The Engine

Small Block Chevy 350

2 bolt main

Ok to start things off I purchased the motor complete, minus the intake and carb, it had an HEI delco dist and wires, a chrome kit, complete with an altornator, and water pump, a set of 882 heads, the block was a 0014 block, the cam appeared fairly new, all the gaskets looked faily new, so I figured it would be a fair enough buy, I cold bolt an intake and carb to it and start getting the s10 ready for the swap...

(this is close to what I started with, I had already removed some stuff)

(the other pic is of the engine and trans as of 6/08/09)

well...then it began, we loaded the engine in the back of the truck and drove on home, by the time I got there I noticed some coolant had leaked out of the water pump, a little while later I noticed the coolant had been joined by some rater black oil that had leaked out the front oilpan seal. Ok, that put the new toy in the shop I also noticed the paint and freeze plug job had been halfway slpaed together, so I snaged a few cans of Black engine paint from the Parts store, and a new set of brass freeze plugs.

so, to go on I pulled the pan to re seal everything down there, all looked good and well...I also pulled the timing cover to see what kind of cam this thing had in it, the guy had told me it was a Lunati, lol, and he got it from a guy who pulled it out of his race car because it reved to fast...I wound up having to pull the cam completely to find out it was a Camshaft Machine Co. cam that was pushin about 270, and 250 for the lift numbers...lunati riiiight...I'll be going back with a Comp Cam with about a .470 lift.

I now had the motor down this far

with the cam out, I noticed the cam bearings were a little wore, but not really enough to worry about just yet, but since I had the block this far apart, I couldn't help but pull the heads to see what kind of pistons and bores I had to work with, what I found was a little on the dissapointing side, a set of stock dual eyebrow chey pistons and ridges at the top of the bores, so I sent it off to be machined 30 over and hot tanked, it took 7 rounds with the vat to take all of the paint off and to reveal a nice little crack in the block, I was ready to hunt this guy down at this point but the machine shop was able to mend the block for only another 60 bucks.

before that I had also come to notice some nice notches in the crank, and some heavily worn, but still new as the previous owner had promised, bearings...so I fork out another 100 for a re-man crank and bearings from Advance Autoparts and go on about my bussiness

I repainted the block and knocked the brass plugs in, things are already looking cleaner

Next I installed a set of ARP studs to compensate for the 2 bolt mains tomorrow, and I'll be installing a set of rods from an old 305 that I feel far better about than the mismatched set the motor came with

12/18/08- ok, today I finshed up the bottom of the motor got the cam installed:

after a good deal of time and effort I got the pistons, rings and rods in the block, double and tripple checked all the torques, and plastigaged everything on the bottom end. In the process of all this however I did score one of my new  rod bearings, on the last piston of course, which thankfully only cost me a trip to the parts store and $2.45

this page is begining to get a little lengthy so I believe I am going to put the topend of the motor on the next page. I'll be updating again soon

1/31/09-I now have the head installed on the block, along with the timing chain and gears, I am also about to install an eldebrock Performer rpm intake

2/09- ok folks I now have the intake, cam button, oil pan and timing cover, things are finally starting to peice together, I wound up not being able to use the chrome timing cover I got with the engine because I bought a cam button that wasn't designed for the indented cover, so I cleaned up and repainted the stock style cover. and I added a little orange for contrast, let me know what ya think.

3/09- I finally got the 4.3 engine and trans out of the s10, I going to snatch as many parts as will swap over off the 6 as possible, I've already slvaged the thermostat housing and some misc. bolts, I'll also be using the accesories and serpentine belt setup. There is also a comparision between the valve covers from what they looked like before i cleaned them up and painted.

5/25/09- As of today I have restored a set of old M/T valve covers. I put the accesories and brackets off the 4.3. I also installed a set of Hedman Headers for the s10 v8 swap, a HAY'S clutch kit, I got both from a Summit racing whom I am extremely impressed with.

6/08/09-bought myself a roll of header wrap today, to help keep things cool under the hood. check it out.