I think a rod spun a bearing in my rebuilt 454

[nvrenuf]

Looks like there is a seller on eBay.

The labor cost would go way down if you bought a rebuilt motor rather than having your motor rebuilt, machine work etc.

Remanufactured GM Chevy 7.4 454 Short Block 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 4-Bolt TBI​

US $2,129.99

That's a Gen V block which was a short run design. I prefer Mark IV stuff because of the massive aftermarket support, probably more than the other two. Opinions will differ but if I didn't use a Mark IV I'd get a Gen 6 if nothing else for the better (but not direct) compatibility of the aluminum heads the OP already has. I wouldn't want the oddities of most of the Gen V motors.

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[Bennyt]

It’s a 2 bolt main.

So, what happened to the original caps?

 

[Bennyt]

I'd be more inclined to use ARP studs and a main girdle on a 2 bolt. I've actually never Been a big fan of 4 bolts,seen more cracked 4 bolts than 2 bolts. Is it due to extra holes weakening things,is it they are more likely to get run hard,do the extra bolts take the flex out if the block so it cracks instead of flexes. IDK the answer, which is why 4 bolt has never been a deciding point in what block I use.

I don't remember but 454 has the wider register whether it's 4 or 2 bolt correct? Similar to a 400 SBC where the caps are same width?

 

[TotalyHucked]

Looks like there is a seller on eBay.

The labor cost would go way down if you bought a rebuilt motor rather than having your motor rebuilt, machine work etc.

Remanufactured GM Chevy 7.4 454 Short Block 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 4-Bolt TBI​

US $2,129.99

Pardon Our Interruption...

No way. I bought a reman engine for a Camry a few years back and it only got 2k miles on it before it started having problems. A local engine builder or a reputable one like Blueprint is the only way to go. I'll never buy another engine from a no name "rebuilder" ever again

 

[HotRodPC]

But all jokes aside - if it's a spun bearing, you might be able to drop the pan and replace the bearing without pulling the motor or doing a full rebuild.

I'd have to disagree. If I paid a shop for a rebuild, noway a rod bearing should have spun #1 if done PROPERLY and THOROUGHLY. You have to wonder what caused the bearing the spin. And just to go through all the work to replace it and wonder if the crank is scored or out of round, or the rod is out of round, it's not worth it. Something was done WRONG to cause this. Was the crank not turned? Were the rods not resized? What caused it? You're not going to FIX a spun bearing by simply replacing it. I see people all the time do an engine rebuild and simply clean their rods and reuse them. I don't know what it costs these days, but in my days of engine rebuilding it was $8-$10 to have a rod Remanned. This included, hot tank, magnaflux for any cracks, checked for twist, check the small end for perfect round and resize the big end to make sure it's 100% round and not egg shapped. It's $80 for insurance since Con Rod bearings are the #1 failure for a bad rebuild.

My ex son in law spent all this money doing a rebuild using a book and asking me questions by phone. I told him to get the rods remannedd. He skipped that step since it wasn't in the budget. Luckily, he sent my daughter to pick up the block, heads crank and rods from the machine. She had noticed there was no charge for Con Rod work so she asked about it. They said, he didn't request it, so she left the rods and said do it. He was pist to find out he was going to have wait 2-3 more days before he could start building it. My daughter chewed his ass and told him, My dad said... and you didn't do it. We're not wasting all this money on a rebuild to not be done right. 2 days later, they get a phone call saying he has 2 twisted rods and they wanted to know what he wanted to do about it? Just replace the 2 rods or start with a new set? So I got a phone call by my daughter asking what to do. I told her to go ahead and take the 2 used matching rods but have them Re Manned also, then balance all the rods so that they all match. So yeah the Ex son in law had to eat that crow. He would have assembled a damaged engine.

 

[HotRodPC]

The big end of the rod eggs out. The bearing shell doesn't have proper interference,and it doesn't last. And the shop I was out we did thousands of rebuilds and I am absolutey certain we had less than a 1 percent failure rate.

Exactly !!! Reman the Con Rods EVERYTIME you do an engine rebuild. This is why I always built my own engines and didn't buy Rebuilt engines. If I bought and didn't rebuild, it was a brand new crate engine, not a rebuild. I rebuilt several engines for friends and family and NEVER once had a come back or failure. It's all about a machinist you know and trust if you don't have your own machine, and knowing what to tell them to have done. No shortcuts. Everything gets magnafluxed also.

