New Member Intro-'36 Standard

[trbomax]

You say that's forty plus years of rust you have there, will the engine turn over?

  Yeah,he needs to just ditch it and get a big block!

[Chucks36]

Im hoping to save it.  Maybe one of you guys can help me out with this one.....the balancer does not have a 5/8 bolt at the end of it to turn.  Any thoughts on how to turn it over by hand.  Looks like the end of the crankshaft is not threaded for one either.

[trbomax]

Take 2 of the flywheel bolts out and replace them with some that are 2" long.Stack washers under the heads so that they tighten down.put a piece of pipe or a concrete bar between the bolts and turn it GENTLY,maybe rocking it back and forth.I would pull the plugs and give each cyl a good shot of penetrant.If it were me,I would also remove all the rockers first in case there are any stuck valves. As you remove the rockers,wire the balls and rockers together.Each ball and rocker must be kept together if you plan on re useing them.The pushrods must also be kept in order so they may be reinstalled ONLY on the rocker that they were on.New pushrods may be used on used rockers. Do not turn the motor upside down untill you remove the lifters and tag each one from front to back,left and right.Lifters and respective cam lobes must also be kept together too.If they fall out of the lifter bores and you loose track of where they came from,the lifters and cam cannot be reused togther.You CAN put new lifters on a good used cam however.

[ghost28]

Im hoping to save it.  Maybe one of you guys can help me out with this one.....the balancer does not have a 5/8 bolt at the end of it to turn.  Any thoughts on how to turn it over by hand.  Looks like the end of the crankshaft is not threaded for one either.

Yeah the pit falls of an early small block. The balancers were pressed on and if you are going to reuse the engine you might want to think about threading the crank for locking down the balancer.

[trbomax]

  One more thing,You can do the long bolts and washer stack thing on the balacer hub too,but if you slip off or what ever you could bang the balacer ring ang change its relitive position to the hub. These are only pressed together and if they are old or the rubber is a bit rotten they are easy to dislodge.On the other hand if the rubber looks old,cracked and rotten you should throw the balacer away anyhow and get a new one.If you do that you should rebalance the whole motor because the motor is finish balanced at the factort by drilling the balancer.If you are replaceing pistons it will need to be rebalanced to so maybe it doesnt matter.Proper engine building can be a nightmare if only 1 step is skipped.

[EDNY]

You should be able to use a pry bar on the teeth of the flywheel against those two large engine studs, but at least remove the spark plugs and loosen the rockers arms..and oil it up good & let it set before turning. You might need to turn the flywheel back and forth.

I see PowerPac heads...run any of the numbers on the engine?

[Chucks36]

I need to find another engine stand first. right now it is sitting on a tire on the floor of the garage.  But yes I did run the numbers on this motor in it is a late '58 to '59.  On my budget for this build, I may end up selling the motor and find a running 350 somewhere.  Again, I need to pop off the heads and sell what everything looks like.  It appears to have the original starter, carb, dizzy and water pump.  So maybe the is an Elky owner looking for an all original 283 somewhere....and I may get lucky.

[Chucks36]

Back to the VIN's.  I came across a vin that reads    5FC-40-xxxxx.  It is my under stand that the numbers in the middle portion of the VIN represent the month of manufacture.  Is it possible to have "40" as a month?  Would it not look something like this.....

Jan    01
Feb    02
Mar    03
Sept   09
Dec    12

Chuck

[62131]

Chuck36
Where are you located, I have a buddy who has a running 283 that he is going to scrap, he thinks nobody would want it, I can probably talk him out of it if your interested. 

[Chucks36]

I'm in Connecticut....and I can certainly use it

[ghost28]

I need to find another engine stand first. right now it is sitting on a tire on the floor of the garage.  But yes I did run the numbers on this motor in it is a late '58 to '59.  On my budget for this build, I may end up selling the motor and find a running 350 somewhere.  Again, I need to pop off the heads and sell what everything looks like.  It appears to have the original starter, carb, dizzy and water pump.  So maybe the is an Elky owner looking for an all original 283 somewhere....and I may get lucky.

good luck on your engine search, and it would be nice to use the 283 if you can...John

[Chucks36]

Another update....

With the body off the frame, the frame has been sand blasted, mostly painted and I am in the process of installing my Fatman MII kits, Chassis Engineering rear end kits and my Chassis Engineering tranny and motor mounts.

[chopper526]

Hey Chuck, that frame looks real nice and it sounds like you are going state of the art.
How did you make out with the engine?

[Chucks36]

Engine was frozen.....I ended up selling it to a guy who wanted a matching 283 for his '59 Apache.  Ironically enough I bought back a running 283 which can out of my '59 apache which I sold to a friend for his '57 Chevy Truck about 3 years ago.  He never got around to installing it and has been sitting on his engine stand.  MY '59 Apache currently has a 383 in her.......




And here is the 283 I am planning on putting in the coupe...

[sixball]

Nice work! I wish my frame was derusted and ready to go. I'm not a big small block fan, though I have 4 vehicles with 350s, But I make an exception for 283s and 327s. I can't explain it.