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Posted by Ken [71.181.173.187] on Wednesday, January 06, 2010 at 19:18:58 :
In Reply to: Thinking about ring jobs posted by David Sherman [24.32.202.83] on Wednesday, January 06, 2010 at 14:03:21 :
Dave,
I did sort of what you suggested with my truck. I purchased an engine from a guy who was putting a 360 into an M37. I had the opportunity to run and drive the M37 prior to purchasing the engine.
I bought it, cleaned up the outside, painted it and put it in the truck. After driving it for 6 months to a year I decided to pull the engine and overhaul it. It smoked a bit and seemed to lack power, and had low compression in (2) cylinders.
The cylinders had only a small ridge I removed and then honed the cylinders. Numerous rings were broken and the piston grooves were badly worn. So I needed to replace the pistons, along with the rings.
I installed all new rod and main bearings, checking the clearances with plastigage. No crank grinding needed.
The valves were not worn very thin but I decided to get new valves. Part of the reason was that the valve guides were installed incorrectly, so I put in all new guides. I hand lapped the valves using bluing to check my lap job.
With all parts and gaskets coming from NAPA my cost was just over $800.00
Worked well for me.
I put myself through college in the early 70's working at an International Harvester truck dealership. It was not uncommon for a lot of local small business owners to bring a truck in and have us pull the head, drop the pan and drop in a single piston and rings in just one cylinder with low compression.
Ken