 

[HotRodPC]

It’s a 2 bolt main.

The shop refunded me all money. I moved it to a more reputable (slower and more $$) shop. You get what you pay for with machine work.

Looks like it’s time to go forged internals.

You're lucky, I know some shops would tell you to F off. So at least you did get your money back. So I'd have to give them at least that little bit of credit, but I still wouldn't even take them my Briggs 3.5 hp lawn mower engine to rebuild.

 

[HotRodPC]

I'd be more inclined to use ARP studs and a main girdle on a 2 bolt. I've actually never Been a big fan of 4 bolts,seen more cracked 4 bolts than 2 bolts. Is it due to extra holes weakening things,is it they are more likely to get run hard,do the extra bolts take the flex out if the block so it cracks instead of flexes. IDK the answer, which is why 4 bolt has never been a deciding point in what block I use.

100% agree on 4 OEM blocks. In my street race days, I never used 4 bolt blocks. I was a budget builder but did **** right or not at all. I'd have people giving me 350 and SBC 400 2 bolt blocks. The idiot kids didn't want them and would pay big money for 4 bolt cores, and I also believed they were weaker instead of stronger. So I'd sell my 4 bolt block for $200 and use a FREE 2 bolt block for my own builds and that gave me $200 towards my build and machine work. I only spun them 7000rpm maybe 7300 on a Nuetral wrap occasionally. I was that guy woudl take people for a ride and hold it in 1st at 6500rpm and these guys are putting their feet up in the seat expecting something to come apart and come through the floor board. LOL !!! And then hit 2nd gear and bang their head on the back of the cab. Never had 1 come apart and we're talking cast cranks except for my small journal 327 and that one I did spin a bit faster. Point being, A 2 bolt will also hold up even with a cast crank IF you have it built right. I did use ARP rod bolts. If you really think you need the strength of a 4 bolt main, then you need to start with a 2 bolt block and buy splayed main caps and have the block drilled and tapped and a new line bore. That's not cheap to have done so I never did it. I just ran low budget 2 bolt well balanced and machined blocks and parts and propery assembled. EVERY bearing journal was plastiguaged, not 2 or 3, but every single one. Used plasma moly rings since one of my builds I did break a ring. It was easily fixed and didn't hurt the cylinder thankfully, but I learned, step up on the rings if you're going to abuse them like I did. It's a PITA to get those rings to seat, so a real nice hone is required, some non detergent 30 weight oil and a hot thermostat, which it ran hot anyway in the city with that big cam, but getting it good and hot, like 195-210 does help seat rings and use non detergent oil so the oil is not as slick and the rings can scrub the cylinder walls and find their happy place. Once that's done, then go back to the cooler thermostat and better oil. I usually ran 500 miles x2 of the 30wt non detergent for break in with those plasma moly rings and it seemed to have worked.

 

[HotRodPC]

Yep I was trying to stay out of this,but I'm wondering if those aren't 4 bolt caps on a factory 2 bolt block that's been line honed,in which case it could kind of make sense.

I'd say more like needed an align bore if rod caps were changed. That's one thing I never did have done. If I was not 100% certain on the main caps as far as location, like I hated going to buy a block and the guy has the main caps in the bucket and they are not stamped. JUNK BLOCK NOW. I'd never use it unless I planned on a line bore. Align hone is for cleaning up if you felt there was a problem, but align bore if mains are not in proper location or replacing with new mains like splayed mains. Line bore was to expensive for me. So if I couldn't trust the mains locations then I scrapped that one or gave it to someone who wanted to do splayed mains and was going to line bore it anyway.

 

[HotRodPC]

No. Even though it ain't an LS, big blocks still ain't cheap and still fairly difficult to get ahold of.

The trick to finding cheap Big Blocks, is be looking for old azz RV's that are vandalized or rotted away. Many of them are low mileage. Like this one I hauled off from the tow yard. Tow yards have to pay to get rid of RV's. They can't be scrapped and noone will buy them usually. I've had 2 RV's given to me. 1 gave to someone else I trusted that it would never be seen on the street again and it was a Ford powertrain they wanted, so I robbed some tanks and generator off of it, and gave it away. I got this one and still have it for the 43,000 mile 454 and Turbo 400 with the Park brake on the tailshaft. $200 Hadly train horns too and I'm robbing all the tanks, propane tank and lots of wiring and hardware for my bus build. Engine is 100% unmolested except for the plug wires chewed up from rodents. Still have the OE wing nut on the air cleaner even. I have a feeling with a battery and new plug wires, with some clean fuel, this thing would fire right up. But I sure like FREE FREE FREE big blocks. It's an 84 model with junk azz PissPort heads but it'll be a good transplant in the K1500/2500 project and what the intent for it is, and now I don't have to rob the 454 out of my 84 C20 so the C20 gets to live instead of being a donor.

