Engine swap input

[Ronchiggy]

This is my second post so sorry if this is in the wrong place. I have a 1998 chevy c1500 with a 5.7 350 vortec, the issue is the engine was making a weird noise and was told by multiple mechanic friends I have that the engine is on its way out. I am personally not the most mechanically inclined, I am comfortable doing things like oil changes, brake/rotor changes, I have built a few go kart engines and mini bikes. So my question is what would be the best engine swap for my current situation. My list of priorities are as follows from most to least; reliability, difficulty, cost, power. My budget is pretty flexible but around 3500 would be ideal (less would be nice). I was looking for engines that directly replace my current one and a lot of them were remanufactured, is it worth paying the premium and shipping to buy one of those or would it be better to find a donor vehicle and rebuild the engine myself? Any input is appreciated!

 

[Scooterwrench]

Go to the salvage yard,buy an engine that's plug and play,rebuild it and drop it in. If you've rebulit single cyl. go kart motors you should be able to rebuilt an 8cyl. truck engine,just 7 more of them. I started on Briggs & Strattons back when they had points under the flywheel and most others have started the same way.

 

[Ronchiggy]

Ok, thanks a lot for the advice, definitely gave me a little more confidence. Do you have any input on what I should look for when looking for a junkyard engine. Also, when I do pull the engine what should I be looking for to see if I could reuse it? And when rebuilding it what are the main things I should replace for the best reliability?

 

[Scooterwrench]

Look for an engine that shows no sign of being overheated preferably close to the same year as yours. Do some research and see what interchanges with what. Antifreeze leaking out of the lower water pump nipple is a good indicator that the engine is still good. If it has fewer miles than yours all the better. Never buy an engine out of a vehicle that has serious front end damage. Look yours over and get anything that may be broken or worn out. You can never have too many spare parts,it will save you trips back to the junk yard later.

 

[BeXtreme]

$3500 should be more than enough to just rebuild your current engine at any reputable local machine shop. I rebuilt my own 350 and it was about $2k for parts and labor. That included used heads and new cam/lifters. You could get the factory roller cam reground at a place like Delta camshaft for $140 and just put in new roller lifters. If the engine is currently running fine, rebuild shouldn't be too bad. You will be able to reuse most of the expensive stuff, but it will likely need to be bored ~.020" over and then you'll need new pistons. Rods will get reused on the new pistons. Heads refreshed at a good head shop or the same machine shop if they do that would likely be in the ~$150-300 range per head. All of my block machine work was $580 and that included bore/hone, polish crank, clean and deck block .020", swap rods to new pistons, and install new cam bearings. I assembled the motor myself.

 

[Road Trip]

Ok, thanks a lot for the advice, definitely gave me a little more confidence. Do you have any input on what I should look for when looking for a junkyard engine. Also, when I do pull the engine what should I be looking for to see if I could reuse it? And when rebuilding it what are the main things I should replace for the best reliability?

Let's say you have 3 possible donor vehicles in the treasure yard. For my money,
I would look carefully at each of the 3 engine oil dipsticks, and the one that
looks like the engine enjoyed regular oil changes will in all probability be your best
bet as a foundation to (re)build upon.

While you are at it, look into each of the 3 cooling systems, and if it looks
like it's been completely ignored by the owner, the chances of cracks in
the cylinder heads and other over-temp trauma goes much higher.

In essence, when you open the hood, the vibe you want to get from
the engine bay is 'worn in', not 'worn out'. Of course there is no
absolute guarantee, but you do want to stack the odds in your favor
as much as you can.

Best of luck in the Treasure Yard(s) --

PS: Back when Nixon was president I was endlessly tinkering with
both Tecumseh & Briggs & Stratton air cooled single cylinder
engines. Like others have mentioned, you have enough
background to pull this off. Especially if you can post
clear pics & allow the GMT400 members to act as
virtual mentors if/when you hit a snag or a decision point
in your project.

And of course, "Nothing Good is Easy." But the sense of accomplishment
when you are being propelled down the road by something *you* put
together is priceless! :0)

 

[Ronchiggy]

Look for an engine that shows no sign of being overheated preferably close to the same year as yours. Do some research and see what interchanges with what. Antifreeze leaking out of the lower water pump nipple is a good indicator that the engine is still good. If it has fewer miles than yours all the better. Never buy an engine out of a vehicle that has serious front end damage. Look yours over and get anything that may be broken or worn out. You can never have too many spare parts,it will save you trips back to the junk yard later.

Thanks a lot for the tips, so when I pull my engine what are the main things I should be looking for to see if I can just rebuild my og engine instead of finding one from a scrapyard?

