[99 to Life]

On to the engine, I'll spare every last step, but at the same time, I see alot of builds online and they skip alot of important building steps that newbies should know. Heck I'm still learning, but every engine I build is gonna be different and better than the one prior. I originally wasn't planning on using this roller vortec block because of the costs involved compared to a flattappet build. The more I realized it, I'm happy I went this route. I still got quite a bit of money in this, but at the same time is a very thrifty build. I saved some money by keeping it non bored, kept the original rods and pistons (pistons were a tough decision because of compression ratio) so I have to run a very thin head gasket to have the proper quench and target static compression ratio. Next engine I'm doing and gonna plop in my 51' I'm doing vortec full roller, with 6" rods.

So anyway, got it tore down, pistons were a mess, spent hours cleaning them and again, kinda kicked myself for using them because of CR, cleaning them and the $32 a piece head gaskets I had to buy. Here is just one of a few budget builds online http://www.popularhotrodding.com/eng..._manifold.html

So after I tore down the block and made sure everything looked good, I moved onto the heads. Got 7/16 screw in studs, a self aligning tool and tapped all studs. Since I'm running 1.6 roller self aligning rockers, I bored out the pushrod holes with .5" drillbit.