Re: The R?surrection of the SeaGem
Well I picked up the donated engine on Sunday
I have my work cut out for me, the person I thought had built it, didn't
The engine was out of a Nova that our other friend had purchased complete. He has passed on so there was no way of getting the history. With that I stripped it down yesterday here is what I found:
1) it has TRW L2256 pistons Std not .030 over, those are standard 350 pistons with the pin boss in its standard location. Must be a 5.565 rod
2)400 balancer and flexplate
3)Looks like Forged Crank, but can't find manufactures name or casting # has 350 mains looked up the bearing #'s it had 350 CL77's. On top of that it looks like its been balanced,I see crank + rod work was done.
4) Engine looks pretty fresh, no cylinder ridge and can still see the cross hatch pistons etc look new
5) Heads are 882 castings, 76cc, 1.94 valves. Although they have been match ported to the intake and I see some additional port work done I might swap them for a set of darts. These are light weight heads with known cracking problems. The 76cc chamber with that piston gives a theoretical 8.9:1cr, if I go to 72cc dart I will be up around 9.5:1 with the right head gasket.
Before I start throwing money at it here is my plan of attack:
1) CC the original heads, and check the mil angle if any.
2) check piston to wall clearance
3) put the crank and 1 slug back in and check deck clearance with my dial indicator, + verify 3.75 stroke.
4) mic up crank
IF all is good:
1) drop block off have it hot tanked, brass freeze-outs, light hone, cam bearings
2) new bearings,cam,rings
3) find 400 flywheel seeing it was out of an automatic
