I've decided to put together my 1978 351W together on the cheap. I don't need 500hp (yet) so I'm putting together a motor I can run on the street while I work out the kinks in the rest of the car and save up for whatever motor I'm gonna build next. Plus... it's the first motor I've ever built so I really don't want to drop a bunch of money on a decent bottom end just to learn I made a simple mistake and took out a bunch of pricey parts and machine work.
I'm just curious if anybody has had luck running a stock bottom end for any length of time. There's virtually zero bore wear (very low mileage) so I'm just putting fresh rings, bearings, oil pump, etc in. I picked up a set of freshly rebuilt D00E 351W heads (1.94/1.60s, screw in studs/guide plates) for cheap that I'm going to use. I have a Holley 750cfm 3310 carb that just got a Holley Renew kit and a Holley Street Dominator single plane intake.
I've still got to buy a cam, lifters, and pushrods, but other than that I've scrounged everything else I need. I'll probably have spent $800 in total to get the motor built and in the car, so in the end it won't owe me much. I'm thinking if I stick to relatively low RPM's I should be fine... what do you guys think? Should I spend a little more money somewhere to help this motor last a little longer or just put it together and see what happens?
I'm just curious if anybody has had luck running a stock bottom end for any length of time. There's virtually zero bore wear (very low mileage) so I'm just putting fresh rings, bearings, oil pump, etc in. I picked up a set of freshly rebuilt D00E 351W heads (1.94/1.60s, screw in studs/guide plates) for cheap that I'm going to use. I have a Holley 750cfm 3310 carb that just got a Holley Renew kit and a Holley Street Dominator single plane intake.
I've still got to buy a cam, lifters, and pushrods, but other than that I've scrounged everything else I need. I'll probably have spent $800 in total to get the motor built and in the car, so in the end it won't owe me much. I'm thinking if I stick to relatively low RPM's I should be fine... what do you guys think? Should I spend a little more money somewhere to help this motor last a little longer or just put it together and see what happens?