Cheap overhaul?

superdave said:

We could be the same person.

Pictures are required, or a link to a build. I have had a few British cars, but never a Mini. I have a friend that had one, and I helped him quite a bit.

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I built it in 02 before I had digital. My ex-painintheass took almost every picture from my childhood through our time together. Unfortunately I don't believe that I have pictures anywhere.

What "motors" have you had?

skylark said:

I built it in 02 before I had digital. My ex-painintheass took almost every picture from my childhood through our time together. Unfortunately I don't believe that I have pictures anywhere.

What "motors" have you had?

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58 Triumph TR3A
70 MGB (with a Chevy 3.4 V6)
75 Triumph Spitfire 1500

superdave said:

58 Triumph TR3A
70 MGB (with a Chevy 3.4 V6)
75 Triumph Spitfire 1500

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Nice! I keep looking at this one.
https://medford.craigslist.org/cto/d/1969-mgb-redding/6744197863.html

skylark said:

Nice! I keep looking at this one.
https://medford.craigslist.org/cto/d/1969-mgb-redding/6744197863.html

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That's a hell of a deal if it isn't rusted out

Well, my trans took a dump today, so the decision is made. I'll pull them both after Christmas

superdave said:

Well, my trans took a dump today, so the decision is made. I'll pull them both after Christmas

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Would be a great time to go hunting for a junkyard 4L80E... Just sayin'!

I've done two cylinder head swaps, both banks, on two different 1999 5.7 Vortec.
Both were in excess of 220k miles and both were in Suburbans, so you know they got used pretty damn hard.

Both of them had clean cylinder walls. No vertical scoring. Honing swirls were more visible on one than the other but no scoring at all.

Oddly, the one with more obvious honing marks was the most abused of the two, oddly. Had 10k more miles, had been driven for about a year with a little coolant getting into the oil, and you can tell that one of the previous owners beat the hell out of it doing his own repairs. Its also a 4wd.


The 2wd is otherwise the same truck but was driven by a lady who owned a repair shop and had tons of previous maintenence records. Engine has always been fairly clean, truck is clean, and was 10k less miles ... The honing wasn't nearly as obvious but the walls were quite clean and unscratched.

redfishsc said:

I've done two cylinder head swaps, both banks, on two different 1999 5.7 Vortec.
Both were in excess of 220k miles and both were in Suburbans, so you know they got used pretty damn hard.

Both of them had clean cylinder walls. No vertical scoring. Honing swirls were more visible on one than the other but no scoring at all.

Oddly, the one with more obvious honing marks was the most abused of the two, oddly. Had 10k more miles, had been driven for about a year with a little coolant getting into the oil, and you can tell that one of the previous owners beat the hell out of it doing his own repairs. Its also a 4wd.


The 2wd is otherwise the same truck but was driven by a lady who owned a repair shop and had tons of previous maintenence records. Engine has always been fairly clean, truck is clean, and was 10k less miles ... The honing wasn't nearly as obvious but the walls were quite clean and unscratched.

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Good info. That's what I'm looking for

I'm on Day 3 of driving my Vortec-block TBI K1500 engine.

Short-block had unknown number of miles. Pulled due to a "rod knock" that turned out to be a cracked flywheel. The guy sold the heads, stored the short block for a year before I got it.

Cylinders had .0015 wear. One cylinder had a rust-line where the rings were parked; must have gotten water in it while it was stored.

I bored that one cylinder, honed all the rest. Cam bearings looked like crap, rod bearings were just "OK", but the main bearings and all crank journals were beautiful. I re-used the main bearings, and seven of eight pistons. I re-used the oil pump after cleaning. I re-used the cam and the timing set. When I degreed the cam, it came in perfectly on-spec.

'Course, being that this is a TBI application and I was using a Vortec short-block, I had to drill and tap two holes for the timing cover, and drill a coolant passage from water pump to right-bank water jacket. The previous TBI engine, and the Vortec short-block were both "880" castings, just machined differently.

Pulled the trans and had it rebuilt. I sat there looking at the motor and I just couldn't make myself pull out an engine that was running fine. I'll deal with it when it tanks.