I know everyone didnt start out hot rodding, or what ever vehicle area your interes is in, with a big nice shop or garage. So, where did you build your first engine and what was it? My first engine was a Pontiac 400. I built it in my bedroom. I was 17 and my bed room was off to itself from the rest of the house. It was down stairs just off the carport. My Mom told me since nobody would ever have to see my room, she didnt care. As I got parts back from the machine shop I started assembling it. I finally got it together. Boy was I proud of that. My Dad told me it was my project and that I was going to do it. He would give me advise if I got stumped or didnt know something, but, I was going to build it. Well, after I got it together I was going to take it outside and put a coat of Pontiac blue on it. I went to roll the motor stand out and the thing was to wide to go through the door. I ended up having to take the heads off of it to get it out and then reasseble the top half again. That engine ended up running great and the Ram Air IV cam really sounded good. Boy, thats going back a few years. My Dads gone now, I sure would love to have him come in and look over my shoulder one more time and tell me I was doing a good job.

 

i built my first engine in a shed that my grand parents used to store there stuff in when they moved out of state.to me it was perfect except the winters sucked with no insulation. my first was a lawn mower then a couple 4wheelers, and finially my old escort need sum help. i was about 12 then. i new the concept so i went at it. pulled the motor with the help of a friend and a tree. stuck the little thing in my red wagon and drug her back to the shed. after it was all back together i put back in the wagon and drug her back to the tree. once i got it all back in my uncle helped me set the timming and after a few min she was running once again

 

My first was a Buick 350 that I built in a garage where I rented. The garage was nice except it had boards on the outside instead of plywood (or anything else for that matter) and the cold upstate New York wind whipped right through the gaps between the boards. Everything since then has been Ford except one Chevy that a friend of mine conned me into building for him.

 

My first engine was a B&S lawnmower engine in high school. After that, it was a Cummins L10 in trade school, then a Cat 3406B in apprenticeship school.

Swapped engines from one Honda to another a few times, a Pontiac 6000, and pulled VW engines in and out of my buddy's dune buggy countless times.

My first engine I got paid to do was a Cat 3208. Haven't done a complete teardown and rebuild since. But I do a lot of head and front cover work on Cummins N14's. Valve sets on those N14's, and 3406E, C15 and C16 Cats.

 

I built my first engine (350 Chevy) in the basement of the house I grew up in. We built a ramp and Bilco door setup, so that we could drive our lawn tractor into the basement, so I used the tractor and lawn cart to bring my engine in and out of the basement. I did not have an engine stand, so I built the engine on my Dads work bench until I had the entire bottom end built. I remember that I could not find any one to help me lift the engine off the bench to continue the rebuild, so I took a deep breathe had horsed it off the bench myself onto the floor. When I finished the engine, I put in the trailer and drove it out to the big maple tree, where I used a Come-a-Long to lift it into the truck into the truck country style. I've come a long way since then and I now have engine stands, cherry pickers, and way more tools to get the job done easier. Ahhh.....You never forget your first time though and the magic of hearing the engine you just rebuilt start for the first time! :-) I remember when I started it up for the first time with just headers on it, it sounded so good I thought I wet my pants, but it was just the radiator had sprung a pin-hole leak and was squirting on to my pants

A little better setup than when I first started:

 

My first re-build was my 1963 Mercury comet, straight six of course. I did the work off to the side of my parents driveway. When I fired her off, I had to wire up 2 batteries to spin her over fast enough but she fired right up. I took it for a spin around the neighborhood with just the exhaust manifold on and boy was I proud. Just having the car fire up and run was a great thing. I drove the car for about 6 more years and the engine stayed together just fine.

 

My first rebuild was a 355 chevrolet for a friend - sorry guys! I rebuilt it in a single car garage with a dirt floor and a single 100 watt light bulb hanging overhead, during an Iowa winter.

When I got the engine done, he had just moved, so I stored it for a year on the stand. Later on, after I'd moved, I needed to get the engine off the stand, so we propped the thing up on a tire on the floor of his mom's garage. It sat there for a couple more years before he put it in a car.

By then, I was pretty nervous because the engine had sat around all that long, but after pre-oiling the engine like I'd told him to do, it fired right up without any smoke or strange noises, and still continues to run great, nine years later.

I have more tools and equipment now, and am getting ready to rebuild a 390, but I won't embarrass myself with a picture of my shop. Looks really nice, cujo8!

 

"I have more tools and equipment now, and am getting ready to rebuild a 390, but I won't embarrass myself with a picture of my shop. Looks really nice, cujo8!"

Thanks for the good words, but that picture was taken when the garage was fairly well picked up. My garage has good days and bad days as well, I usually work on a project for a while and the mess builds as I go and then I take a day to clean up the clutter and get all the tools back to where they belong. Then the process repeats.

 

In a small town in Virginia, on a side street. The car was a 1950 Ford tudor, flathead V8.

 

first motor was a 390, built it my dads little 1 car shop. at least it has heat for the winters. Still do most of my resto work in that shop.

 

i biuld my 1st (70 4bbl 351c) in the front of the barn. worked on at the end of each milking while the feeder was running,seems funny tho that i didnt coverd(had straw in it) it up or had any torque wrench and my brother got 60,000 miles out of it. gess i was just lucky it even run

 

My first was a 50cc engine in my Suzuki trail bike. Ran great after the rebuild but never shifted right - something about all those extra bearings. Did it on a table in the basement.

Then on to VW Beetles. Rebuilt several. Split crank-cases are a trip.

Then in my senior year of high school I rebuilt the 302 in my '74 Maverick.

Did a Chevy 350 in a '78 Blazer that I got for $200, sold for $2000 a month later. Put about $500 into the very worn out motor.

Onto '77-'79 Caddy's (427 ci IIRC) for a while. Bought several nice cars with blown engines and made a tidy profit for a while. Got discourage after having a rebuild go bad due to getting in a hurry and forgetting the oil pickup tube gasket.

Did all the above in the backyard or under a homemade tent in the winter. Had a nice kerosene heater when it got cold out.

Back to Ford now but with as little time as I have now (and having more spare money), if I need an engine, I am buying it.

 

My first was in my Uncle's small one car garage. I was 13-14. He restored a lot of older cars back then and he was great teacher not to mention patient[?] he's gone several years now and I also wish he was here to look over my shoulder and tell me I was doing just fine.

 

I think they are still looking over our shoulders, laughing when we goof and smiling down on us when we get it right. Atleast it makes me feel better to think so.

 

I rebuilt a 1984 Honda XR200 in the boiler room of the boarding house at school when I was 16. At least that was nice n warm in winter;-)