My Bu's "Re"Build Thread

I never figured I'd be doing a build thread but, I thought some of you guys might enjoy this. So here goes.
Some of you may know that last year I had a little "help" in spinning a bearing in my 400. The motor is still in the car as of now, so I'm not 100% sure as to the exact source of the slight knocking. Anyway instead of rebuilding the 400, I decided to build one of the 350's I have. This one is one-piece rear main seal engine and is roller cam capable. This will be one of the cheapest builds you will see. Call it a hack job if you want, it won't bother me. 😀

The goal will be to get the Malibu back up and running before my daughter decides to enter this world. Her due date is May 3rd. I never got to bring my son home in my hot rod, but hopefully my daughters first ride will be in a blown bu.

By the way, I don't have a garage. The engine is being built on my back porch and if need be will be installed in my stone driveway. I will add details of the engine as I post pics of the progression. Any comments are welcome as well as any questions. On with the pics!

Here is the new bullet in all her horrible glory:




Another project I will be tackling is a dressed up front end for the bu. Nothing major just a different grill, mostly. I will post pics of this process here as well.
Grill and headlight bezels starting point:

Here's a little update. I got the motor torn down to the bare block, cleaned it a bit and painted it. Can't seem to find my cylinder hone, but once I do, I will begin the assembly of the short block. If I can remember I will pick up a plug to replace the knock sensor. Here's some pics.






And I figured I throw in a shot of the engine bay in it's current state. That is the 400 this 350 will be replacing.

Thanks Blake! It's definetly not the way I wanted to do it but. The worst part is not having any money to buy the few remaining parts I need(just had to go with a roller cam), that will prolly slow me down more than anything. I'll be posting as many pics as I can too.

Okay, so I got the cam and crank in. Plastiguaged the crank, they were all close enough,lol. Really they were all within tolerance. Got the wrong rod bearings so I had to run back and get the right ones, they gave me .010 under when I need standard .



Did some more work on the grill too. Here's a shot of it after I cut the center out. I used some epoxy to strengthen some weak spots, and then painted the center.



Then I used more epoxy to install the new aluminum mesh. I've done this before on my Elky, but it had a flat grill(4 headlight set up) and this one has a v shape to it, so I;m not entirely sure how it will look but...
Still need to prep and paint the outside.

Pat, the filter adapter is not in the block yet. Never heard anything about plugging any holes, but I'm not to worried about pressure, I'll have enough. And was getting around 6lbs of boost on that motor. Possibly expecting more on the new smaller motor.

Uneek- thanks for the compliment and motovation.

This isn't the first time I havent had a garage, that was more of just a mini-rant, lol. Hell last summer when I had to replace a broken piston, I did it in the driveway. I even dropped the pan, pulled the head, and swapped the piston with the motor hanging from the hoist, that was a pain in the *ss.

Another little up date, got the grill and headlight bezels finished and installed. Now I need to stop playing and get back to the motor, lol. And here's the pics.

Bezels before:



Added the mesh:



Shot of the front end before:




Then I painted everything and installed them:




And yes I will get the front plate holder fixed up. Just not sure if I will mess with it before or after the bumper tuck.