MALIBU The Sunken Ship Build Thread!

[Ribbedroof]

Biggest worry on a Gen II is the crank. My Corvette had been through 7 owners and 118K before the 19 year old (#7) killed the crank...then ran it until there was 1/8" gone from the rod journal. "I hear you knocking!"

Bore was fine, not even a hint of a ridge. Stuck new std Mahle (found a deal-of-the-century set on ebay) pistons in it and cleaned everything else, 350 crank and a balance job. Ran very well, Owner #10 contacted me and wanted to know what all I had done to the engine. Didn't believe me when I told him it was all OE-spec with a balance. Said it ran too strong to be stock.

I've been casually looking for a decent LT1 shortblock, found a couple fresh from machine shop deals, but they have the full skirt pistons (generic 350) and no balancing done. No thanks, the OE pistons are a lot lighter than the skirted stuff, bound to be an issue down the line.

 

[LT1B-Body]

I actually have a 93' LT1 short block in good nick. If the crankshaft is toast then I'll use my other good one.
Due to the design of the engine, the LT1s are known for not wearing the bores. The one in my 96' caprice has 266k miles on it, and the bores still have faint cross hatch patterns!

 

[LT1B-Body]

Some updates on the LT1.
I got it partly stripped down, and cleaned (only) the block and heads, since the rest of the parts are getting removed at some point.

I took the oil pan off and inspected some of the bearings,

It had oil in it! What an interesting idea!

This is what all the rod bearings looked like.

This is a main bearing.

And so is this.

It all looks pretty good to me, and I don't have a picture but from underneath the cylinders looked very good and still had cross hatching.

 

[Texas82GP]

Looks familiar.....

That's my Roadmaster at the end of January of 2020. Hollar if you have any trouble finding obscure emissions hoses or the like.