$3500 should be more than enough to just rebuild your current engine at any reputable local machine shop. I rebuilt my own 350 and it was about $2k for parts and labor. That included used heads and new cam/lifters. You could get the factory roller cam reground at a place like Delta camshaft for $140 and just put in new roller lifters. If the engine is currently running fine, rebuild shouldn't be too bad. You will be able to reuse most of the expensive stuff, but it will likely need to be bored ~.020" over and then you'll need new pistons. Rods will get reused on the new pistons. Heads refreshed at a good head shop or the same machine shop if they do that would likely be in the ~$150-300 range per head. All of my block machine work was $580 and that included bore/hone, polish crank, clean and deck block .020", swap rods to new pistons, and install new cam bearings. I assembled the motor myself.

If I can save that $1500 I would be more than willing to do it myself! I was doing some research and browsing the forum and saw a few people saying that the factory camshaft doesn't take full advantage of the vortec heads, and that you could go with other cams that can increase power/gas mileage, would it be worth going that route, if so what would you recommend for me? Definitely going to try to find a good machine shop, if anyone sees this that knows of one in the Salt Lake City area let me know!

Let's say you have 3 possible donor vehicles in the treasure yard. For my money,
I would look carefully at each of the 3 engine oil dipsticks, and the one that
looks like the engine enjoyed regular oil changes will in all probability be your best
bet as a foundation to (re)build upon.

While you are at it, look into each of the 3 cooling systems, and if it looks
like it's been completely ignored by the owner, the chances of cracks in
the cylinder heads and other over-temp trauma goes much higher.

In essence, when you open the hood, the vibe you want to get from
the engine bay is 'worn in', not 'worn out'. Of course there is no
absolute guarantee, but you do want to stack the odds in your favor
as much as you can.

Best of luck in the Treasure Yard(s) --

PS: Back when Nixon was president I was endlessly tinkering with
both Tecumsehs & Briggs & Stratton air cooled single cylinder
engines. Like others have mentioned, you have enough
background to pull this off. Especially if you can post
clear pics & allow the GMT400 members to act as
virtual mentors if/when you hit a snag or a decision point
in your project.

And of course, "Nothing Good is Easy." But the sense of accomplishment
when you are being propelled down the road by something *you* put
together is priceless! :0)

I will definitely keep all these things in mind, excited to start on this project. Thank you again for all the help!

 

[Scooterwrench]

Rebuilding your engine is the best option. You know you have an engine that has not been cooked and the money saved buying an engine to rebuild can be put into your engine for strength upgrades and/or go fast/more power goodies. Another thing to spend your saved money on is micrometers,dial calipers and bore gauges. Don't just trust that the machine shop did a good job,check to make sure!!! Always remember that cleanliness is better than godliness when assembling any kind of machinery,dirt kills!!!

From what I've been hearing is modern factory heads are prone to cracking from just normal heat cycles so that may be one of the things you can spend your saved money on. Unless your building a race engine don't get stupid with big high revving cams. A torque monster that will turn 5500 will do you way more good in real world driving and save you money at the pump. I strongly recommend keeping you compression ratio around 9:1 You will have an engine that is not temperamental about fuel and will last a long time.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Make sure to get a Vortec motor and not a TBI motor. If you're planning on rebuilding the junkyard motor, you might want to take the time to pop the heads off and check for cracks. If you get a motor out of a 3/4 or 1 ton truck, it's very likely to have 4-bolt mains.

 

[BeXtreme]

If I can save that $1500 I would be more than willing to do it myself! I was doing some research and browsing the forum and saw a few people saying that the factory camshaft doesn't take full advantage of the vortec heads, and that you could go with other cams that can increase power/gas mileage, would it be worth going that route, if so what would you recommend for me? Definitely going to try to find a good machine shop, if anyone sees this that knows of one in the Salt Lake City area let me know!

Factory cams are almost always not great. They almost always leave lots of performance on the table. Your budget option would be to just send the factory roller cam currently in the engine off to Delta Camshaft in Tacoma, WA. They can regrind your factory cam to whatever spec you want. Just call them and tell them what you have, what you intend to use the vehicle for, and they will grind the cam to suit your expected use. They reground the factory roller cam in my 97 L29 454 and it was $140 plus what I paid to ship it to them. It took them about 2 weeks to turn it around and have it back to me. Your other option is to just get an aftermarket cam. Summit cams are pretty great budget cams. I believe @L31MaxExpress had a pretty good breakdown of several different cams, including a Summit one that were great truck/towing cams for the L31.