Engine rebuild. What should I do?

BONESTOCK

BONESTOCK

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Hey all,

I'm trying to decide what I should do. I'd like to refresh my engine.

I haven't touched it since I've owned it. List of things done to it from the previous owner.

FRPP E-303 with roller conversion
Preform 1.7 roller rockers

It's a stick truck.

I was thinking of pulling the engine. (Maybe in the fall.)

What would y'all do?

I'll be keeping it a stick street use truck. So I'm wanting something that is street worthy.

Eventually I'd like to put a supercharger or turbo on it. But run N/A at first.

I found this guy local to me that I may be talking to to get a quote for work but now just looking to do research.

www.boyettesmachineshop.com

Boyette's Automotive Performance Machine Shop

Boyette's Automotive Performance Machine Shop
www.boyettesmachineshop.com www.boyettesmachineshop.com

What you think on the short block? Leave it be/get different rotating assembly?
What heads should I use? Keep the stock upper intake?

What else?

Thanks,
Mike
 
The big question is why you want to do this. Is it giving you problems? Do you want to add power and it's not up to the challenge? Freshening just because isn't a great plan.
 
Well...wanting to refresh it to like new. I'd like to pull the motor so I can really clean up the engine bay. It has a rear main seal leak. Needs a cleaning. Wiring, cleaning, deleting things, paint, etc.

Wanting more power. Aluminum heads. prep for power adder later on.
 
BONESTOCK said:
I'm in no rush to do this. Just planning/preparing for it.
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going through a rebuild right now. I opted to go 408W roller conversion with all new forged internals, AFR 220 Heads, headers and so on...I'll say this depending on whichever route you decide to go (Stock refresh vs stroker), figure it out soon! The backorders and price of parts now is crazy and keeps getting increased. Some items i had listed jumped as much as $120ea over the last year. If i would have started my rebuild in 2020 I would have easily saved $2k probably more.
 
BONESTOCK said:
Oh jeez! Crazy! Do you buy chance have a parts list of what you got?!
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i have the rotating assembly part list, rockers, lifters ect. Not quite a complete list but a good amount of stuff. This doesn't include gaskets and sensors yet because I'm still waiting on my long block. i have a list in my shop, i can try to dig out and PM ya the stuff i have written down if ya like
 
Wait times are for sure an issue with most shops, like 1 year plus it’s just crazy.

You really need to asses both the health of the motor(leak down) plus your goals. A decently running 351w can make fun power. Fun is completely determined by you! Take it from Mr Rabbit Hole, keep it simple :)
 
Raymond_B said:
Wait times are for sure an issue with most shops, like 1 year plus it’s just crazy.

You really need to asses both the health of the motor(leak down) plus your goals. A decently running 351w can make fun power. Fun is completely determined by you! Take it from Mr Rabbit Hole, keep it simple :)
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Ha. Yeah....I may pull the motor and clean her up. I runs perfectly fine now. Super quiet. Maybe pull it and swap the heads replace gaskets...things like that.
JamesJ said:
sent ya a list
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Thank you very much!!
 
lightn95 said:
Leave it alone and enjoy it the way it is... ask me how i know this..
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Lol this man been through alot. With my new motor in the build stage I have been driving my truck alot lately and it's been really behaving. Couple things I nailed down with the tune. Will miss my stock motor.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk
 
If boost is in the future definitely upgrade to forged rods & forged pistons. Aluminum heads are a good upgrade for sure, just make sure to pick a combo that works good together & will support your future upgrades. Personally I would find a good block & have that one built & then when it's ready one can make the swap. It would suck if your truck was down for an entire driving season waiting for the motor to be finished.
 
Red 93 L1 #3383 said:
If boost is in the future definitely upgrade to forged rods & forged pistons. Aluminum heads are a good upgrade for sure, just make sure to pick a combo that works good together & will support your future upgrades. Personally I would find a good block & have that one built & then when it's ready one can make the swap. It would suck if your truck was down for an entire driving season waiting for the motor to be finished.
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Well not true either really. Depends on how much power he would want to make on stock parts.. I have run up to 23 psi on the stock bottom end. Sure, it will probably break at some point but it's been holding with some form of boost for about 15 years.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk
 
Mike, if you're sticking with the stock rotating assembly, you and I can freshen it up in weekend. But I wouldn't mess with the bottom half if it's not giving you a reason to.

Aluminum heads are a nice upgrade. Custom cam. That's about all I'd do myself. If you stick with the stock heads, seals and springs are probably wise.

Don't expect to fix that rear main seal leak, though. After many attempts, I've decided it's just the way she marks her territory.
 
BONESTOCK said:
Well...wanting to refresh it to like new. I'd like to pull the motor so I can really clean up the engine bay. It has a rear main seal leak. Needs a cleaning. Wiring, cleaning, deleting things, paint, etc.

Wanting more power. Aluminum heads. prep for power adder later on.
Click to expand...
There are really only two reasons to build a shortblock. The first is that it's used up and the second is if it won't handle the power you want to make. Based on that and some of the other comments, I wouldn't touch it other than to fix the oil leak. It's been pretty well proven that the stock short block in good shape can take a lot of punishment and live a reasonable life. If it's not burning oil and has good compression and leakdown numbers there's no reason to go into it. People waste a lot of money on bottom end parts they don't need. Rebuilding also introduces a lot of opportunities for new issues that you would have to fix.
 
like some of the above have mentioned. If your bottom end isn't giving you a reason to change anything just worry about adding a top end and enjoying it. I think heads and a cam would wake it right up, especially with the manual trans. I know they don't all live with a ton of power but plenty of folks have pushed them very far. I don't know exactly where I am for power, (just what I can guesstimate off datalogs, butt dyno, and comparable performing vehicles) but i think if you have a healthy one you'll be hurting drivetrain parts before the engine gives up.
 
Another thing to consider is that rpm is much harder on an engine than power output. As long as it's NA I don't feel too bad about saying you'll kill it with rpm long before you kill it with power, and putting enough rpm in it to do that will give you other obstacles to overcome anyway.
 
Definitely don't want to twist a stock bottom Windsor a lot. I personally wouldn't spin any Windsor that wasn't a track-only car very high. Just a whole lot of surface speed on the big crank journals makes the oil film shear from getting thin and hot, which rubs out the mains, and they'll eventually spin. That's not even mentioning the 2-bolt caps walking around (mine were quite visibly fretted the last time I had the motor apart).

At least the crank would still be in one piece when it landed in the oil pan...
 
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