Parts car engine

[Mr. Belvedere]

The engine in my parts car came in pieces all torn down, crankshaft was out and laying on its side, rod and main bearing caps all over the place. I bought the car from a guy who had the engine rebuilt and something went wrong with

it, he took it back to the mechanic and he began disassembling the motor to presumably figure out what went wrong. Then the mechanic and owner got into a fight about it, so the owner went down and picked up his torn down car and let it sit in his garage for roughly a decade then sold it to me. I thought I could

just re-hone it and re-use the new pistons buy new rod and main bearings as well as new rings and gaskets and see what happens, but all the main bearing caps and rod caps are all mixed up, even the valves are just tossed in a coffee can. Is it hopeless for getting off fairly cheap? Is it worth the risk?

[Young Ed]

The only thing you are really in trouble with is if the main caps aren't marked. They aren't marked from the factory. The rod caps are all numbered. Valves and lifters should be ok with being mixed up. Look closely at those mains for a stamp of some sort. We take a center punch and put 1 dot 2 dots and 3 dots in both the cap and the block to mark them.

[Mr. Belvedere]

What about the crank? Since it was stored on its side wouldn't I need to have it checked for trueness or is that not such a big deal. Thanks

[Young Ed]

I have also heard that they are supposed to be stored standing up. I know if they fall over you are in trouble. Not sure if they can bend just from sitting on their side. With how heavy they are you wouldn't think so.....

[Jim Saraceno]

I see it as a decision as to how much money you want to spend vs. how much time you want to spend.

You could bring everything into a reputable machine shop and have them go through it all and mic out everything to make sure it is in tolerance. OR you could do it all yourself if you have all the proper tools. If not, it would probably be cheaper to do the machine shop routine.

Knowing that there was a problem, you have to ask yourself... "How will I feel about this engine if I get it all together, put it in the car and THEN find out what the problem is." If you have a lot of time but not much money, then who cares. If you don't have the time to install and then re-pull the engine then you probably should spend the money.

When I rebuilt my engine, I paid the machinist to do all the measurements and then tell me what should be done. I spent about $1600 on parts and labor there. Then just to make sure, I re-measured everything I was able to and in the end I was very confident that this rebuilt engine will last me the rest of my life. I definitely don't want to do this again.

[splat1955]

Hi agree with Jim. Personally, if I didn't have the tools & instruments to do all needed measurements, then I'd take everything to a reputable machine shop. Have them check everything and find out what went wrong with the previous build. Have them figure which main cap went where and have them tell you what parts from the previous build are still usable...you might be pleasantly surprised to find all or most of the parts are still usable..and probably are. Then have them do the machining it needs, especially noting the area that caused the problem to begin with. Then you can decide if you want to do final assembly or have them do it. Either way I'd bet that you aren't going to have to buy all new parts...maybe a few. Oh, and the crank laying on it's side...not a good thing for any length of time. That may be one of the parts you end up having to spring for.