355 spun bearing options

OK, I've got to the point where I'm ready to rebuild my 355 to a suggested build by F-BIRD'88'. I was looking for a good budget build that produced good power for low $$$. I've started taking the block apart and right away I notice that the connecting rod to piston #1 had some play. I took off the caps to piston rods #1 and 2 to find that they both spun their bearings. So there's some wear on both the #1 & #2 rod journals and the connecting rods. I'm not quite sure having the crank ground under sized will clean it up because it's already ground under .010. Maybe it will maybe it wont.

So what are my options at this point? Qs

1) Can the machine shop fix the rods so they be reuseable?

2) If it'll clean up with a .020 or .030 will I need to have the rotating assembly rebalanced?

3) If the crank is trash I'll just get a new rotating assembly. So I figure I would just bump up the cubes to 383, possibly. Would I be better just sticking with the 355 setup or would going with the 383 work well with my parts combination.

Vortec heads upgraded with Lunati springs.
Summit Stage I vortec intake
Isky 201278
Felpro shim head gasket .015
HEI dist.
stock rocker arms and pushrods.
750 cfm carb.

The intended use of the car, V8 bug, has changed from weekend car to second daily driver to keep from putting too many miles on my daily driver.

I have a 2400 stall, th350, and 3.08 gears. Would a 383 assembly make the car quicker in the 1/4 mile and still make a great daily driver?

Thanks!


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Just get the 383 rotating assembly, it will cost about the same to fix your boogered up stock stuff, and 28 more inches always helps

Go for the 383 kit.

I think that's what I'm going to do. I just called the machine shop and they said more than likely it's trash. I think I'll just make a lamp out of it.

Just curious about balancing. I know the rotating assembly is balanced using a balancer / computer that tells you exactly where to drill / remove or add to the crank to balance everything out. Tomorrow I'm picking up a set of rods from a stock 350 for $20. I'm going to sell the .030 over forged pistons to help pay for some 1.425" compression height pistons which will work with a 3.75" crank and 5.7" rods. That'll put me at a 9" stack leaving me .021-.025. .025 being if the decks haven't ever been cut ( I can still see the factory stamping). I'm thinking about buying this crank and these pistons.

http://store.summitracing.com/partd...rt=STL-H859CP30

http://store.summitracing.com/partd...=ESP-103503750I

The crank will drop right in a 350 and you can used a 350 roller chain, flexplate and damper. What I'm trying to do is save a couple hundred $$$ and also keep from having to send the balancer and flexplate back to Summit.

My question is being that this crank is a neutral balanced (internal) couldn't I balance the assembly myself using a scale, weighing each piston and balancing each one within 2-4 grams, same for the rods using this method...?

http://www.angelfire.com/ca4/CorvAI...RodBalance.html

http://www.angelfire.com/ca4/CorvAI...odBalance2.html

I've got the time to balance these things myself. Money is another story.

I called the machine shop and they said it would be about $250-$275 to get the assembly balanced. So that's putting me back in the $700-$800 range in which that case I'll just buy a balanced assembly ready to drop in. I'm just trying to save the headache of shipping parts back to Summit as well as save a couple hundred $$$.

What do you guys think?

You can balance the pistons, rods & pins yourself and have the shop balance the crank bob weights. Balancers & flexplates are cheap.
Good kits & Info here. > http://www.gofastnews.com/board/tec...ple-budget.html

Went to the summit page for the Eagle crank you listed. As I suspected, if you click on "will this fit my application" it shows that this crank has to have a minimum rod length of 5.85". Almost all internal balance 3.75" stroke SBC cranks have this stipulation. You can't use this crank with a 5.7" rod because the counterweights will hit the pistons at bottom dead center. The counterweights are made bigger so that the weights that were external on the flexplate and balancer are now inside on the crank

By the time you buy the stock rods, pay to have them resized and ARP bolts put in, plus the cost of the bolts you could have just bought new aftermarket stock replacement type race rods.

Check out www.competitionproducts.com . Much better prices on engine parts than Summit, they are a go-to source for myself and racer/engine builder friends. Good stuff, excellent prices, good tech and good people.

Thanks for the reply EricNova72. I did notice after some research that the crank I listed wont work with the 5.7" rod. I did find one on summit but like you said, all the parts are getting within a full kit range.

I did see one kit I like on summit that's and internal balance 383 kit for. I also like the pricing from the site you sent. Thanks! I will definitely look into their kits as well.

Thanks again...

Well, some good news. I ordered an Eagle Specialty Products internal balance stroker crankshaft for my 350.

http://store.summitracing.com/partd...SP-10350375057I


And I bought some (383) Speed Pro dish pistons.

http://store.summitracing.com/partd...rt=STL-H859CP30


Both parts will work well with my stock 5.7" rods. So I'll save some $$$ there. Coolest part is I did some shopping around and found the crank for $231 here...

https://www.horsepowerparts.com/ind...roduct_id=21684


and a set of 8 pistons here...

http://www.kmjent.com/cart/product....19&bestseller=Y


...I called summit up and said, "I'd like to buy these parts (I listed stock #s and he gave me the pricing) but I found them cheaper here (I then gave him the website URLs)". They beat their competitors prices by $1 for each product. Summit has a beat-a-price guarantee so I thought I'd see if it was baloney. It wasn't. I got the parts for $407 with shipping. At Summit's pricing it would've been $522 total with shipping. So I saved over $100 smackers.

So I have all my parts, or they're being shipped, and the motor can go together soon. That is after hot tanking, decking, and balancing. I might not have the assembly balanced if the bob weight of my pistons, pins, rings, bearings, cap screws and rods are fairly close to the neutral bob weight of 1825 +/- 2% from Eagle. Maybe balancing will be cheap enough if I give the machine shop the bob weight and they only have to balance the crank? We'll see...