Jartanyon

Earlier this year, I began work on rebuilding my very tired L48 on my 78. I received a lot of guidance and help from great people on this forum and I wanted to share the photos of the build as a thank you to everyone's help. My goal was to keep the same block and stock color and look, but with a few improvements. I also tried keeping a smaller budget than most builds. Keyword tried because I went over, but not buy that much.


This was the candidate car:



After the brake job and a little driving, I realized this ~195HP thing wasn't going to work out too well for me. This is what I had to work with:




My new & freshly painted valve covers just didn't add the HP I was looking for :




Next, I tried recurve and dual exhaust along with a carb rebuild. Was much better, but as we all know, there is always a need for more speed!




BP Blaster on rusted parts goes a long way…time to dismantle and pull:




This thing looked every bit of 35 years old and then some:












Since the engine was out, I figured why not work on the front suspension along with everything else:





Cleaned up and media blasted. time for a fresh powder coat. Drilling the ball joint rivets out were just as everyone described…a real pain in the @$$!!!:





Block back from the machinist:








ALL DONE!!!! Time to go back in.





…and then after a few minor set backs (bad new fuel hose, throttle cable and dizzy off 180 degrees, just to name a few)

bluedawg

Hell yeah. So can you share the details of the build?

claysmoker

Lookin' good!

Lotsa freakin' work in that!

hugie82

Nice clean build. Great job!

Jartanyon

Thanks everyone.

Here are a few specs:

- Stock 350 short block, crank and pistons.
- New rings, polished crank, honed, new cam bearings, new mains.
- XE262 cam kit with lifters, springs and double chain
- AFR 180 aluminum heads
- Summit Stage Two intake
- Comp 1.5 full aluminum roller rockers
- Fel Pro 1094 for a .040 quench with 9.6:1 compression

Suspension:
- Bilstein HD's
- New springs
- New bushings
- New hardware
- New Moog ball joints

There has been a TON of work done to this thing in the last two years. Drove it for a bit in the beginning, but have the rear end out right now because it was squirrelly when punching it (trailing arm and strut rod bushings shot). While it is out, it is getting a 3.73 gear and a 700r4 tranny. Then it is dyne time!

claysmoker

Did you change the rockers? Those are stamped steel rollers in the pics.

jb78L-82

So how much did it cost for the engine components and any labor that was not yours? Trying to compare what it cost me to do my 78 L-82 "355" now with new JE Forged 9:1 pistons/rings, boring, Howards Roller Cam, AFR 180 64 CC heads, Felpro 1094 .015 gasket, All new bearings, Reconditioning the L-82/LT-1 rods, polishing forged crank, Everything balanced including clutch,new oil pump. new fuel pump,New motor mounts, New ram Clutch kit etc- $6K Everything was replaced except the L-82 intake, Holley 4175 650 CFM Q jet replacement carb, McJacks shorty headers, and distributor. I had the bottom end professionally built and I did everything from the cam up and clutch. Removed and installed as well.

Jartanyon

Yes, the first set was crap and wore really bad. Sent them back after consulting with the forum and picked up aluminum rollers…much better…


@ jb78L-82 - all in all, it was $4280, but that includes $400 of machining work (kinda got robbed on that) as well as front suspension parts, powder coating, etc. If I had to guess, I would say I was around $3000 (give or take a few hundred) for the engine rebuild.

bluedawg

That should be 400 horse at the crank. You should real happy with the new found power. Add the 700 and new rear gear and you'll be needing tires on a regular basis. Congratulations on the build and let us know what she dynos at. You plan on hitting the strip any?

jb78L-82

Good Deal

Flyinace3

Very nice nice seeing the before and after with the improvements

Jartanyon

I can live with that.

Maybe next year on the strip - I'd like to get it dyno tuned and fix a few other things first.

bluedawg

Did you find a set of 2.5'' rams horns? I still stand my ground that a set of 1 5/8'' headers would complete you set up.

RATT7

Looks good.

Jartanyon

Yes, the manifolds on the finished photo are the 2.5" - I was just having trouble getting the drop down pipes made. I have no doubt the headers would be nice and add power, I just don't want them in the car for other reasons. Maybe down the road…

Kid Vette

Very nicely done!

Richard Cooper

Great job!!

bluedawg

the 2.5" should flow better than stock. Not that I wasn't intereseted in your dyno results, but this makes me 3 times more interested in them considering I remeber your original post on your engine and how the rest of us try'd talking you in to long tubes.

claysmoker

$400 in block work doesn't sound bad. Did that include reworking the crank and rods? I can see it wasn't decked, so if they only did a hone for $400, that's a little stiff.

Jartanyon

Thanks everyone - I appreciate the comments!

@ bluedawg - no worries. I figured this would spark up some of those old discussions. I am interested in the results as well. I spent about a week not only port matching those manifolds to the heads, but I also ported the inside out very well to get them to flow better. Should be interesting.

@ claysmoker - The machinist originally quoted me $350 to clean the block, hone, polish the crank, new plugs, new mains and new cam bearings, clean pistons and new rings. I thought that was a great deal! When I went to pick it up, he did everything except flush out the water passages, cam bearings, piston grooves and rings and we were now at $405. Instead of arguing with him, I just paid him. He did a great job on everything else, just wasn't true to his word with the original work and cost. Nice guy, though.