Suburban Project- Need Help!

80BrownK10 said:

I think that thing looks good. I am hopefully the under side is good. The cylinders look in good shape. Hopefully the rings are just stuck. I assume you are rocking it with a breaker bar?

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78C10BigTen said:

Honestly with heads off if its stuck rings id spray the piss outta every cylinder with PB blaster and let it soak in. I bought a "new" short block crate 350 from my scrap yard job that was shrink wrapped in many layers of plastic, i sprayed all the piston tops with PB for about a week and turned it with the breaker bar and it turned over!!! The history, supposedly the guy who tossed it bought it new for his dirt track car. It never got used, drank some water and he tossed it. Worst thing i see is the lifters rusted in the galleye.

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scenic760 said:

Hey All,

I want to apologize to B1075 for hijacking his thread inadvertantly!

My story...picked up a 1981 K1500 Suburban from a widow in Bakersfield who's husband died and this was their ranch vehicle. It was said to run when parked about 5 years ago.. I tried getting it to turn manually without plugs, oil in the cylinders, dep creep, mmo, atf/acetone- no go. Some much wiser members suggested taking off the heads and there was a decent amount of rust on some of the rockers and all the lifters are stuck however I pulled the head on the passenger side and the cylinders don't look too bad to me (but I haven't stripped an engine down in 25 years so memory is suspect).

The intent is to get this thing set up as a nice beach/sports hauler with 4 kids to get places, very little freeway driving. I plan on redoing interior, paint, suspension so I do plan on keeping it around and I don't need to roast the tires off at every stoplight (not anymore anyways, haha).

Someone suggested just buying a used 350 and throwing it in there as you can get them so cheap.. I have looked on facebook, craigslist and google search and I can't find anything cheaper than $500 (within driving distance) and the ad said "it needs work" so seems like I would be back in the same boat more or less except $500 lighter?

Also some of the wiser members suggested an LS swap which in my situation just isn't possible, not to mention sounds like a nightmare in California. An e-rod at $10k, which to be honest is probably the best long term situation but I can't drop $10k at the moment. So I'm back to getting it on the road with more or less what it has in it (or replacing with something similar).

A couple questions I have..at this point with the head off (soon to be both) and the engine still not spinning I know it doesn't look good. Also, that much tear down I would kind of be foolish not to just yank the thing out and either rebuild or replace. I'm looking online and locally and it looks like a long block is going to set me back about $1700 minimum and a $400ish core (that I need to ship at my expense) that may or may not get refunded, so really a $2100 outlay. I'm thinking if I were to rebuild the existing short block, provided it was rebuildable, I would spend somewhere in the $1000 range? I would then most likely buy some CARB legal aluminum heads in the $1100 range (vs having existing recon'd) and pretty much be where I would be with a long block cost wise with superior performance? I have already planned to use an MSD Atomic EFI setup so basically another $1k in either scenario. Does this sounds like a sane persons rationalization?!

Thanks all!

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scenic760 said:

Hey All,

I want to apologize to B1075 for hijacking his thread inadvertantly!

My story...picked up a 1981 K1500 Suburban from a widow in Bakersfield who's husband died and this was their ranch vehicle. It was said to run when parked about 5 years ago.. I tried getting it to turn manually without plugs, oil in the cylinders, dep creep, mmo, atf/acetone- no go. Some much wiser members suggested taking off the heads and there was a decent amount of rust on some of the rockers and all the lifters are stuck however I pulled the head on the passenger side and the cylinders don't look too bad to me (but I haven't stripped an engine down in 25 years so memory is suspect).

The intent is to get this thing set up as a nice beach/sports hauler with 4 kids to get places, very little freeway driving. I plan on redoing interior, paint, suspension so I do plan on keeping it around and I don't need to roast the tires off at every stoplight (not anymore anyways, haha).

Someone suggested just buying a used 350 and throwing it in there as you can get them so cheap.. I have looked on facebook, craigslist and google search and I can't find anything cheaper than $500 (within driving distance) and the ad said "it needs work" so seems like I would be back in the same boat more or less except $500 lighter?

Also some of the wiser members suggested an LS swap which in my situation just isn't possible, not to mention sounds like a nightmare in California. An e-rod at $10k, which to be honest is probably the best long term situation but I can't drop $10k at the moment. So I'm back to getting it on the road with more or less what it has in it (or replacing with something similar).

A couple questions I have..at this point with the head off (soon to be both) and the engine still not spinning I know it doesn't look good. Also, that much tear down I would kind of be foolish not to just yank the thing out and either rebuild or replace. I'm looking online and locally and it looks like a long block is going to set me back about $1700 minimum and a $400ish core (that I need to ship at my expense) that may or may not get refunded, so really a $2100 outlay. I'm thinking if I were to rebuild the existing short block, provided it was rebuildable, I would spend somewhere in the $1000 range? I would then most likely buy some CARB legal aluminum heads in the $1100 range (vs having existing recon'd) and pretty much be where I would be with a long block cost wise with superior performance? I have already planned to use an MSD Atomic EFI setup so basically another $1k in either scenario. Does this sounds like a sane persons rationalization?!

Thanks all!

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scenic760 said:

Thanks all for the replies!

I've been trying to wrench on it for a couple hours every other day...gotta say my forearms are feeling it! That and my upper thighs from bending over the fenders. Neighbors probably aren't thrilled as this is going down in the driveway as my garage is packed with bikes/sports/woodworking stuff.

I'm going to pick up a hoist and stand today.

The wife asked me for status on it last night and I explained to her it's taking more time than I initially thought but I just need to keep tearing it down until I find out why it's not spinning, then put it all back together so I can smog/register it and park it on the street (it's been no-op status since 1999 being on the ranch). Then I mentioned maybe having to get a crate motor if it wasn't salvageable, then I brought up the idea of an LS swap with our current 2003 Suburban and she said "You know, now all the kid's friends are wanting to see this thing on the road, what would be the COOLEST thing to do?"...of course LS swap and she said "Then do it!"....I was sitting there in disbelief as I explained to her they would both be sitting in the driveway until it was done...truth be told I'm not sure I'm ready to tackle the LS swap right now... maybe if this engine is toast, then maybe

Thanks again everyone, I will keep posting!

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Bextreme04 said:

I believe in Cali if you do that swap you will need to program the VIN into the computer and leave all the remaining items intact. The 81 would then be on the hook for the 2003 emissions standards and equipment to include the fuel evap system and catalytic converters. Its an easy swap outside of cali because you can cut all that crap out... in Cali you would have to get all of it swapped over.

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Salty Crusty said:

Hazard Fraught has their 2-ton cherry picker for $189 right now, you might need a coupon.
The best engine stand to use in conjunction is a tricycle style but with a bar across the front, making it 4-wheeled. This one will easily fit between the legs of the cherry picker to get it transferred. I have some of their older 2-leg ones with splayed legs, it's a royal PITA to get the engine from the hoist to the stand.

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scenic760 said:

Thanks Salty!

Yep, picked up them up yesterday...they were out of stock at my local store so I had to drive 35 minutes to another store..gave me time to catch up on returning phone calls, haha

I looked at the bigger engine stand and was thinking the same thing, looked like the legs would bump into each other when trying to transfer it? I got the 1000lb capacity which I would think is plenty for a 350?!

Today's project is putting the them together!

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