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Engine rebuild kits quality

1K views 10 replies 5 participants last post by  DaSouthWon 
#1 ·
Hello. Im looking around at some engine rebuild kits so I can get my 350 up and running. For a couple hundred bucks I can get rings and bearings and gaskets and such.

But how good of quality are the components of the kits? Any suggestions of good ones/bad ones?

Thanks guys.
 
#2 ·
Make sure you have a list of all the brands and part numbers in the kit. Depending on what your plans for the motor are is really what you have to look at when choosing components. If your rebuilding the 350 in your cargo van you can go with cast pistons, regular rings, and gaskets. If you're rebuilding an engine for a high performance application that will regularly see 6500 rpm you need higher quality parts. Don't drop your money on the first kit you see. Shop around and make sure what your getting is made for your application.
 
#5 ·
Summit sells a kit by Federal Mogul, so Ill look into that. I would love to be able to select all the best you know, but I am in pretty desperate need of a drivable car.

WHen talking about bearing clearances and such, if nothing is done to the block, is "stock" fine, even for performance?
 
#6 ·
If you are wanting to put the engine together for a driver, standard grade bearings such as Clevite "P" series or Federal Mogul bearings will be fine. Try and stick with good gaskets such as Fel Pro, McCord etc. as you only want to assemble it once and you don't want any leaks.

Barry
 
#7 ·
When it's apart you've got to measure everything to make sure its within range. Putting new round rings on an oval shaped cylinder won't do much except make a lot of smoke. At the minimum, I would get the mains align honed, true up the deck, and bore what it takes to get your cylinders round. The align hone is necessary to get the other 2 correct.
 
#9 ·
BMM said:
Alright, I'll talk to a local shop and get some prices. Thank you.
Good idea. Lots of times guys will bring in a kit with the engine they are bringing in for some work. Often, they will need different parts or the kit will be only marginally cheaper than the one we could get for him. If shop's kit is within 20-30 bucks of the one you can get mail order or on line, the shop may give you a break on labor to bring the total price closer to parity.

tom
 
#10 · (Edited)
I agree with Tom. All to often I have customers bring in an engine kit they have purchased from ebay, Jegs, Summit, etc. before the engine they are going to have rebuilt has been torn apart. If I tell them the parts they have purchased are the wrong size, (the crank needs to be ground .020 instead of the .010 they bought), or the bore won't clean at .030, they get mad at me. Most times, as Tom said, the local shops can and will sell to their customers for about the same price as the big mail order parts places. In some cases my prices are cheaper. If I get a good deal, I pass it on to the customer.

Barry
 
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