The Mouse-Motor Page

Okay I finally got started on some stuff here. I have the original 283 but when I pulled the heads off I saw that it's been bored .30 over already, and since I think I might want to restore the elky when I get older, I didn't want to wear out the motor. So I decided to rebuild a 350 we had laying around. I tore it all apart and found that the bearing's have been replaced, and it has some nasty scarrs on one of the cylinder walls, but it hasn't been bored out already. I checked the numbers and they indicate a 1974 tur 350 2 bolt full-size. So I'm taking it tomorrow (11-6-00) to the machine shop. More updates on the way.

I got the motor back from the shop. It was bored out and moly honed so it's a 355 now. I got new pistons, rings (moly rings), bearings, refurbished rods, and a really nice lookin crank (It's supposed to be out of a warranty motor that was pulled...I hope it's ok). I also got a high volume oil pump, brass freeze plugs (for some reason I think they look really "cool")a timing chain, lifters, and of course a gasket set. All for about $675. This is my first motor so I don't know if thats a deal or not. More updates to come.

I got the motor put together this weekend. It wasn't as hard as I suspected. I also painted the block. Took lots of pics too (they'll be here soon I hope). I decided to go with a Edelbrock Performer Cam (PN 2102 I think). Still lookin for heads. Tryin to decide between a Edelbrock Torker (the origional) or a Performer RPM (I think I might need some extra midrange power with that powerglide). More updates on the way.

(Around 12-27-00)I found some heads. They're 85?- 97? 350 centerbolt heads. They seem to have 1.94 intakes. I took them into the shop and had them checked out. Seems someone didn't take very good care of their motor and the heads were all nicked up. The guy at the machine shop (Southwest Engines, Berdoo, California) said that something gets in one cylinder, tears it up a little, then finds its way through the intake into another cylinder and screws up everything there too. So that's why there was a bunch of messed up cylinders in a row. Anyways, I just had the basic rebuild, and a couple of valves had to be replaced. The guy said the seat couldn't be better. I ended up paying $176, not to bad I think. More to come.

(1-1-01--1-7-01)I got some stuff done. I put mostly the rest of the motor back together. I put the heads on, the cam and valve-train in, timing cover, oil pump, and oil pan. I also finally pushed the elky into the garage and painted the engine bay. Most of my film is developed I just need to get the pic's scanned. More later. (I really need a digital!)

(Around 1-20-01) The motor is in! Everything came together real well, all that needed done was a had to beat the crap out of the header to get them to fit *perfect* but that's all part of the fun, right? :o)

(Early February...) IT'S ALIVE!!! Finally fired it up today! At first I had some problems with a bad fuel pump, but a trip to the local Kragen fixed that... $12 for a stock one. It finally started up and ran pretty good.. even with the bunk carb. But I the headers started glowing red after about 2 minutes.. not good, so I shut it down... think the timing is waaaaayyyy too retarted.

Fixed the timing and started it up and broke in the cam. It runs good, wow, I actually did it.

(Early march) Put the front end on today. It's starting to look like a car now. It got doors too, and I also scraped off that gawl-awful purple tint on the back window. I'm concerned about water and white smoke coming out of the tailpipes. I also found some oily water when I checked my coolant. Uh oh. I'm thinking that the steam is just condensation (It's been cold lately) and the oil is just residual crap from the buildup. I really have to get crackin' on this thing... I get my licence on March 20th.

Okay, it was nice and warm today, I fired her up... no smoke... Yippee!!! And I flushed out the radiator a million times... no more oil!!! Wow, this is great. Still need seats and tires. Bummer.