rusty cylinder walls?

i recently went through the same thing when i talked to the machinist he told me one year out in the rain and snow whould not do any damage to the cylinder wall that a good honeing could take care of! but in my case two of the cylinder walls were collapsed so i got lucky at the local scrap yard and found a 351 roller windsor block ! but i only paid 50 bucks for my old block and paid 350 for the newer one.

Originally Posted by 1 Bad 88 GT

If your paying that much for the listed items you need to go file a police report cuz you got RAPED!


I had one done at BES and it was only about half that much!

Quality counts.

Forged pistons vs cast crap china etc

Sure you can get stuff at the "walmart auto parts store" but you get that level of quality, performance and reliability. In some cases you get what you pay for....

jb

Originally Posted by zpyro

I don't have any idea how much material .030 is so I had to ask. I was probably going to overbore it anyways so if it still works then there's no issues. it's if I spent $250 on a big ugly paperweight that we have problems...

That engine should have been given to you. There are so many 5.0 engines around. If I paid $250 it would be ready to put back in as is. Might have 100K on it but that is nothing on one taken care of.

Go with a crate motor and save yourself some big dollars and headaches. Local machine shops have a way of charging you for every little detail and a lot of extra labor costs. Walk to the shelf to get a set of freeze plugs equates to an additional $45 labor charge.
A bore job is $230 bucks in my area. Having a short block put together with my parts would have cost me $1800 or more. I built a stroker for less than that(put it together myself) but still had six or seven hundred in block preparation. That's because I had to take it to two machine shops. The first guy sat on it for three months (was told it would be a week) and I got pissed and took it to another which took two weeks.
This was in the dead of winter, no spring rush with dirt trackers.
Buy a crate and have it in two weeks with a warranty. $1000 to $1500 easy.

Sorry for the rant, but it gets a little aggravating around here. Hope you guys are better.

i don't want a crate motor. I want to do the work myself

No matter which way you go, it ain't cheap. Not to me and FE anyways.

Originally Posted by zpyro

i don't want a crate motor. I want to do the work myself

I think you got a bad deal. If you want to come to Minnesota I will give you an 83 Mustang block and heads that were in running condition. 125K miles. It is apart. It is not a roller block.

lol I'm in California. Minnesota is a bit of a drive...

someone up in the bay area is giving me a block that's already cleaned and everything. I'll take a road trip up there to get it, and get some parts from Mustangs Plus on the way back :-D

and the reason I bought this other motor is the fact that it is a roller block

Come on guys.. help this guy out. This motor is not that bad and I think a GOOD candidate for a rebuild. There's an engine core place where I live and now they put a slury in the bores to protect them from rusting.. BUT prior to doing this.. guess what, they all sat outside in the rain/sun/elemements, got rusted for YEARS, and people still bought them/REBUILT them like hotcakes for their street cars. They bought them with the intention of rebuilding them, not looking at them saying you got ripped... This yard charges $150 for any block.

I probably would have given $150 less considering the condition, but this is a live and learn type thing. If I had $250 dollars for every mistake I made (still making).. you know the rest. He learned, but it's not the end of the world guys.

If you want to do the work yourself, start calling around machine shops that will just clean the block up for you. I mention that because not all shops will do this and hand it back to you for you to finish. Where I live, they're a dime/dozen. They don't care if they/you do the work. Long as they get paid. Anyways, back to.. Get the block cleaned up, let the shop recommend a good bore to clean up. Maybe .20, maybe .30. You won't know until you take it in. From there, you can start your build and you're on your way. You still have crank etc.. but you can either buy one, or when you send the block out, leave the crank in and have them clean it up as well.


I am hoping give you some hope. You made a good decision and on you're on the way to a nice rebuild. One recommendation though.. READ some more, READ some more, ask a lot of questions here.. before you spend another dime. You can then make appropriate decisions based ont he feedback you get here. It's not hard, it's not easy, but it does take some effort on your part.. and it was a good effort in starting this post.

Where about in ca are you. If close, I can maybe help steer you in the right direction.

If it helps, I just bought a standard 351W block from this same yard.. and I didn't hesitate to pay for it. It will clean up nicely. Don't be discouraged. You made a good choice. Now you've just got to get working on it so you won't continue to be discouraged. I'm in So. cal. area. PM me back if you want more information.

Not tellin you what to do, but I would fold and keep it in park right now. The Bay area i snot around the corner.. and when folks get rid of stuff... You already have a block that needs attention. Stick with that and have piece of mind in knowing what you got after you put some investment in it. I'm not saying the other block is bad, but you may find yourself righ back at the starting gate once you get it home. Fold, close the wallet, read, ask questions before you buy anything else. My opinion.

I'm in Fresno. And I'm goin up to the bay on Friday to get that block and possibly crank, pistons etc. so I should just be able to get it honed and be good