Autopendium :: stuff about old cars

Tags: 350 engine pistons rebuild

Now the Amazon is well on the way, thought it was about time the Camaro got a little attention, so headed down to my lock-up garage to do an assessment of what needed to be done.

My excuse is that I've been busy, I've been distracted, and the lock-ups 25 minutes' drive away in good traffic (an hour in bad). Still, there's no getting over the fact that the Camaro's not moved a wheel since it got pushed into the lockup about 11 years ago with a blown engine.

The plan was (and is) to rebuild the 2-bolt 350 that came with the car when I bought it (it was replaced with a Speedway claimer motor when I started racing it). Although it ran, when we replaced it we discovered it had a cracked piston that was probably about to let go big time.

So the first thing to do today was assess the damage -- as you can see from the photo there's a fairly sizable chunk of piston missing (worse than I remembered). Also the parts are all over the place (in a variety of boxes and bags, and rarely labelled), as a result of being partially dismantled when I brought it back from the guy that fitted my race engine.

The cylinders also appear to be .040 oversize, judging from the stamp on the top of the pistons. Somewhere along the line I got a Summit engine rebuild kit, but it appears that that is for .030 oversize. Will I need .040 pistons (assuming I don't need to rebore the block), or can I make do with the .030s and bigger rings.

Possibly a stupid question, but this is the first engine I'll have rebuild, so there'll be a fair number of these along the way.

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