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[SquareRoot]

"As an eBay Associate we earn from qualifying purchases." The Hells up with this?

I know what I'd do....

 

[YakkoWarner]

The trick to finding cheap Big Blocks, is be looking for old azz RV's that are vandalized or rotted away. Many of them are low mileage. Like this one I hauled off from the tow yard. Tow yards have to pay to get rid of RV's. They can't be scrapped and noone will buy them usually. I've had 2 RV's given to me. 1 gave to someone else I trusted that it would never be seen on the street again and it was a Ford powertrain they wanted, so I robbed some tanks and generator off of it, and gave it away. I got this one and still have it for the 43,000 mile 454 and Turbo 400 with the Park brake on the tailshaft. $200 Hadly train horns too and I'm robbing all the tanks, propane tank and lots of wiring and hardware for my bus build. Engine is 100% unmolested except for the plug wires chewed up from rodents. Still have the OE wing nut on the air cleaner even. I have a feeling with a battery and new plug wires, with some clean fuel, this thing would fire right up. But I sure like FREE FREE FREE big blocks. It's an 84 model with junk azz PissPort heads but it'll be a good transplant in the K1500/2500 project and what the intent for it is, and now I don't have to rob the 454 out of my 84 C20 so the C20 gets to live instead of being a donor.

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I see dead RV's with 454s for sale from time to time (and always thought that would be an decent way to get a lower-mileage 454 tailored for use in a truck instead of a car or boat), but my biggest question is what do you do with the rest of the hulk once you've salvaged out whatever is usable?

 

[Edelbrock]

I see dead RV's with 454s for sale from time to time (and always thought that would be an decent way to get a lower-mileage 454 tailored for use in a truck instead of a car or boat), but my biggest question is what do you do with the rest of the hulk once you've salvaged out whatever is usable?

That depends.... Is the paperwork in you name? If so, look for people wanting "free fill dirt". If not..... You fill in the blanks. Another resource is "tribal" landfills. They make their own laws, so they can literally do pretty much anything they want. I called my local tribal landfill the other day and asked them what they will not accept at their dump. He replied "we don't take food stamps, we accept anything and everything else". They accept refrigerators that have not been properly purged of Freon, random containers of various liquids, what ever you got - they will take. When I was there, I saw huge tractors crunching up huge boats and other random stuff like that. They take car batteries, CRT screens, and everything else - just throw it in, and pay your minimal fee on the way out. So you might be able to just "dump" the RV carcass for $35.

 

[bucket]

"As an eBay Associate we earn from qualifying purchases." The Hells up with this?

I know what I'd do....

It shows up now whenever someone posts a link to ebay or Amazon. I'm still not sure who the "Associate" is.

 

[bucket]

The trick to finding cheap Big Blocks, is be looking for old azz RV's that are vandalized or rotted away. Many of them are low mileage. Like this one I hauled off from the tow yard. Tow yards have to pay to get rid of RV's. They can't be scrapped and noone will buy them usually. I've had 2 RV's given to me. 1 gave to someone else I trusted that it would never be seen on the street again and it was a Ford powertrain they wanted, so I robbed some tanks and generator off of it, and gave it away. I got this one and still have it for the 43,000 mile 454 and Turbo 400 with the Park brake on the tailshaft. $200 Hadly train horns too and I'm robbing all the tanks, propane tank and lots of wiring and hardware for my bus build. Engine is 100% unmolested except for the plug wires chewed up from rodents. Still have the OE wing nut on the air cleaner even. I have a feeling with a battery and new plug wires, with some clean fuel, this thing would fire right up. But I sure like FREE FREE FREE big blocks. It's an 84 model with junk azz PissPort heads but it'll be a good transplant in the K1500/2500 project and what the intent for it is, and now I don't have to rob the 454 out of my 84 C20 so the C20 gets to live instead of being a donor.

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Here's the thing though, around here and my surrounding area, I cannot find any old RV's for cheap. Or really at all. I think the wood got soft in them long ago and they have mostly been disposed of already. Travel trailers too. Compared to the newer high dollar stuff, the older stuff just doesn't really exist.