Small Block Chevy rebuild

Hey there, I'm new to the forum.

I have what I believe is a Vortec SBC lying at my dad's furniture store. It's very old but looks ok. Recently someone moved it out and rain rusted it completely.

At first it was going to be scrapped but it's worth more as an ornament, they were offering me like 60 bucks for it.

So... my question is, is it possible to rebuild and bring back to life a block that has been sitting for years and now is rusting?

I believe yes, probably should just get it to a machine shop and clean thoroughly. Maybe the crankshaft is still good. I only have pictures but can't post them due to photobucket going crazy. I'll create a Flickr account or something and update.

This ideally would go into a Locost 7 build.

Thank you very much.

External rust means nothing. The importance is internal rust. Does it rotate is the first question. If it does then pulling the heads (or scope) to inspect the bores would be next followed by pulling the pan and inspecting the journals/bearings.

In reply to RandyS:

No, it has no heads and it wasn't rusted until now. Water filled the cylinders :/

I don't think it has rotated in a couple of decades but I'll do my best haha

In reply to Spiritus_Spatium:

Unless the block and/or heads are junk, rebuilding an SBC is ridiculously cheap. I just rebuilt one, and if I hadn't swapped out the entire intake system I'd have had less than $500 into it. That included a new water pump, oil pump & pickup, harmonic balancer, timing chain, valve guide seals, valve springs, gaskets/rings/freeze plugs, aftermarket cam, and refurb crank.

That said, it might not be the best choice for a Locost. You'll end up with about 500lbs on the nose of the car(an aluminum LS would shave about 150lbs off that FWIW), and you'll have to make sure the rest of the chassis is able to support the extra weight/HP/torque.

In reply to Pete Gossett:

Yes, it ends being a "heavyweight" but still light. I'm going with this because as you say it's very cheap to build and I have it already. A Gen III truck motor goes for a thousand bucks around here, that's without accessories of course.

I really don't know if it's junk, what considerations should I take?

Sorry for the hassle guys, I can't seem to copy the link on my phone. I'll try and copy it on my PC. For now, I hope this lets you look at my camera roll. The only pictures there are from the engine.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/150837091@N04/

In reply to Spiritus_Spatium:

Well that doesn't look particularly good - though honestly mine didn't look much better once I pulled the heads. That said, if it's not cracked, a couple hundred bucks at a machine shop would probably make the block useable.

Do you have the heads/accessories/intake/exhaust manifolds too?

In reply to Pete Gossett:

None of that, I'm afraid. I believe it used to have the heads but someone took them for scrap

Honestly it's cheaper to buy an already machined block from summit/jegs/speedway than to have that one machined. Pull crank/rods and sell the block with caps as a core

In reply to Spiritus_Spatium:

Ah, well you'll be better off buying another engine from a junkyard, or even better, buying a crappy running vehicle & selling off everything else. Othwise you're going to be spending money with a machinist just to determine if this block is useable, then spending a grand or two more sourcing all the missing parts, plus everything to rebuild it.

If you were looking for a bare block to build up from scratch for a high-HP build, this could be a starting point, but it's probably not the best choice for that either.

That's not a small block Chevy.

Looks like a small block Dodge.

That's a small block molar. It may or may not be worth rebuilding. It depends on what size the bores are now and what block it is.

In reply to SkinnyG:

That's why the holes for the heads looked weird compared to SBC I saw online. Oh man, this just makes it even more interesting. I have a thing for mopars haha The sound is awesome. But as others said, it's probably not worth rebuilding. Seems like I got mixed responses. I will take it to a machine shop and ask how much to make it usable (which may not be possible) and work from there.

Thanks a lot guys.

EDIT: It totally is a Mopar guys. Thanks.

Yeah, that's gonna take machine work, bored (and new pistons), crank may need ground, lifter bores may need bushed, probably needed all that stuff before it sat outside anyways. Then you still just have a shortblock.

In reply to Pete Gossett:

Do it. Grab some old Hot Rod or Mopar books and build it up. Document it and write an article for GRM. It won't be cheaper or easier than buying one nearly ready to go, but the story is worth it, IMO.

If it were me, if somebody offered me 60 bucks for that short block it'd be gone. Around here, scrap is 115 a ton, and that's about what it is... scrap.

You could strip it down to a bare block, have it bored out and replace the entire rotating assembly. But you'll have more in just a short block then you would a complete low mileage, ready to go long block.

Look ok car-parts.com and search for you desired engine and have it shipped to beat the high cost in you're area.

I'm a foxbody mustang guy, so I like the 5.0s. I have several buddies with stock explorer motors (300 dollar motors all day long), with upgraded cams and valves springs running low 12s n/a, or 11s with some nitrous.

The lsx motors are hard to beat. A truck 4.8 or 5.3 with an eBay turbo would be hard to be.

Dodge... eh, not really sure. I'm not really a mopar guy.

Project86fox said:

If it were me, if somebody offered me 60 bucks for that short block it'd be gone. Around here, scrap is 115 a ton, and that's about what it is... scrap.

You could strip it down to a bare block, have it bored out and replace the entire rotating assembly. But you'll have more in just a short block then you would a complete low mileage, ready to go long block.

Look ok car-parts.com and search for you desired engine and have it shipped to beat the high cost in you're area.

I'm a foxbody mustang guy, so I like the 5.0s. I have several buddies with stock explorer motors (300 dollar motors all day long), with upgraded cams and valves springs running low 12s n/a, or 11s with some nitrous.

The lsx motors are hard to beat. A truck 4.8 or 5.3 with an eBay turbo would be hard to be.

Dodge... eh, not really sure. I'm not really a mopar guy.

My dad has a mint 1999 Explorer V8, RWD. I have been thinking that it would be awesome to grab one of those (rollover or something) and use the engine, 5 speed auto and rear end to stick into something like a Fairmont. I've been reading about this engine and 300 whp should be easy as you say. Some nitrous and it would be killer at the strip haha

btw, how do I set my account to receive notifications when somebody replies to my posts or threads? It's annoying that I have to constantly check for updates :/

I followed your advice guys and forgot about the engine already.

Find the casting and stamping numbers on the block and figure out exactly what it is before you make any decisions. You wouldn't want to throw out something valuable by mistake.