Bad news from the machine shop...

TheUser

Active Member
Jul 25, 2003
1,859
1
36
Springfield, MO
Took the block, heads, and crank to the machine shop earlier this week and expected to get it back today. I called to see if it was done and he said no and that he wanted me to come up there and look at the block. There are 2 or 3 cyclinders that have bad places in them. They kinda have a little texture to them and are brown. Anyway, I think I'd pretty much have to bore it. It's already a 306, so I'd have to go to a 308. Not that big of a deal except I'd need new pistons and this is already costing more than I anticipated.

He said they charge $12 per cyclinder to bore, so that's $96. Then I'd have to buy some new pistons, which forged pistons appear to be $300-400 and then all the other junk would be close to $1000 total.

Given that, I'm thinking about just aborting mission and trying to sell the car, and all the excess engine parts (heads, cam, intake, etc).

What do you guys think I should do?

I really would probably end up selling the car later on anyway unless something happens to the LX - don't really need 3 vehicles.

I'm just frusterated and tired of dumping money into this POS. It's a losing proposition any way I go.:bang:
 
a "new" block? No..summit has them for around $500. Either way I go, I have .030 over pistons, so If I got a 302 block, I'd still have to bore it to accept my pistons, which wouldn't be much cheaper than boring the block I have and getting new pistons...probably save $100. I see blocks on car-part.com for $200-ish, but they're all far from me.

I could get an explorer engine for around $800 at a salvage yard w/ 38k, but it's 175 miles away.

Decisions like this suck!
 
TheUser said:
a "new" block? No..summit has them for around $500. Either way I go, I have .030 over pistons, so If I got a 302 block, I'd still have to bore it to accept my pistons, which wouldn't be much cheaper than boring the block I have and getting new pistons...probably save $100. I see blocks on car-part.com for $200-ish, but they're all far from me.

I could get an explorer engine for around $800 at a salvage yard w/ 38k, but it's 175 miles away.

Decisions like this suck!


by new... I meant.. new to you.

302 blocks are EVERYwhere

you can pick them up for about 100 bucks at almost any JY... then spend the extra 96 bucks or whatever on the bore and Whala... you are back in the game for just 200 bucks.
 
I called around and found one JY that may have a block for $75. He's supposed to call back. I have a bunch more to call, but I'm waiting for him to call back.

I don't really want to sell it, but I've driven it like 300 miles in 3 years, so I wouldn't miss it too much. I'd miss having something to work on...it's always in need of something.

If this guy doesn't call back in half an hour, I'm calling him back. If I could pick it up and get it to the machine shop today before they close, that would be awesome.
 
at least your bad news was better than my bad news... i had my block bored and honed .030 over and reassembled... didnt have the money to finish it.. by the time i did, i took the shortblock to another machine shop for a once over... they found it was underbored by 4 thousandths.. they had to dissasemble it, re-hone it, and thats when they noticed that my stock crank looked like swiss cheese.. the other machine shop tried balancing it while they were drunk one night i guess... that meant not only paying for dissasembly, re-honing, and reassembly, but i got a forged crank and forged rods to go with it.. oh, and dont forget the re-balancing charge as well. :nonono:
 
Dang, that scares me now. Now I'll have a hard time trusting the machine shop to bore it correctly.:bang:

That guy does have a block that they gotta pull out of a Lincoln Monday...$75.

Could be worse, I know. Hopefully I can find someone who's looking for a block to bore out to a 308 or something and pawn my old block off on them to replace my $75.
 
Yep, Rick, that's what I'm doing as long as the other block isn't cracked.

I think the $96 is just for the boring, so probably $30 more for honing. At least I won't have to buy new pistons and bore.

Thanks for the sounding board guys.:SNSign:
 
Picked up my block yesterday...they cleaned one up and it ended up being bad, so they had to clean another one and bore it.

Anyway, after getting it home and on the stand, I realized that the spider would not bolt down...there are no holes tapped for the spyder. I noticed it was different at the shop because it didn't say XXX or YYY and it says 5.0 in the lifter valley and my stock block didn't. Either way, this block has a casting number of E7TE-CA. I googled and searched stangnet and it seems to be an HO block that should accept a roller cam, but just doesn't have the holes for the spyder. Can anyone confirm this?

So I should be able to just get holes machined in the lifer valley for the spyder and be good to go, right?

I already put the block in the truck, but I'll prob. wait for a confirmation before I take it back. I know the spyder won't bolt down. I called them and told them it doesn't have a place for the spider and he's like "it's not a roller?" and I said "no," thinking that all roller blocks had provisions for the spyder. He said bring it back and they'll bore me another one.

Help!
 
TheUser said:
Picked up my block yesterday...they cleaned one up and it ended up being bad, so they had to clean another one and bore it.

Anyway, after getting it home and on the stand, I realized that the spider would not bolt down...there are no holes tapped for the spyder. I noticed it was different at the shop because it didn't say XXX or YYY and it says 5.0 in the lifter valley and my stock block didn't. Either way, this block has a casting number of E7TE-CA. I googled and searched stangnet and it seems to be an HO block that should accept a roller cam, but just doesn't have the holes for the spyder. Can anyone confirm this?

So I should be able to just get holes machined in the lifer valley for the spyder and be good to go, right?

I already put the block in the truck, but I'll prob. wait for a confirmation before I take it back. I know the spyder won't bolt down. I called them and told them it doesn't have a place for the spider and he's like "it's not a roller?" and I said "no," thinking that all roller blocks had provisions for the spyder. He said bring it back and they'll bore me another one.

Help!
That engine could be out of a truck which would be why it's not a roller block. You can have the machine shop tap the holes needed to install the spider and you should be good to go.
 
thanks!

After some more research, I concluded that the first year of the block was 87 and it was meant for a light truck or bronco I...that's what the T means.

Apparently those are HO roller blocks, just didn't use roller cams or lifters, which is why it doesn't have the holes for the spyder. I oiled a couple lifters and put them in all of the holes to make sure they slide up and down...they seem to work fine.

This is so frusterating...I'm just trying to make sure I get things done right. I originally planned to have this engine back in the car 2 weeks ago, but it's been postponed for different reasons and now I'm way behind schedule.
 
TheUser said:
thanks!

After some more research, I concluded that the first year of the block was 87 and it was meant for a light truck or bronco I...that's what the T means.

Apparently those are HO roller blocks, just didn't use roller cams or lifters, which is why it doesn't have the holes for the spyder. I oiled a couple lifters and put them in all of the holes to make sure they slide up and down...they seem to work fine.
Yeah, the only difference (that I know of) between a roller and non roller 5.0 block is the spider.
 
JS94cobra said:
I also believe that the lifter galley's are taller on a roller block.
I read something about that too.

Luckily for me, this is a roller block - you can use a non-roller cam and solid lifters in a roller block, which is what ford did from the factory for those model trucks, apparently.

I took the block back, got the holes machined (he was happy to do it instead of having to tear down another motor, clean it up, bore the block, etc). I got it back home and on the stand...hopefully for the last time.

Thanks for the help.:nice: