it was truly a labor of love
I bought an identical serviceable used 5.7 from the junkyard. I then stripped it down to the bare block and sent it to a machine shop for cleaning and boring out to .060 over. He also turned and trued the crank and supplied the appropriate main bearings. I then wire brushed and tapped every nut and bolt that came off the motor. The heads were crap so I bought another set for $100 and had the machine shop go through them and put in new valves and springs.
Then it was just a matter of buying 60 over pistons and rings from Summitt and a trailer towing cam and a beefy oil pump from Jegs. All the gaskets, sealers and lubes were bought from NAPA. The gaskets were from a complete overhaul kit. The Haines manual for that truck gives you an excellent complete overhaul step by. I also have a cousin who builds racing engines who gave me lots of real time advice over the phone.
I used a tap set to cleanout all the bolt hole threads in the block.
I laid down heavy plastic in my den and setup the rebuild stand. Yes, I am single and did not have to ask anyone. (g) That was to insure a dust free environment. It took 3 months to do it a little at a time. A lot of study before each step of the project to make sure I knew and understood each step was important. I was in no hurry and wanted it to be right when I turned the key.
I took a lot of ribbing from visitors until I set out the headers next to the project. Then the comments changed to "Wow! A racing engine. What are you going to put that in?"
After 3 months of patient building, I installed it in the truck and it cranked on the first compression stroke.
Total cost: $2100 including the bigazz torque wrench I had to buy.
BT
AI
