Thread: Engine rebuild tips and help

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Thanks for getting back to me Glenn!

To start, there really isn’t a budget. I’m not really constrained here, but I obviously don’t want to shell out 10’s of thousands of dollars for a little small block. Ideally I’d like to just find a few options at different price ranges and see what I think is worth the money, or if you or anyone else has recommendations, I’m all ears! If I have to pick a number though, I feel like around 2k is enough. Just from what I’ve seen online at least. Heck it may even be overkill, I’m not sure to be honest.

Second, the casting number is 3932388. From what I’ve seen online, I believe that makes it a ‘69 model year.

The transmission is a turbo 350 automatic. I just had it rebuilt with a higher stall converter and a shift kit so it can handle a bigger cam.

I believe the read end ratio is a 2.7:1 or somewhere around there. That’s just from me rotating the tire and counting the driveshaft rotations, so I’m probably a little off.

I want to keep it streetable for sure, ultimately I’m just looking to go fast. I should also clarify, I should have said “peak” performance at around 5500 rpm. It probably won’t see it that often honesty. What I should have said is I would like a good power band from 1k - 4 or 5k. This will remain a street car, but obviously I’m here for as much power as I can reliably get. This car is strictly a weekend toy as well. I mostly drive it to shows and meets, but I’d love to start drag racing at my local track just for the fun of it.

As I mentioned before as well, the engine was completely rebuilt about 8 years ago, that’s when I got the car and put the 350 in it. Beforehand a friend of a friend had it in his truck. Once I got it, it was sent off to a machine shop, that’s where it was bored out a bit and got brand new pistons, rings, and rods. Unfortunately, it was 8 years ago and I was just learning about cars at the time and I don’t recall what size pistons are in it. I figured that it might make a difference for picking the right head though.

Ultimately I would rather not have to send the engine off to a builder, if at all possible at least. If that’s really the only smart way to do it, then so be it. I’d love to put in the time and effort to learn how to build these, and I’m ready to spend a pretty penny.

Thanks again for getting back to me, Glenn. I really appreciate your help so far.

-Vinny