Chevy Rebuilding Your First Enging PDF Manual

Rebuilding an engine is involved, particular steps must be taken and confidence in the professionalism of your machinist is most important. The first thing is to research the exact cubic inch displacement, year, and type of engine that is in your car. Our technical reference manual will be a great
help to you when rebuilding your engine. Always take photos of the engine and engine compartment. Pay special attention to brackets, accessory head bolts, wire looms, AC hoses, belts and special headed or stud type-mounting bolts. Before starting to remove your engine, cover the fenders, front grill and sheet metal with good fender covers or heavy blankets.

Then disconnect the battery, fuel lines and drain all the fluids. You should remove the radiator first remembering to disconnect radiator hoses and transmission oil cooler lines to eliminate a big mess of dripping transmission fluid. The carburetor and distributor should then be removed. Connect a chain, engine cradle stop or carburetor plate adapter to engine and prepare to remove the engine. Disconnect engine and transmission mounts and remove the hood. Scribe or use a marking pen around the mounting brackets so hood replacement will be easier. Sometimes the removal of the rear transmission crossover-mounting bar will allow more of a tilt for asier engine and transmission removal. Always block the rear wheels so the car cannot move fore and aft. Always make sure your engine hoist and removing device is securely bolted down and is tight. If you have a 4-speed car, disconnect the clutch cross shaft and all the linkage.

All shift cables, drive shaft, and transmission brackets must be removed and marked for proper reinstallation. After the engine and transmission are removed, unbolt the trans and torque converter from the engine also removing the flexplate. Once the engine is a long assembly, bolt it to your engine stand. Always remove your engine parts in groups, label them in groups and always clean them in groups. Start on the intake manifold and work down to the short block, removing valve covers, rocker arms and pivots, push rods, lifters, head bolts and heads, exhaust manifolds or headers should have already been removed including AC/PS and all brackets.

I would remove the water pump, pulleys, and harmonic balancer. Use a puller to remove the harmonic balancer, not a hammer. The next thing is to remove the front cover and check for water erosion and pitting, replace as needed. The front cover being the water pump mounting plate becomes pitted over years of usage and can cause hard to find water leaks. If the front cover gets a pinhole in it, water and anti-freeze enters your engine.

After removing the above parts, check for blown gaskets, head, intake manifold, front cover and water pump, plus any large cracks, pitting or erosion of all surfaces. You should use a gasket remover and gasket scrapper on all surfaces before you can thoroughly check them. I recommend cleaning, hot tanking and bead blasting all parts, plus magnafluxing. Usually the rocker arms and pivots and sometimes the rocker pivot bolts need replacing. Check the bolts for stretching because they are usually over torqued by previous mechanics. The torque should be 25 foot-pounds. Next remove the oil pan, timing chain set, cam gear/bolt and both front oil galley plugs.

Take these plugs and keep them in a safe place. One plug has a hole in it. Make sure the hole is opened up before reinstalling. These plugs will get lost if they go to the machine shop, believe me, I sell lots of them. The engine now should be turned up side down so you can number stamp the connecting rods. Stamp the rods on the side where the bolts go through towards the center of the engine, not on the pan rail side. Always number the rods as they come out of the engine 1-3-5-7 and 2-4-6-8. Turn the engine over and remove the cylinder bore ridge, located at the top of the bore with a ridge remover tool. Clean the tops of number 1-7 and 2-8 pistons. Then bring these pistons up to TDC and check the deck clearance. Measure from the top of the piston (not the dish) to the top of the block and record these figures. This can be done with a pair of dial calipers, dial indicator, or a set of feeler gauges.

This will help you in knowing if your block is square, if your connecting rods are different lengths, and also in helping you in figuring your compression ratio. Roll the engine over now and start removing the connecting rod bolts on number one cylinder. Loosen the nuts, but do not remove. Using a brass or hard rubber shock hammer, tap on the rod nuts until the rod..

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