Thumbs down.

[Damon23]

Well, after taking the Camaro out to the cruise in yesterday I noticed the car running odd. It turns out the timing was set to far in advance. I forgot to tighten down the distributor last time I fooled with it. It is back at 8 btdc and the mixture screws according to the vacuum gauge and overall idle of car seems to be set. I even got the choke to work, the screw was too far backed out.

I was doing some checking of things since I have driven it a little over 200 miles since I last check the fluids and the car is burning oil. It was at the add a quart line. I figured I needed valve stem seals due to the blue smoke on start up but I doubt that amount of smoke equals a quart. Anyone ever have any luck with any of the snake oils out there? I guess I will nurse it along untill that fateful day. I have noticed some long blocks in the advertiser, one in particular for $1125. What does a standard, no hipo mod rebuild usually run?

[Radd]

i don't know what snake oils are? Did you check the compression on the cyclinders? Your motor can be fine just needs a little fittling to get it set correct. If you do the work yourself it can be cheap to swap the motor. id say basic rebuild of seals rings and bearings on your current motor it would cost about 300-500 bucks. pay someone to do it you will spend 3 times that amount

[SS2001]

I agree with the compression check. If your bottom end is good (rings), then you could pull the heads and have them re worked with a valve job, seals, etc. Shouldn't be too expensive, just a little labor intensive (bloody knuckles).
If you need the whole thing, for your car I would rebuild the original. I know an excellent engine builder if you need one. He did my motor and is and expert on Chevy performance engines. Good news is that would be a good time to bump up performance while keeping your original block and heads.
Since it will need rebuilding eventually anyway, I wouldn't worry too much about burning a little oil right now. Just monitor it closely.

[Damon23]

i don't know what snake oils are?

Stuff that you see in the autoparts stores that say they help with smoke, re-condition seals. Stuff from gumout, risoline, stp, any of that stop leak stuff.

[SS2001]

Stuff that you see in the autoparts stores that say they help with smoke, re-condition seals. Stuff from gumout, risoline, stp, any of that stop leak stuff.

Not worth the $$. Once seals are bad, they have to be replaced. If the smoke bothers you, use Mobil 1. It doesn't burn as bad as conventional oil.

[GTeater]

I would stay with the original motor also. It will help keep its value trimendously!!!

[coprunr]

hang onto the OE heads (which suck for perormance BTW) and put them in the garage for collectors value , and put some L31 Vortec heads on it with a matching intake. the L31 heads complete cost about what a good rebuild will cost on the stock heads .... and you will gain about 30hp in the process.....

[1badz]

the smoke on start up is usually valve guide or seal wear, but those heads should only have the useless little oring on the valve stem, with the age of the car wear should be expected lol. As far as rebuilding it would depend alot on wear, if it needs to be bored (quite likely) that would mean machine work and new pistons with rings. I would just let her ride for awhile, and I have seen restore work to lower oil consumption, but if it is valve guides i dont think it will help, I would not switch to a synthetic oil, it will most likely cause more problems, like no oil pressure due to a clogged pickup. You may want to call local machine shops to see how much they charge for machine work, tell them your plans of a mostly stock rebuild, and that it does smoke at start. most of them will be able to tell you an approximate cost (if they ask, you dont want it assembled) some will be able to give an idea on parts too. You will find that it might be better to park that engine in the corner of the garage, the only benefit is that it may be matching numbers other than that they were nothing to write home about in the late 70's. If you come across a good deal on an engine before the oil consumption gets extreme, great, if not take a look at gm crate engines, and check around for places that dont have core charges on reman units. I say gm crate engines for a reason, they arent cheap but they are pretty good units. An autozone reman probably wont go 100k, a gm probably will. they make several options too, maybe a nice zz383, lots of torque, but still reliable. If you use your intake and carb you will make a little less hp, but for a driver, to cruise with the a/c on (you have a/c right?) that would be ok, and be a pretty big improvement over stock.
http://www.sdparts.com/product/12498772/ZZ383425425HP383SmallBlockCrateEnginewithAluminumH eads.aspx
they make several others that are cheaper that are closer to stock too.
if you want a reliable standard 350, this is going to be just a little more than what you would probably spen if you needed to bore the block and get new pistons
http://www.sdparts.com/product/10067353/350GMGoodwrenchCrateEngine196985GMVehicles.aspx
these are just a couple of ideas to show the range of engines that could go in a daily driver, granted there are more choices , but these are 2 reliable engines that will last a long time if taken care of, if you dont change the oil ever nothing will live long lol
I think that you are more of the cruising type than the lets go to the track and run it type so I am not going to say get a bill mitc**** 427 small block or something crazy, but if you want crazy, an ls7 swap would look trick!

[SS2001]

I don't see how synthetic oil could cause a clogged pickup, or any other problems for that matter. All of today's oils are designed to be compatible. This is why you see synthetic blends. Unless you are using a high detergent oil, you would have no problems.

[Damon23]

Thanks for the reply 1badz. I appreciate you taking the time. When I decide to spend money on the motor I will just rebuild the one that is in it. I'm no racer. I just like to drive. I want to keep it as numbers matching as possible just for the fact that if I sell it I can make that claim. These cars ran good when they were new so that motor should be sufficient enough for me.

[Speedfreek]

Engine Restore works, but you will still get the smoke from start up from your seals being bad. It will help with the ring wear.

A complete engine rebuild will cost you around $900 if you do it yourself. This is including if you do all of the necessary block work.

[Damon23]

Yeah, problem is I cant do it myself. I dont know anything about rebuilding a engine. I would love to learn but I wont learn on my car without someone there. I'm going to call the person I bought the car from and see if I can get him to help. He told me the same $7-900 to do it with the kit and machine work. I'll pay him for his time but I want to be involved to learn.


On the other hand I put in a new coil, rotor, cap, plugs and wires today and wow what a difference. It fires right up and it really did'nt smoke as bad but maybe that has something to do with the lucas additive I put in. Whatever seal problem there is on coming from the drivers side rear cylinder. That plug was black and had a lot of oil on the threads and base of it. Steve, I will probably take you up on that timing light use. Let me know when you are available and have nothing better to do. I'll come over. Setting the timing wont take long I guess. Most of the time will be spent bs'in and looking over you new purchase.

[76zo6CAMARO]

I understand you wanting to keep the original engine in the car, but as 1badz said, todays crate engines are a great option with a warranty to boot. But in your case if the guy who sold you the car is willing to help out, sounds like you get the deal you want:cool:

[1badz]

Like i said, the price of machine work can add up quick, but I understand wanting to keep it original.

As for synthetic oils clogging pickups, work on cars for a living, you will see all kinds of things, Amsoil claims they make the best oil around, but I have worked on a car that was switched to amsoil at the first oil change (5k) at 22k it had no oil pressure, found the pickup clogged, but the rest of the engine was fairly clean. Anyway , a car that has had dino droppings in it from the say 70's putting synthetic in it will cause oil slicking due to the syn. oil and built up gunk from the oil oil not getting along, this tar like junk will get everywhere.

[SS2001]

Well, without getting into a long drawn out discussion except to say that unless an engine has preexisting gunk/residue build-up the oils are compatible and would not cause a problem. So I will respectfully disagree with you and leave it at that. BTW I've been working on cars for 24 yrs. :)

[1badz]

show me an engine from the 70's without any lol, and that isnt what this thread is about so well just have our own opinions and leave it at that.

[SS2001]

Its all good. You've got a point about those old motors (especially the late 70's emission motors). :cool: