My El Camino Engine swap

[GH85Carrera]

Another update:

My wife is tired of the cramped parking in the garage and "encouraged" me to "get that crap out of the way." I got the old engine off of the floor and on the engine stand so I can start disassembly. It makes it a lot easier when you know you don't have to worry about how to put it back together!

I got the oil pan off and the timing chain cover off. I rotated the engine on the stand to see how the innards look.



That is the crank on a 300,851 mile engine. Not too bad!

The oil pan had a little baked on crud but no real heavy sludge.



I want to get the heads off next. The heads have never been off of it since the factory put it together.

Once it is apart and I see how things look is will get loaded up and taken to the scrap yard. I may keep the cam as a souvenir

[GH85Carrera]

One other thing. I mentioned earlier in the thread my question about the dip stick holes. I took this picture of the two plugs that come with the engine. They are what is needed to plug the hole that is not used. For my setup the passenger side is the only possible choice so the bigger plug gets tapped into place.

[Playa76911S]

Cleen El Clam G. Theze look hella tite wit da Monty Carlo Super Spurt noze.

Did U ever find sum rimz U liked 4 it? Dat El Clam wood look dope wit sum chrome dub fo rimz.

[GH85Carrera]

There is a guy I see in town with 24 inch wheels on his Elky. It is so stupid looking it hurts my eyes. I will stick with my 14 inch rims.

[911boost]

Glen, what type of fuel injection did you put on this?

Thanks,

Bill

[GH85Carrera]

It is essentially a 1990 pickup truck throttle body system. In 1986 the V6 El Caminos came with TBI injection. For some reason the powers that be at GM decided the V8 305 should have a computer controlled carb. It was horrible. I was getting 8 to 12 MPG and if it was cold it would not idle, it hesitated all the time. It was scary to try to cross a busy intersection.

With the TBI system, it always starts and runs like a modern car. And the engine does not continue to run after the key is off. I often had to turn off the car while I was in gear just so the engine would die.

With the FI system my gas mileage is overall 17 and I get 21 on the highway. I am curious if the gas mileage with the 350 will go up or down.

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

One other thing. I mentioned earlier in the thread my question about the dip stick holes. I took this picture of the two plugs that come with the engine. They are what is needed to plug the hole that is not used. For my setup the passenger side is the only possible choice so the bigger plug gets tapped into place.

Cool to know...I had sleepless nights worrying about that.

[GH85Carrera]

I bet a Mustang engine would not come with those free plugs!

I am glad you can sleep now. I figure this thread will put a lot of people to sleep.

[GH85Carrera]

The heads are off of the old 305. The postmortem continues.

After 300,000 miles and all those years for the first time since leaving the factory the heads are off of the engine.



I really expected to see a lot more carbon buildup.



The old 305 would ping when it was cold and it had been doing that for the last 10 years. If I ran the medium grade of fuel the pinging would go away. On regular unleaded under high load and low RMP it would spark knock a lot.

I replaced the timing chain and sprocket back at 160,000 miles. The original was a fiber gear. I replaced it with a steel gear.



You can see some wear on that gear for sure.

[GH85Carrera]

This weekend I expect to get the cam out and the pistons and piston rods out and of course the crank. I will examine them and then pile everything on the trailer and haul it to the scrap yard to sell as scrap steel. It will be nice to get the engine stand, hoist and trailer back to the owner and start to clean up my garage. I will have to power wash the floor but that is pretty easy.

[EarlyPorsche]

That was a tired old engine but still had some life left in her. I am guessing you had some slop in that timing set that was hurting power a bit. Must be nice to have a new engine in a 1986.

[GH85Carrera]

I will hit 450 miles today. I will have the magic 500 miles this weekend. I will do an oil and filter change and start to explore the extra power some. I still have not exceeded 3,000 RPM.

I will wait untill at least 1,000 miles to do a full petal to the metal WOT run.

[masraum]

THere are some huge threads about not taking it too easy on a new engine during break in. I believe they are in the 911 tech forum. IIRC, the theory is that you vary the RPM from 25%<-->75% of max not using full throttle and not under high load (low gears, not high gears). But I think that's mostly for a short period after the initial cam break in.

Just something to think about.

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

+1 for not babying that engine. I'd drive the piss out of it after the initial break in, making sure there's equal pressure on both sides of the rings.

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

BTW, thats one of the cleanest 300K motors I've seen. You take good care of your stuff.

[willtel]

Originally Posted by Jared at Pelican Parts

+1 for not babying that engine. I'd drive the piss out of it after the initial break in, making sure there's equal pressure on both sides of the rings.

I've always flogged mine when new.

A friend of mine always puts Ford 427s in his hot rods and revs the snot out of them as soon as he verifies oil pressure. His moto is "if it is going to come apart I want it to come apart on the stand and not in the car."

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by Jared at Pelican Parts

BTW, thats one of the cleanest 300K motors I've seen. You take good care of your stuff.

Not that any of us have seen many 300,000 mile engines...I'm impressed. Who'd have thought it would do so well so long? Makes one wonder just how "superior" European engineering design really is?

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Not that any of us have seen many 300,000 mile engines...I'm impressed. Who'd have thought it would do so well so long? Makes one wonder just how "superior" European engineering design really is?

my BMW 320is had over 400K on the clock when it finally gave out. Could still see the cross hatching on the bores. Of course it's no Mustang

[RANDY P]

Originally Posted by willtel

I've always flogged mine when new.

A friend of mine always puts Ford 427s in his hot rods and revs the snot out of them as soon as he verifies oil pressure. His moto is "if it is going to come apart I want it to come apart on the stand and not in the car."

I always wondered why some people do that?

My buddy does the same thing: "EITHER IT'S GONNA GO OR IT'S GONNA BLOW!!!!"

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by Jared at Pelican Parts

my BMW 320is had over 400K on the clock when it finally gave out. Could still see the cross hatching on the bores. Of course it's no Mustang

And it looks like this engine could have gone another 100,000...Maybe it's just today's engineering regardless of origin? Of course, let's not talk of the Boxster engine problems.