Busted main on 302 block

stevesLX

Member
Nov 12, 2006
373
0
16
cincinnati
I pulled the motor out of my 89 LX this weekend and I dropped it off at the machine shop yestarday and they finished tearing it down from a short block and they called me and told me I had a busted main cap. He said it was in two pieces. He asked me if I by any chance had another block to use to save me all the labor cost. Now granted I dont have but around 800.00 to spare on this thing but according to the machine shops pricing list its only 150.00 to do a align bore and I am only using this car for street I found a set of 2 straight bolt main caps OEM flat bottom for 50.00 brand new. If my crank needs grinded thats only 85.00. Unless I am not following this correctly that seems much cheaper than getting a block up here in Ohio. I have exhausted all my resources and the cheapest is 300.00 and its in a junkyard hard telling what I am getting and no refund either. I called the back and told him what prices I had found and he told me to give him a couple of days he was going to put it in the tank and see what he can work out with it before I go getting a block. I was burning super rich and also had a blow by issue going on thats why I pulled the motor. So I guess I need some advise here on what to do. Am I clueless on what needs to be done here because of a busted main cap or am I relly going to be in over my head when all said and done. He didn't mic the cylinders yet but he said my pistons from what he could see looked pretty good. So if that holds up all I will need piston wise is new rings and then the norm bearings and seals.
 
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if there is no damage to the block or crank than i dont see why you couldnt just put another main cap on there. if you lost that main cap, more than likely you would lose that crank journal also, due to lack of oil pressure. i think you can get out of there well under 800 bucks
 
Why not ask the shop if they have another block for you. Usually you can pick up used bare blocks with caps for around $100.00. If you take a cap from another block you will have to align bore it. Align hone-ing will not work. There is a difference.
 
just get the same main from another block so that you dont have two #2 mains or whatever ya know. and get him to align bore the block. its not a big deal and he might not even have to do anything if its a factory block. hes a machinist and hes making this look like its a big deal when its not.