Ok... i have a 355 that has been sitting for five maybe six years with no miles on the engine at all, and it wont turn over by hand... what is the best thing to do? (in your opinion)

 

I would pull the engine apart and relube all of the crank and cam bearing before trying to start it. I helped install a 355 in a friends car that had been sitting for four years and had never been run. We primed the oil system before starting the engine and it fired up great. After running it a while to break in the cam we started to hear some strange noises coming from inside and the oil pressure was dropping. We found out that the cam bearings were ruined and we had to replace the cam, lifters and bearings which meant pulling the engine back out and sending back to the machine shop. IIRC the shop said the assembly lube dried up after all that time. I'm not sure if that's true or if they were just trying to cover themselves, but either way the warranty was long gone after four years.

 

If it has never been run i'd be leery if it was assembled right? Are you sure?

I'd dump out whatever oil/sludge is in it. Refill with new oil.
I'd remove the distributor, and put in an oil pump priming tool, and spin that thing over. Get some oil through the engine.

Then i'd pull all the spark plugs, and squirt light oil into all the cylinders and let it sit for a few mins. Then finally, using a prybar on the flywheel, or a crank turning tool (NOT THE BALANCER BOLT!) rotate the engine over. Once you break it free, then put your plugs back in, and see if it'll fire up. Be ready with starter fluid, your fuel system is probably junk now too.

 

hahaha, they think the engine is still in the car. might want to check out those cam bearings.

 

Well ya know for starters when you cay by hand a SCB will be pretty tough to turn over especially if its got spark plugs installed. If you mean by hand and useing a long 2 foot ratchet on the crank or something and it wont turn thats a different story. Otherwise i highly doubt you'll be able to turn it over purely by hand as it takes quite a bit of muscle.

 

thats what i wanted to hear... i have this one guy that says to pull out the pistons and replace the rings.. didnt want to. ill be writing more later this week.

 

Trust me... if it hasnt turned over by now i need to do something... so i put some tranny fluid (light oil) down the sparkplug holes and am gonna wait till tomorrow to try again... Also. do you think i should try to turn it over using the starter or just by hand?

 

by hand, the initial load of the locked up engine on the starter can't be good on it.

 

I GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAAAAAAAAA.... i talked to my uncle last night, he is a chevy sb genius.. he said if the tranny is off then use the bumps on the block that guide the tranny on.. you put a 4 way on that and get a crobar or tire-iron.. even a big screwdriver would work. then you use the crobar as a lever on the flywheel.. it workd and now ive turned it twice over... 740 degrees

 

thanks for all the imputs and suggestions. i wanted to hear as many options as possible...

 

now we can start thinking about dropping it in

 

yep... im sooooo excited... lol

 

question..... ive timed a car before but im not sure on this one... is number one cylinder on the driver side or passenger side?

 

bump^^

 

#1 is driver's side
in fact. here's a link for reference.
http://boxwrench.net/specs/chevy_sb.htm

 

awwww so thoughtfull of you... lol jp. hows the cavy doing? clean i hope.

 

very clean, got an offer from a guy in chicago-ish? and they offered $650, I deliver. not loving the price, but I haven't turned it down either. have someone else interested too. we'll see what happens, cause I'm goin to look at the dsm thursday.