Budget Engine Rebuild - Nothing Like Your First Time

Low Buck Small - Block
At one point in our lives we know next to nothing about cars. Slowly, we latch on to bits of information and our knowledge of the inner workings of certain parts-engines, transmissions, and rearends-begins to accumulate. Sometimes it's a formal education from auto shop class or hand-me-down info from dear old dad or big brother. Maybe it was that weekend job working at the gas station (good luck finding that opportunity these days) or a high school buddy with the fastest car at school who took you under his wing. Some of us even learned the most basic car information from gluing together plastic model kits decades ago. However, you got that education, you listened to every word, and soaked up technical jargon and procedures like the proverbial sponge.

The problem as we see it is that not enough people from previous generations are passing along their knowledge to our youth. Whether they think the youth of today don't care or won't listen, we don't know. But it certainly couldn't hurt to try, right? Instead of griping at the neighborhood kid to get off your lawn, maybe a little Automotive 101 will crack that hard teenage surface and you might even teach them a thing or two.

We're constantly barraged by neighborhood kids of all ages because of the cool cars that end up in our driveways (project cars or press cars) and we use that as a stepping stone to educate them on everything from the basics of car parts (such as a brake rotor or cooling fan) to more detailed car repairs (depending upon their age, of course).

One area that seems to have really been hit hard by this lack of continuing education is engine building. Sure, performance crate engines, and even remanufactured long-blocks available at your big chain auto parts stores, really make things easier and the job go quicker, but they've hurt the situation as well, in their own way.

Building your own engine is something every car guy, gearhead, or wrench turner should accomplish some time in their lives. Having an engine build on your resume, so to speak, not only gives you great personal satisfaction when you hear that engine fire for the first time, but just think about the next show or cruise you go to where you can pop the hood and tell all the people who ask that you built the engine. Every part in that block you had your hands on.

This is what we want our youth to be able to say, too. To that end, we dragged an old 5.0 long-block out of storage, bolted it to an engine stand, and rolled out the toolbox for my 15-year-old son, Kyle, to completely rebuild on his own. I took the photos you see in this article and, except for the machine work and breaking the main caps free, Kyle did all the work himself.

Is this a 500 hp stroker engine? No, it's a very simple, relatively stock rebuild; something anyone can handle, which is exactly what we wanted to show our readers to encourage them to get out in the garage and do the same. We'll start from the engine already on the stand, so get yourself a good repair manual and some friends to help with engine removal. Check it out.

You might remember this photo...        read full caption You might remember this photo from the July '07 Oval Office column. The engine is a '90 5.0 with ported and decked heads, roller rockers, and a small cam. It's the original engine from my daily driven '90 Mustang I purchased new. The engine was yanked years ago after wiping a cam lobe from a failed lifter and a catastrophic overheating condition. It's time for it to start its second life.	The engine has been sitting...        read full caption The engine has been sitting in storage for the better part of six years waiting to become a project. In that time, a few parts grew legs, such as the headers, induction, crank damper, and a few other goodies. We'll replace as required for whatever project it ends up in. First comes the removal of the distributor and plug wires and the valve covers. For you first-timers, be sure to tag and bag all fasteners, take plenty of photos, or even some video.	Next come the rocker arms....        read full caption Next come the rocker arms. These are old-school FRPP 1.7:1 pedestal-mount rockers that we had installed along with a Crane CompuCam (remember those?) designed for the '93 Cobra and its factory 1.7:1 rockers. Since we're keeping the stock heads, we'll reuse the rockers as well. Kyle also yanked the pushrods and we ordered replacements.
The heads were hand-ported...        read full caption The heads were hand-ported and cut 0.040-inch over 10 years ago by Crawford Performance and installed with ARP studs. We'll reuse the heads after going through them-same with the studs.	While the engine has sat for...        read full caption While the engine has sat for quite a long time, the roller lifters easily slid out of the block (after removing the lifter retainer). The older the engine and the more crud you find, the harder it can be to get the lifters out. Sometimes even pliers are required. While we do agree that roller lifters are reusable, part of the reason we parked this engine was from a wiped cam lobe, so new lifters are on the order form.	Drain any oil before rotating...        read full caption Drain any oil before rotating the block (ours was long since drained). With the engine rotated, it's much easier to access the oil-pan bolts with a speed wrench.
This is what greeted us in...        read full caption This is what greeted us in the pan when Kyle flipped the pan over. Can you say milkshake? The engine had Fel-Pro Loc Wire head gaskets but we still somehow managed to mix coolant and oil.	With over 100,000 miles on...        read full caption With over 100,000 miles on the engine, a new oil pump is cheap insurance. If a small-block is what you're building, then stick with a standard-volume pump. High-volume pumps can destroy distributor and cam gears and cause broken oil pump shafts. Not good.	While ours is already missing,...        read full caption While ours is already missing, you'll need a damper removal tool to extract the crank damper. Then you can access the timing cover, which is but six bolts. Once the timing cover is removed, the timing chain and gears (and fuel pump eccentric on carb applications) will greet you. Kyle removed the timing chain cam gear retaining fastener and slid the timing chain and cam and crank gears off as one. Some light prying of the cam gear with a screwdriver may be required.