Original '69 350 Engine Rebuild

[Muellers69GMC]

I know how much this forum loves pictures and build threads so I thought I would start one on my engine rebuild. The motor is the original motor from my 1969 C2500. It has never been rebuilt, just regular maintenance items. The motor has over 133k miles on it. I started this because the motor was starting to show its age. It leaked a quite a bit and was lacking for pickup and responsiveness. I think I have added almost a whole oil change worth of oil in the last 2000 miles. Having the original engine means a lot to me and I didn't want to wait until something went out, so I decided to pull the motor and look at what I had.

Here's before pictures (yes, it has factory air but the compressor was locked and dry so I removed it for now):



And ready to be pulled:



Out of the truck:



The empty engine bay:



On the engine stand:

[Muellers69GMC]

Now for some disassembly pictures....

Accessories, water pump, and intake removed:



Left side cylinder head removed:



Uhmmm.....scary....lots of slack in the timing chain:



Closer view:



Bottom side:



Block casting number:



Head casting number:



Another head casting number:



Pistons, connecting rods, cam, and crank (yes I did pull out the cam with the sprocket attached, remember the chain slack):

[Muellers69GMC]

I am having the machine shop clean up the parts and check for cracks. I am going to decide what to do from there, but I am thinking that I'll build a 383 out of it. Make the engine appear stock by using the same heads, valve covers, intake, and carb.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the oil pretty clean (no sludge), just worn out exhaust valves and a bit of a piston lip. The bearings looked evenly worn. As mentioned the scariest part was when I took the timing cover off.

I am also going to have the tranny looked through and serviced as necessary.

Let me know what y'all think!

[sjarrett71]

Do you have pics of the valve side of the heads you can post?

[Muellers69GMC]

Originally Posted by sjarrett71

Do you have pics of the valve side of the heads you can post?

Unfortunately in my work to get this taken apart and to the machine shop I forgot to take a picture of the combustion chambers. I'll see if I can get one from the machine shop.

[Muellers69GMC]

Originally Posted by sjarrett71

Do you have pics of the valve side of the heads you can post?

I got an e-mail from the machinist today with pictures of the heads.

Looks like they have already cleaned 'em up a bit.