gibsonxplayer88

well i finally decided to ditch the idea of an engine swap and rebuild my 289. now its totally original so im really considering stripping it down to the block and rebuilding it from the ground up.

has anyone else done this and how many hours roughly am i looking at for this?

wrenchturner75

sounds like a good idea, i love the scream of a little 289, but as far as a timeline to rebuild motor i cant give you one, its very time consuming, depends on how much time you can spare to work on it, and how backed up your machine shop is, ,mine is usually 1 or 2 weeks backed up. then you have to order all your parts, and hopefully you get the right ones the first time, then you get to reassemble, for me if everything goes well i can usually have one running in a month. but this is my schedule, some here can probably do it much faster, but the machine shop i use is always busy, whatever you do DONT RUSH! be very organized and i cant stress this enough make sure your work area is clean, cover everything up with plastic bags when done for the day, good luck and have fun, its very gratifying to hear an engine fire for the first time that you built with your own hands!

gibsonxplayer88

what specifically do i need to take to the shop. i want to try and do as much of this myself as i can.

Starfury

The shop will need the block, rotating assembly (crank, rods, pistons, wrist pins, and hardware), andcam bearings. Have them balance the rotating assembly while they're at it, definitely worth the money.

You should be able to do all the disassembly and most of the reassembly yourself, including installing the rotating assembly into the block. The only work the machine shop should need to do is the machine work on the block (decked, bored, honed, possibly align hone the mains if needed, install the cam bearings,press the wrist pins into the rods/pistons, balance the rotating assembly, and clean everything). They'll give you back the block and rotating assembly, then you can put it all back together.