required tools

[78chev2bnice]

Im thinkin about doing a rebuild on my 75 chev 350. I was wondering what kind of specialty tools may be required or helpful that im not aware of, besides wrenches, torque wrench, feeler gauges, camshaft installation tool, timing light, etc...  This will be my first kick at doing something that requires precision work so any advice will be appreciated.

[Lt.Del]

you having the block done by someone else?  magnafluxed and bored, or, are you gonna hone it out?

Ring compressor so you can slide the pistons in w/ rings with little hassle.
I used rubber tubes to put around rod bolts when sliding rods/pisons down into cylinders so wont scratch cylinder walls.
crank shaft pulley puller
cylinder honer if you arent' magnafluxing or boring. They attach to your drill to get carbon rim off cylinder wall.

[78chev2bnice]

Is it necessary to change the camshaft bearings?  I was told that they don't usually go bad.  Ya i was just going to hone the cylinders myself.

[Blazin]

Cam bearings are not a big wear item, but they do wear. The big thing is the grime and crud that is in the oil galleys behind them. I would not waste the money rebuilding if your not going to change them. You need a tool to do so but they are not hard to change. Or you could have the machine shop do it when they clean and check out your block.

[bigkountry]

Last time I had a blocked bored, hot tanked and magnafluxed I had the shop put in the new cam bearings. They charged me $20 to put them in.

What everyone else has said is pretty much the normal stuff you will need.

I know many people don't use them, but I always use a pre-oiler before initial start up. The kind you put where the distributor goes, or you can make one out of an old distributor.

[Stewart G Griffin]

Actually, if i could ask a related question:

i've always wondered when putting the harmonic balancer back on the crank, how do you know when it's on all the way?


As far as advice, i can't give too much as i am not an "engine person;"  i'm more of a plug and play type person---i would just as soon buy a crate 350 instead of rebuilding one:

but
1) try to have a clean working area

2) there are a few good books on the subject, one of them is by David Vizard.  The others, i will try to find a link.

[VileZambonie]

The balancer bottoms out when it's all the way on on the crank gear.

[Stewart G Griffin]

The thing is, when installing a balancer, it is usually a slow process and therefore it's difficult, at least for me, to determine when it has stopped moving inwards;  i admit that the one time i installed a balancer, i heated it up in the oven and banged it on with a mallet.  i know this probably isn't the best way to do it, but for some reason or another at the time i did not want to buy/use an installer tool.

i guess if you are using an installation tool, you could visually see it stop moving as well as not being able to turn the tool any further?

[VileZambonie]

Yep and they're cheap enough http://www.toolhawker.com/Harmonic-Balancer-Installer_item_30396.html