Rebuilding 350 vortec, what all should I do?

[97zSC]

This is a pretty long winded post however I just want to cover all my bases, if you don't feel like reading just skip to the bottom. But let me go ahead and preface this by saying I'm 19 years old and have no mechanic background aside from a water pump and front caliper replacement on a 96 Ford I had when I turned 16 so I'm doing this just to have fun and learn. There's no better way to learn than by doing it myself and if I **** up, I **** up, so please don't reply if you're just going to tell me to put it in a shop. I consider myself fairly competent as far as my mechanical ability goes but my knowledge and experience are where I'm lacking, along with the fact that I tend to doubt myself and do way too much prep work before doing something like this

Just a little bit of background on the truck:
-Bought my 97 k1500 with the 350 vortec last year for $1200, 210,000 miles 4wd on the floor
-A month later transmission went out, 3rd gear was smoked everything else was mint
-Bought a 3rd gear clutch rebuild kit and got the friction plates separate
-Up until this point I had been losing water but I never really realized what it was due to being 18 and ignorant, truck finally overheated and died on the side of the road
-Did upper/lower intake gasket replacement, drained water out of cylinders however it was still leaking into the cylinders after this
-Also has new distributor
For all of the above I had help from a family friend, he didn't always know exactly what he was talking about however he knew more than me at the time and definitely had more experience.

So fast forward to now after I have done a **** done of research, bought David Vizard's How to Rebuild Your Small-Block Chevy, and the motor is sitting in the truck, just as a block, torn down to the lifter valley, and no front brackets. Everything is sitting in rubbermaid containers. I've watched as many tear down videos and write-ups as I can, learned more about the functions of the pieces of the motor, as well as reading Vizard book as far as the tear down and rebuild go.

My plan is to get a 12x12 or 10x10 canopy and enclosure kit(around $150-$175) just to keep everything as dust-free and moisture-free as possible then pulling the motor, doing the full teardown, sending the block and heads to be cleaned, resurfaced, new freeze plugs installed and valve job for about $400. I've read that at this point it'd be worth it to go ahead and have the block bored and clearanced for a 383. I already know I'll need a new PS pump due to the fluid kept burning up and I had to tap the gas when turning at low speeds, there was also one night where I entirely lost PS but it was back the next day. While the truck is under the knife I want to go ahead and do all the regular maintenance that would be required for this truck at 210k miles because I have no clue how its been treated but I want to err on the side of caution. I understand there are some things that you can't really know to change until they start to go but just common things that you guys have noticed over time on your vehicles or things on this forum. Sorry for such a long post but I just want to make sure I didn't leave anything things out, thanks guys.

 

[Dan_Frisbie]

It sounds like you've started out the right way. Learn, read, watch, absorb as much info as you can. I've rebuilt dozens of SBC engines for street and ovals. It's not hard, but you have to pay attention and be meticulous. "It'll work" will NOT work. Do it right on every single step.
SBC motors have forged pistons. Unless your cylinders are in bad shape, skip the overbore and save money. 350 cubes will make decent hp and torque.
Are you going to keep the stock Vortec injection/computer? This may limit your cam choice. Same with the tranny. Build too much power in the wrong rpm range and you'll need a different torque converter and tranny program.
My advice is to stick with a fairly stock rebuild for this one. Maybe upgrade the cam a little, put better exhaust and a tune on it and run for a while.
Then, find a junkyard block and build your next killer motor.

Keep in mind, a used and even a crate motor is cheaper than a rebuild.

 

[Supercharged111]

GM crate hands down dollar for dollar. Unless you want to make 1000hp, it's all you need and eliminates the variable if ****** machine shops. Takes some of the fun out, but to me fun is doing it once and not looking back.

 

[97zSC]

It sounds like you've started out the right way. Learn, read, watch, absorb as much info as you can. I've rebuilt dozens of SBC engines for street and ovals. It's not hard, but you have to pay attention and be meticulous. "It'll work" will NOT work. Do it right on every single step.
SBC motors have forged pistons. Unless your cylinders are in bad shape, skip the overbore and save money. 350 cubes will make decent hp and torque.
Are you going to keep the stock Vortec injection/computer? This may limit your cam choice. Same with the tranny. Build too much power in the wrong rpm range and you'll need a different torque converter and tranny program.
My advice is to stick with a fairly stock rebuild for this one. Maybe upgrade the cam a little, put better exhaust and a tune on it and run for a while.
Then, find a junkyard block and build your next killer motor.

Keep in mind, a used and even a crate motor is cheaper than a rebuild.

