Finally pretty much tore the engine down completely due to what sounded like a rod knock. I'll let the pics speak for themselves. In the meantime. Can anyone suggest or point me in the right direction for a complete rebuild kit? Not looking to build a powerhouse or anything fancy.

 

Go to the parts store and buy a "remanufactured" crank shaft, buy a summit rebuild kit and throw it together IF you are trying to go on the elcheepo. If not... the options are endless.

 

Agreed. The crank journal in that top pic is TOAST. That is definitely the rod knock you are hearing.

Rebuild what you got with a new crank or buy a whole new (remanufactured) short block. Your choice.

 

Looks like it got starved of oil.

 

Yeah I figured it was a goner.

jermdm, it never ever ran out of oil. The car sat for 10 years solid before I got it. Redid the fuel system and drove around with a bad cat for a few days and didn't know it. It was getting hot fast and couldn't figure out why, then overfilled the crankcase and was getting hot fast again. So it's taken a beating for sure. It always had a bad knock on start up.

I also snapped a pic of the cam, why does it look like this on the surfaces?

 

As the engine, it looks like it spun a bearing after a while, which causes a total loss of oiling as all the crap plugs up the oil clearance. The block is probably ok, but Id toss the rotating assembly and rebuild it. Goes without saying that the block should be stripped, inspected, machined, and all passages be cleaned to get all the metal out and get it ready for the next go around.

 

For the cam, are the marks at regular intervals across the lobes? If the rollers feel ok and arent sloppy or binding, then its likey due to too much lash. Ive found that when they have room to move around, they skip across the lobes like that, making an annoying light tap that comes at regular RPM intervals as the engine speed increases.

In your case, though, its much more likey to be a bad spot in the race thats causing the roller to lock up.

 

A normally no cost organizer for the piston/rod assemblies is you know the hard plastic cases that 2LT pop bottles come in.They hold 8 bottles in one case and are good to go for most 4" or larger pistons.You can paint stick them right side/left side on the front of the case with 1/3/5/7 and 2/4/6/8 one each hole.The plastic case wouldn't scratch your pistons either.So the case can hold your assemblies while you put on the rings on each piston as a example.And if you ask your local grocery store nice,they will give you the case for free which is the best part.

 

From the looks of that cyl wall may need a little more love. I wouldnt put a crank kit in then put it back together. All gotta come apart sorry.

 

Actually , although it technically didn't "run out" of oil , jermdm may very well be correct in his statement that it looked like it "Starved" for oil !

When you said you overfilled the crankcase , that right there is the cause of the oil starvation . As we all know , when you overfill the crankcase , the crankshaft whips up all the extra too much oil into a nasty foam that does not lubricate like non foamed oil does . The air trapped within the foam is where you end up with metal on metal rather than the nice smooth engine saving oil film on the moving parts . The oil pump don't do too good a job of pumping this airbound foam either .

The net result is you end up with an engine that looks like it ran without oil , cause , essentially , IT DID !

 

Thanks for clearing that up init4fun. I'm still fairly new to the whole engine building scene so it's different for me. But that makes complete since.

I plan on taking the cam and crank out and sending it to the machine shop. Are there any services you guys would advise I do? Like sonic testing, I saw something about line honing.
I'm thinking they'd check the walls and the block for cracks, pin holes and then tank it, hone it and install cam bearings and freeze plugs.

 

You can have the short block rebuilt for 1,000 to 1800$ but maybe look at a new GM 96 vortec truck 350 short blocks.
I paid 1100$ for mine many years ago. Im sure they are more now tho.