Motive power

So I've finally made a start on doing some proper work. A couple of months back I picked up a pair of Chevy 283 V8s for rebuild for the bargainous sum of £200 the pair, plus the cost getting them trucked over to co-conspirator Tim's garage. I'd forgotten to bring anything useful like rags and cleaning agents, but had ordered a sturdy engine stand, torque wrench and socket set from Machine Mart so we could get on with tearing the engines down.

First the good news. Both engines showed very little wear. Bores were useable on both lumps, and there was only a bit of crankshaft scoring on one crank. With a polish, and rings and shells, both lumps looked like they could be running well again soon.

But it's fair to say that we discovered why they were such bargains. The first '283', um, wasn't. As we got it apart and started checking casting numbers it turned out to be a cast crank 307 cube engine, which is largely seen as useless for serious performance as it combines the longer stroke of the 327 with the small bore of the 283. And since we want to put a big squirt of nitrous into our engine, the cast crank wasn't ideal. Still, it is in good nick and could get us on the track if money gets tight. The second engine was a 283, with the forged crank we were hoping for. And it appears, forged rods, seven of which appeared good. I've no idea how one rod ended up looking like this: