It's been a long journey with my engine issues.
Come to find out my original engine blew on cylinders 4 and 6 and those were the exact two cylinders that the previous owner had crossed on the distributor cap I corrected that issue and gained a lot of power back but then those two cylinders slung rods through the block. Very unfortunate that a previous owners mishap caused me so many problems.
Back in September I found somebody selling a 1997 vortec 5.7 350 out of a k1500 with 130,000 miles paid $700 for it and all I had to do is pull it myself.
I got to hear it run sounded good pulled it brought it home and stored it. Then I took the engine to my friend's house and unloaded it and I dropped the engine on the crank I bent the crank snout and it had run out that was out of spec. I gave the engine to my machine shop guy and he said it was lucky that I dropped the engine because there was so much wrong with the engine that he found when he pulled it apart. The bearings on the main and rods were shot lots of dirt and dust intrusion with leaves in the oil pan, four cracks in the water jackets because the engine had water and froze at some point in its life so he said had I not dropped the engine and just thrown it in I would have been in a heap of problems.
So then we sourced another vortec 350 engine long block with a missing cam so I purchased a comp cams camshaft that was made for trucks with the working RPM speed of 1200 to 5,500 RPMs and a very mild grind. Not a performance cam. I purchased a dual plane vortec intake manifold, Comp cams springs and retainers, Edelbrock 1409 Marine carburetor, all new gaskets and seals, riser gaskets manifold gaskets, Fel pro Marine head gaskets, all new hardware for engine mounts and transom mount, new engine hoist brackets that were missing on my engine from the previous owner, new mercruiser engine coupler and hardware, new thermostat, new distributor gear adapter for working with a vortec camshaft. New new distributor cap and rotor and plug wires, spark plugs
My machine shop guy is balancing the entire rotating assembly, he has custom drilled oil relief holes in all eight Pistons and rebalance them with the rotating assembly.
Machine shop guy is also having the block hot tanked about 4 times so far because he wants it very clean to his liking
New piston rings, block honed and decked, new main and rod bearings and polished crank journals
Right now we're just waiting on some parts for the timing gear setup he said there's about six different ones and he has to find the right one that fits my engine configuration.
Really hoping that this engine will be very Stout and give me many years of happiness because it's costing me many years of money
Just wanted to give an update on the journey.
