jthorn9

OK I just want you guys to calm down my conscience after hearing something today from a guy that has built several cars.

I just wanted to know if my stock bottom end with 130,000 (crank shaft, rods, bearings, pistons, and rings) will be fine (looking for personal experiances here) after installing my heads and intake. Again, I didn't rebuild the bottom of the engine with this swap. I just want to hear from others that did the same that never had any problems with a ring, rod, bearing, or other blowing.

FivePointOhh

if you arent having any issues with the bottom end now, you'll be fine. ive known many of people who rebuilt their top end without touchin the bottom end with lots of miles.

he was probably just suggesting it would be a good idea with that many miles on the motor. if its gonna let go...its gonna let go. nothin you can do about.

minnow81469

You should be fine but if you have it all tore apart anyways its easier to do it since you already have the hardest parts done i think youll be fine unless your going to be running boost

jthorn9

No boost now, I'd like to run a 6-8 psi Vortech sometime in the future. Currently I just want this block to last me another 60-70K miles and I'll be happy, that will give me more than enough miles to get my next project ready to go.

Thanks guys, that's all I wanted to hear.

FivePointOhh

did you lap those valves/get valve job and put new valve seals on?

clean88coupe

I have 170k + on my 88 5.0 clock. And was being cheap(tight on money) and did heads, cam timing chain, and heads. It felt worth it and was running strong. I was being inpatiencent. If I could do it all again would/should have waited/saved and done it all at once. Car got some issues now trying to figure out and hoping not the internals. Would be really no doubts if I would have done a rebuilt of longblock. You could very well get 70k more out of your block. Just be responsible on chaging oil every 3000.

clean88coupe

maybe a compression test to know what condition the block in is.

Az_bronco_rob

Don't worry about the botton end, as long as the oil pressure is good. As the bearings wear, the clearance between them and the journals increase and the oil can squirt out from between them easier, leading to failure. So as long as the oil pressure is good, you should be fine but I would definately stay on top of oil changes. Usually, as an engine gets up there in miles, the rings start allowing raw fuel to blow by them and get into the crankcase where it mixes with the oil, thus lowering the viscosity and dropping the oil pressure, and, as a result, losing the oil film that protects the bearing surfaces.

Portmaster

If it's not burning oil and the oil pressure is OK the engine doesnt know the differance. The way that myth got started was years ago People would take a 70,000 engine (high mileage in the 50's & 60's) that only had the oil changed about every three years and remove the heads and shave .030 off of them throw a big honking cam in it with the stock valve springs that crushed the old Valve seals where they were no good and between the higher compression, already worn out marginal and neglected engine and the high increase in RPM it would burn oil, smoke and stress near worn out bearings and sling a rod out of it. With todays oil's, tighter clearance built blocks, way better rings and cleaner running engines it is just a non issue.

The only issue that would surface is that with higher flowing heads and intake is that the engine breaths better and will result in higher RPM ability and with higher rpm comes more stress on the rotating assembly and the possibility to stretch a rod bolt and spin a bearing become much more possible and trying out that new found power could leave you walking. Limit your rpm and you'll be fine

Slo5oh

I put a cam in my truck with 190k, 100% a-ok.