So, the 350 was rebuilt, huh ?????

I used Blueprint aluminum heads on my 350 because the $899 price was not much more than new Vortec iron heads, and I could reuse my old intake (and not buy a new Vortec intake). The BP heads also allow for a lot more cam lift than stock Vortecs, so it expanded the cam choices. They are also drilled for both perimeter and center bolt valve covers.

Bruce

nabeshin said:

I once tried to price out what it would cost to buy all the components to build an engine, block, belt accessories; everything. It is about the same if not cheaper to get one from Blueprint.

I happen to live about an hour away from Blueprint Engines, they are in Kearney. Almost took a job there as an engine machinist, but the commute and 10-12 hour days were a deal breaker. Will buy from them if I ever need a new engine.

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I've got some friends in Kearney that I grew up with since 4th grade, so figure 45 year friends. 2 sisters that lived on the block. About 8 years ago I took a trip to Kearney to bang one of the sisters for a weekend. Didn't get to see the other sister while I was there cuz she'd have been pist to know I was banging her little sis and not her. To bad, back in the day when I wanted to bang you, I didn't have a chance in hell, and now so many years later your sis didn't eat as much as you did and... Well anyway. I took the best pick of the 2. Maybe I need to buy one of them engines and have a reason to go back to Kearney. It's a little drive from OKC. I might also mention, it's not pronounced the way it's spelled. It's Carny.

If the seller doesn’t have a receipt , the engine didn’t get rebuilt .

As y’all know an engine or trans rebuild is big money, and comes with a warranty, anyone who gets an engine rebuilt would save the receipt Incase the needed the warranty.

If they don’t have a receipt, they are lying, so adjust the price accordingly.

If I was doing a full rebuild, which I might do if the rest of the truck was numbers matching original, I’d go back with a roller cam for sure.

EVERY General Motors engine with many miles on it has a flat lobe on the cam. It’s a defective design somehow .

Just get a new GM long block and forget it. With the price and iffy machine shops with high prices in the end it is better to go blue print ofr new GM

mtnmankev said:

Since it will need a new cam and lifters, I am thinking the Summit #1102 would be perfect for the truck.
General driving, some hauling, maybe tow a trailer someday, would give a smooth idle and very good throttle/engine response through the powerband.

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Have you ran this cam before? I'm thinking of buying the Summit #1103 or #1102 for my 75 stepside. Very good price and includes the lifters. I'm leaning towards the #1103 due to a small lope at idle. Any info on experience with these cams would be appreciated. Thanks.

I have dealt with the machine shop in Prescott since 1985 and they have always done good work.

Maybe being a small town shop they pay more attention to their work than the average shop in a big city with millions of potential customers.
It's always been my experience here that people talk about businesses good and bad, and word spreads like wildfire if somebody screws up, or if they do good.
One advantage of a small community, if a business owner doesn't treat people right, he isn't going to last long.
The shops I knew in Tucson were iffy, as are most in Phoenix with the exception of the one who specialized in their work and they did the machine work for my 383 stroker.

Sure, given the cost of engine building I can see the reason so many buy a complete one new or reman, but in this case, my friend is learning auto mechanics and i am teaching him detailed theory about everything automotive before I croak so he understands how and why everything works, and giving him hands on practice so it sinks in.

Plus, there is a certain satisfaction in knowing how an engine went together from the get go, and when it fires up and comes to life it's an exhilarating feeling and makes all that work one did rewarding.

As for the GM flat cam lobe department, the Goodwrench engine that the previous owner of my 83 C20 installed has one, it runs the fuel pump and the ticking sound got so annoying I yanked the pump and pushrod, installed a block off plate, and went to an electric fuel pump.

K5ride said:

Have you ran this cam before? I'm thinking of buying the Summit #1103 or #1102 for my 75 stepside. Very good price and includes the lifters. I'm leaning towards the #1103 due to a small lope at idle. Any info on experience with these cams would be appreciated. Thanks.

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No, I have not ran that cam before, but the specs are in the range I want for decent performance, fuel mileage, and stock reliability in the long term.
Several people i talked to are familiar with it, and they agreed for the application it is a good choice.

I understand that not everybody is going to want the same thing, some applications require a more radical cam than others.

In the end, as long as everybody is happy with what they got, I'm happy.

I run a Summit 1785 cam in my '70 350 Impala. It's a big heavy car and has 2.56 highway gears. It works very well and should work well in a truck too.

As it turns out, the block is junk ......the pic shows a crack that was repaired and cracked some more.
Plus the crank is history.
Next step is to see if the guy I bought it from will give me a refund or another engine to try.

...if the guy can even be found again.

Worst case you have a new boat anchor.

I'm sure I can find him, he lives about 5 miles from me and has a couple acres of Chevy and GMC products.

mtnmankev said:

As it turns out, the block is junk ......the pic shows a crack that was repaired and cracked some more.
Plus the crank is history.
Next step is to see if the guy I bought it from will give me a refund or another engine to try.

You must be registered for see images attach

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Wow, chain link repair! I did that one time for a guy with an antique head where a replacement was not available.

I would never expect to repair a block that way, especially a common small block.

I may be wrong in my assessment, but I suspect the reason the block cracked in that location was due to insufficient antifreeze mix in a cold climate and it froze solid.

The friend who I am building the engine for stopped at the guy's house today on his way home from the city, and showed him the cracked block.
He learned real fast how pissed we are about it, and is going to replace it with another engine.
He even offered to assemble an engine, but my friend told him no thanks, I am teaching him and he needs to learn this stuff, and he wants to have first hand info about everything that goes into his engine.
Plus I am funny about not trusting an engine that I did not personally put together.

Your friend must 6'7" and 300 lbs to get the guy to replace it and even offer to build it for you.