Obviously none of us are there to check out the engine...but....not one of you have taken a main cap from another block and simply bolted into another block for a daily driver? It's been done many times on low budget rust bucket beaters for getting another 6 months of use
He pulled the pan on the thing because it sounded bad. It must have sounded pretty bad, 'cause pulling the pan ain't no joy. And finds more crap. Give it up. This motor needs help. Do the right thing and get it right.
Donnie Pelzer (just south of the Atlantic area) taught me a bunch of shit in the '70's. Great guy if it's the same dude. Saved my ass more than once. SPark
I should have mentioned earlier, it is safe to say that 1 out of 4 main caps you try stand a very good chance of being acceptable for the replacement. Good chance even 2 or 3 is all you would even need to try. I didnt want to sound earlier like you need a large box full of caps to maybe find one to fit. Even a small shop that does only 2 or 3 billet cap conversions a year, over 10 years, 3 center mains, that a box of 60-90 caps alone, so its very easy to see why a good shop would have a box of main caps. This is where the good machinist comes into play. I hope you get things worked out, and like the other HAMBers have said, please go through this whole engine. They have all given EXCELLENT advice there.
x2 TR... It's not unusual to have bad mains on an SBC, especially if they were assembled wrong to begin with. A close matching main cap can be honed with the rest of the mains to make a snug fit. Align hone is relatively inexpensive. If you put the engine together yourself you've saved a 6-8 hundred dollar assembly charge from a NEW engine builder/machinist. To be extra sure you can have a machinist "pin" the caps as extra insurance to keep them from walking. Probably will cost another 100 bucks, but if you get 100k out of the motor you are money ahead.
no piece of the cap or the bolt in the pan? it didnt just vanish. did anyone ask which cap? was it the front 2 bolt cap? are there 3 bolts in that cap still?
I didn't ask him which cap it was. It is definately one with 4 bolts and there are still 3 bolts left in it. And the broken piece and bolt was not in the oil pan. Although we did find a very nice steel pin about 3/8" long by 1/8" diameter....
A "fresh rebuild" that looks like it's got 200K miles on it, and pulled the pan because it was making noise? Three gaskets on the fuel pump, and silicone oozing out everywhere? Loose pin laying in the oil pan, and part of a main cap missing in action? Sounds to me like an impact wrench person (I refuse to call this one a mechanic) did some crude surgery on this one, and bolted it back together with used gaskets and several tubes of sealant. I'd be stripping this one down to the bone and checking the rest of it out. Fixable, but you could probably buy a replacement for less. Buy a rusted hulk $600 Caprice or Impala, remove the engine, take the rest to the crusher and get half your money back. I just took a quick look on Kansas City Craigslist, theres a few 350's for sale, one complete with water pump, alternator and power steering pump for $375. I don't know where you are in Ohio, but a Craigslist look there shows a 36,000 mile runner 350 for one dollar per cubic inch in Adena.
i like how everyone thinks align honing the block he allready has is a good idea, when the shop that built it broke a cap, installed it and let it go out the door. You think they actually bored or honed the block parallel with the crank cl or gave it the correct rms hone? noooo! Junk it, get a good block that you know the history of and start over, reuse whats good in the engine, if anything or buy a crate engine if you dont want the hassel or know how to do these things.
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