Here's what I paid four years ago for a 351W

Vat & strip - 95.00
Magnaflux - 40.00
Bore .010 - 68.00
CK-10 power hone - 125.00
Valve job - 150.00
Surface heads - 125.00
Remove/replace cam bearings - 40.00
Grind crank .010 - 88.00
Balance - 175.00
Press on/off pistons - 48.00
Resize rods - 125.00

About $1,100 total. This shop is pricey, but less than two miles from my house. There's a budget house on the other side of town that might charge half that.

That doesn't include the cost of pistons, rings, bearings, etc. If you can get a long block with a ported head and 100,000 mile warranty out the door for $2,000, do it.

 

Decided to forgo the motor with the warranty. Looked up reviews of them on line and they were either a glowing 5 star review, or a glowering 1 star. 5 star reviews were that they're great engines, and the 1 star reviews were that they have a horrible time getting them to uphold their warranty and almost always blame it on the person (improper ignition timing, infrequent oil changes etc. etc), rather than an engine defect.

In the mean time, I'm still looking for a block. May finally just break down and go get one from the JY. $150. Not too bad, but I wish I could find one sitting around on Craigslist.

Took my old block and crank (which weren't serviceable) to the recycle yard.
For whatever it's worth, the block and crank together are 220 pounds. No camshaft, pistons, oil pan, lifters, head, etc.
Sad part was, at 7.5 cents a pound, I didn't get a whole lot for it... Ouch.

 

If you get one from the j/y, I'd pull the head and ck the bore b/f paying.

I love the part at j/y where you cut off two seat belts and use them as a chain to pull the engine.

Greetings from the oldest kingdom.

 

You'll get there Justin..as I'm learning now..its a slow process

 

Yeah, I figured I'd pop the head off to check the cylinder condition. Plus, I can see if it's been rebuilt before as well. My last engine was already bored 30 over and then had some really big ridges at the top. They were easy to feel.

Looking forward to it though!

 

AB...i have a block and crank you can have if you want it brother. my enlistment contract for the army is up in november, and i plan on moving back home to the flathead valley in NW montana. you're welcome to it if you like. just gotta come pick it up when i make it up there.

 

Hey Dude,
Thanks for the offer! Unfortunately, as much as I'd love to take a trip up that way, I think it'd cost me more in gas round trip than it would to buy one from the JY. I appreciate it though.

 

An update.

I found a parts truck locally that I bought for $300. Had a running 300 in it, as well as a few other odds and ends. (More on that to come. I just finished swapping my SROD for an NP435!)

While I had everything apart, I put the engine from that truck into my Bronco so I could rebuild the one I had in there. It was clacking really loud and making way more noise than I was comfortable with, and I didn't trust it. I also didn't want any screwed up valve train geometry damaging the port and polished head I put on there.

Anyway, started going through the motor last night. For a refresher on the back story, after my cam bit the dust and I pulled out the original engine (the one that couldn't be rebored), I found this one on Craigslist for $50. It was pulled from a '78 and had unknown miles on it. The guy simply pulled it because he wanted to go buy a brand new engine and throw it in.





(The copper is the head gasket).

Aside from some carbon buildup on the pistons, everything looked to be in amazingly good shape. Turns out that it was the cam and lifters (go figure) that were making all the noise. I could wiggle the cam timing gear slightly up and down.





The piston walls are all clean as a whistle. No grooves or the like. Very nice and smooth. Also, there is virtually no lip/ridge at the top of any of the cylinders. The cylinder walls have almost NO wear on them, and these are the original pistons. The compression, when I tested it, was 160 per. It was just burning a lot of oil, so I'm assuming the rings were bad.

Also, unlike my last engine, there is absolutely no wobble to the pistons. They are tight as a drum in the cylinders!

Unless there's something I'm not seeing, I don't even think this engine needs to be rebored. I haven't removed the crank yet or inspected the underside, but I also don't think I need to get new pistons either, unless I just want to have them new.

All the cam bearings look good (I'm assuming it was the cam itself that wore down, so a replacement will do just fine), so a new cam and bearings will fix that right up. A polish on the crank, and put it back together. I might have a very inexpensive rebuild ahead of me.







The #3 and #4 spark plug holes continually had a small amount of oil around them and this looks like it shows those cylinders (including #1) were having a problem with oil. The spark plugs also had a buildup on them. I'd posted something about it earlier this year when I removed the spark plugs and I'd cleaned them up then, but it looks like it came back.



So, I'm dropping the head off tonight to get checked over and cleaned up (since it only has around 5000 miles on it), and then it's time to disassemble the block.

 

Good stuff AB! Glad to hear forward progress is being made. and nice find on that bottom end!

 

Very good stuff! Interested to see how it goes, I will be doing the same this winter with my engine.

 

Following AB, always seemed as if you had good posts over at FSB and you had a big impact on me buying a straight six rig.

 

subscribed AB. Have a 300 in my 78 and will one day have to attempt the rebuild. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience.

 

Hi all,

Time to revive a 2 year old post.

Not sure how many of you know, but I lost my job in March of 2013 and have since then gone back to school to get another degree (in Computer Science). I'll be graduating in May, and my wife is encouraging me to reward myself with a rebuilt engine.

So, again, don't expect anything to happen too quickly, but this is in the works again.

 

Hmmm, AbandonedBronco. Sometimes, good comes out of bad.


Also, "behind every successful man is a GOOD woman". Count your blessings!

 

I couldn't agree more! I wasn't happy with what I was doing, so I wasn't really disappointed in losing my job. I just didn't have any experience in anything I wanted to do, so I went back to school and it's been a great experience in a lot of ways. (I currently have a 3.8 GPA in a degree I originally flunked out of. Talk about a confidence booster.)

Yeah, my wife's been great. She encouraged me to go back to school knowing it'd be 2 years and has supported me on one income for the whole time.
Plus, she loves the Bronco (and wanted and got one of her own), so taking care of it is a priority.