Ok this would be the deciding factor in either replacing or rebuilding: Are you going to show the car as a Concourse correct car and will changing the engine increase or decrease the resale value? If you are not going to show the car and you are not concerned with numbers being correct for the year of the vehicle, change it out. If you want to keep it as original as possible, rebuild it and learn how to work on engines at the same time.
Up until a few years ago, there were two things I would not tear apart; automatic transmissions (still don't want to mess with them) and classic pre-computer and emmission engines. My wife's '66 200 was having some issues with the exhaust manifold sealing so I decided to tear into it and take it to a machine shop. They went through the entire head assembly, replaced bad valves, guides and shaved both the head and the exhaust manifold for a perfect fit. I replaced the water pump, oil pump, timing chain, guides and gears. It was an experience but I should have taken it further to a hone and re-ring as the car still smokes a little on acceleration. The car also got a brand new Holley 1 barrel carburetor and now runs great.

 

Pull it out, if there is not a huge ridge in the cylinder, ream it off, re-ring, and go back with new rod and main bearings. Easy enough to do with a rental engine hoist.

I have done most of my rebuilds "right", but not always, when a little common sense is applied, a person can often get by on less than "right".

I have had great experiences every time either way. (except for the time I lost my oil pump pick up off the pump when I was a kid.... almost forgot about that one. )

 

What do you know about "re-sleeving"? Had a shop tell me if the cylinder wear is not more than 40 thousandths of an inch they could re-sleeve it.

 

I know it isn't worth it for your engine, a sleeve will be AT LEAST $85 per cylinder, better off with a new (or another) block. If the engine has not been rebuilt prior it is probably good enough to clean up with less than .040 bore.

 

The quote I got for my 6 cylinder was $1,500 for re-sleeving. Rebuild quote was between $2,600 and $3,000. Why are you saying re-sleeving isn't worth it? Is there something else I need to know about re-sleeving? Thanks.

 

Why sleeve the motor? You should be able to go up to 060 and not have a problem unless the motor was already bored. You'd just need to install oversized pistons and be done. Pistons are under $300, much less for speedpros. You'll need rings anyway so that cost will not change.

They way I see it, if they do any machine work to the block you're going to have to clean it out anyway otherwise you'll have metal in the oil passages that will wipe your bearings. So the cost associated with the machine work will not change.
A bearing set is cheap, they have to pull the rotating assembly apart anyway so the labor charge will be the same, just material for bearings.

I can't see how they could hone/sleeve etc without taking the motor apart.

 

Well a couple years ago I sold a RUNNING 66 200ci 6 with less than 10,000 miles on a professional rebuild for $400 DELIVERED to CA.

You can buy at least 5 used motors for your for the cost of sleeving it out. Sleeving is good for rare, expensive, and/or obscure engines, not economically smart for common production engines (unless maybe you are talking one or at the extreme two cylinders).

Chances are you wont run into a bore issue anyway.

I am always leery of folks who try to sell too damn many "what ifs".

IMO $1,500 to sleeve the engine is way out of line to start with, I think I might try to find another shop. I will almost guarantee that you wont get your car back from that shop for a penny less than 5 grand.

Sorry to be Mr. negative, but...

 

buy an explorer motor add a cam and your oil pan timing cover and intake reinstall enjoy your 300hp budget motor

 

OK. How involved is removing the engine?

 

Really depends on your skill set. My 15 year old son took the motor out of our 66 in an afternoon. Even did it keeping the tranny bolted to the motor. He's "handy" but this was his first motor pull flying solo.