys think? Thanks for your help

[Harry S.]

Re: What to do when your numbers matching engine is not rebuilable

Find another block or sleeve the cylinders. Drive slowly.

[Joe R.]

Re: What to do when your numbers matching engine is not rebuilable

Terry,

I would find another machine shop for a second opinion. You could sleeve it back to standard, 30 or 60 over and if nothing else is wrong with the block it should last forever. Harry made a joke with the drive slowly bit!
Just make sure that the machine shop steps the sleeves in the block and then carefully mills the top of the sleeves not getting near the stamp.

JR

[Pancho T.]

Re: What to do when your numbers matching engine is not rebuilable

Terry,

I would find another machine shop for a second opinion. You could sleeve it back to standard, 30 or 60 over and if nothing else is wrong with the block it should last forever. Harry made a joke with the drive slowly bit!
Just make sure that the machine shop steps the sleeves in the block and then carefully mills the top of the sleeves not getting near the stamp.

JR

Joe is exactly right. Any good engine machine shop should be able to install 8 sleeves back to standard or what ever bore that you want. All of today's aluminum blocks have sleeves in them without issue.
Pancho

[Scott G.]

Re: What to do when your numbers matching engine is not rebuilable

I agree, find another machine shop. It will not be cheap to get all 8 done but having an original engine will outweigh the cost of saving it. Just make sure to emphasize they are not to deck the block.

Joe is exactly right. Any good engine machine shop should be able to install 8 sleeves back to standard or what ever bore that you want. All of today's aluminum blocks have sleeves in them without issue.
Pancho

[Michael J.]

Re: What to do when your numbers matching engine is not rebuilable

Whatever you do, try to keep the original block, no matter what.

[Joe L.]

Re: What to do when your numbers matching engine is not rebuilable

When I bought my 64 Corvette it came with the original engine ( 365 HP not in the car) there is a 327 in the car but not the right one. Anyway when I took the original engine apart I found it was already .60 over and worn out. I took it to the machine shop and he said he may be able to find some .70 pistons. Before I spend a lot of money on it what do you guys think? Thanks for your help

Terry------


I wouldn't even bother to find 0.070-over pistons. Even if you could find them, I wouldn't use them. The way to restore this block is, as others have mentioned, is to sleeve it back to standard. The only problem with this approach is cost. For a run-of-the-mill block it's not worth the expense-----finding another good block is less expensive. However, to restore an ORIGINAL block, it's worth the cost.

The thing that renders a block scrap are certain type of cracks or other irreparable damage. Before you invest in 8 sleeves, you should have the block magnaflux inspected to be sure there are no other terminal problems with the block. While some cracks can be repaired (at high cost), others cannot.

[Edward B.]

Re: What to do when your numbers matching engine is not rebuilable

Either use it as the base for a glass top coffee table or sleeve it to original size. Considering it is the original block, I'd do the latter.

[Timothy B.]

Re: What to do when your numbers matching engine is not rebuilable

[QUOTE=Terry Lewis (51548);768601]When I bought my 64 Corvette it came with the original engine ( 365 HP not in the car) there is a 327 in the car but not the right one. Anyway when I took the original engine apart I found it was already .60 over and worn out. I took it to the machine shop and he said he may be able to find some .70 pistons. Before I spend a lot of money on it what do you guys think? Thanks for your help[/QUOTE


Find a top notch machine shop and sleeve it back to the original bore after checking for any cracks. Don't let them surface the stamp #'s off the block, and rebuild it with all stock parts four your 365hp combo. You will have a nice engine when finished and well worth the $$. spent considering it's the original engine.