454 rebuild: complications already

[zac]

This engine has been sitting for 22 years since I pulled it out of my '74 Monte Carlo. I didn't have any history on it, and if I did I would have forgotten it by now. I pulled the heads off, breaking one bolt. Just by looking at the valves, they looked a lot better than I would have thought. Nothing obviously burned. This car had a little over 100K on it and ran fine when I pulled the engine. I was also surprised to find basically no ridge at the top of the cylinder. The one piston I have pulled basically popped right out. The pistons have no indication that they are oversized, and I have looked VERY closely. They all just have an "8" stamped on them about a quarter inch high. Seemed stock.

When I flipped the engine over to stamp numbers on the rods, I saw that it had already been done, a pretty obvious indication that someone had been in to it. None of the rod bearing showed any indication of being oversized, but they did look to my like 100K+ bearings. Mains 3-5 had no oversize indications, but 1 and 2 had "0006" stamped on them. I think I know what's going on here, but I don't want to say until I get some feedback from you guys. The timing chain was very loose with the stock aluminum/nylon gear that was in surprising good condition. The crank gear was cracked with a tooth missing and indications it was poorly installed. The lifters popped right out with no sign of mushrooming.

My wild guess is that this engine had rings, a cam and valve job done at some point, but the bearings weren't touched for some reason.

I do not have a micrometer/snap gauge for this size bore. I'm thinking it is stock. I am mainly interested right now in what people think of the "0006" on the mains. Unfortunately, because of a massive hours cut at work, this project has to be low buck. If it gets to where I can't do a stock rebuild without lots of parts and machine work, I'll have to shelve it.