Engine Dilemma

After finding bolts from the heads, we had a small break thinking about our options. I would at least need new heads but we weren't sure if they were the only problem. New Edelbrock E-Street heads could be had for about 850€ but I didn't want to buy anything that expensive before knowing that the block is fine. If it wasn't, I would have to buy a new engine. Luckily a user from Finnshark told me that he had old but functional stock heads that I could borrow. This sealed the deal. We would test the old engine one more time with borrowed heads and see what would happen.

It took me some time to get the heads and take them to my friend so he also decided to have a look in the oil pan. It was leaking a bit anyway so this was a good time to change the gasget.

There was nothing alarming in the pan. Some dirt but not much. Block was also very clean and even seemed to have four bolt mains. Crank had two stamps: 3932442 and B237. So it was a basic 350 crank made in 23. of February 1977. There was still hope for this block.

Finally in the beginning of December I got the heads to my friend. He had to clean them a bit first but we talked that we could put the engine back together after christmas. I didn't have anything useful to do at home so I took the oil pan for painting. After stripping all the old paint and cleaning the dirt, I applied some POR-15 Chevy Orange to it.

Not like new but much better than before.

Then, at new years eve, it was time to put the engine back together one more time and see if it would finally work.