Yeah I plan on doing this build fairly stock just to have the experience under my belt and to say I've done it then I want to get another block and just build it as bad as I can. Also I do plan on doing the 0411 PCM swap and buying a tuning software although I'm not sure if I want to feel the program out for myself or going through an online class. But as far as building for horsepower, I'll probably use a cam in the stock area (the marine cam falls under this right?) but the most I'll do on this motor would be a small supercharger, if that

 

[rangrayy]

BlackBear tune would be the way to go from what I have researched. Not too pricey either but the selling point for me is the FREE adjustments they offer so when you upgrade cam, delete the EGR, change speedo for larger tires and add long tube headers with a full exhaust, it pays for itself to get a BB tune. Id slap in a mild cam and change out the springs to accept the larger lift cam profiles while the heads are off. If you're still losing coolant its possible you have a cracked head and with 210,000 miles its a strong possibility. A cam, tune and full less restrictive exhaust would be a fun DD without breaking the bank while you save and build a motor the way you want.

 

[c1500deathtrap]

SBC motors have forged pistons.

Some did. his vortec will not.

 

[97zSC]

BlackBear tune would be the way to go from what I have researched. Not too pricey either but the selling point for me is the FREE adjustments they offer so when you upgrade cam, delete the EGR, change speedo for larger tires and add long tube headers with a full exhaust, it pays for itself to get a BB tune. Id slap in a mild cam and change out the springs to accept the larger lift cam profiles while the heads are off. If you're still losing coolant its possible you have a cracked head and with 210,000 miles its a strong possibility. A cam, tune and full less restrictive exhaust would be a fun DD without breaking the bank while you save and build a motor the way you want.

I have looked into a BB tune but at the same time I kinda want to learn on a software like EFILive or HPTunes, so I'm not too sure on that one lol. The machine shop is supposed magnaflux the head before doing my valve job and everything so hopefully they checked out. I cleaned them up a little bit and didn't see anything too obvious so I'm thinking it was just head gasket, but I'm doing the full rebuild anyways.

 

[PapaSkwat]

This is a pretty long winded post however I just want to cover all my bases, if you don't feel like reading just skip to the bottom. But let me go ahead and preface this by saying I'm 19 years old and have no mechanic background aside from a water pump and front caliper replacement on a 96 Ford I had when I turned 16 so I'm doing this just to have fun and learn. There's no better way to learn than by doing it myself and if I **** up, I **** up, so please don't reply if you're just going to tell me to put it in a shop. I consider myself fairly competent as far as my mechanical ability goes but my knowledge and experience are where I'm lacking, along with the fact that I tend to doubt myself and do way too much prep work before doing something like this

Just a little bit of background on the truck:
-Bought my 97 k1500 with the 350 vortec last year for $1200, 210,000 miles 4wd on the floor
-A month later transmission went out, 3rd gear was smoked everything else was mint
-Bought a 3rd gear clutch rebuild kit and got the friction plates separate
-Up until this point I had been losing water but I never really realized what it was due to being 18 and ignorant, truck finally overheated and died on the side of the road
-Did upper/lower intake gasket replacement, drained water out of cylinders however it was still leaking into the cylinders after this
-Also has new distributor
For all of the above I had help from a family friend, he didn't always know exactly what he was talking about however he knew more than me at the time and definitely had more experience.

So fast forward to now after I have done a **** done of research, bought David Vizard's How to Rebuild Your Small-Block Chevy, and the motor is sitting in the truck, just as a block, torn down to the lifter valley, and no front brackets. Everything is sitting in rubbermaid containers. I've watched as many tear down videos and write-ups as I can, learned more about the functions of the pieces of the motor, as well as reading Vizard book as far as the tear down and rebuild go.

My plan is to get a 12x12 or 10x10 canopy and enclosure kit(around $150-$175) just to keep everything as dust-free and moisture-free as possible then pulling the motor, doing the full teardown, sending the block and heads to be cleaned, resurfaced, new freeze plugs installed and valve job for about $400. I've read that at this point it'd be worth it to go ahead and have the block bored and clearanced for a 383. I already know I'll need a new PS pump due to the fluid kept burning up and I had to tap the gas when turning at low speeds, there was also one night where I entirely lost PS but it was back the next day. While the truck is under the knife I want to go ahead and do all the regular maintenance that would be required for this truck at 210k miles because I have no clue how its been treated but I want to err on the side of caution. I understand there are some things that you can't really know to change until they start to go but just common things that you guys have noticed over time on your vehicles or things on this forum. Sorry for such a long post but I just want to make sure I didn't leave anything things out, thanks guys.

How did it go?