Build Your First Engine

Engines and horsepower are what hot rodders live for, and nothing’s more gratifying than building the engine yourself. There’s nothing more satisfying than hearing that engine run for the first time after you’ve spent hours carefully massaging the powerplant. If you’ve never built an engine before, we’re here to help you get there. It’s really not that difficult. It all comes down to spending a little more time to line up all the tools you’ll need along with the patience to assemble it correctly.

Chances are you won’t have all the tools necessary to perform all the recommended operations in this story. That doesn’t give you a back door to skip these procedures. That just means you’ll need to beg, borrow, or rent these tools and learn how to use them properly. If you have buddies who are engine builders, then they probably have the tools and would be willing to show you how to use them. Maybe you could also talk them into looking over your shoulder as you assemble your engine. It’s worth the effort, and you can always trade out their help by offering to help work on one of their projects.

We’d also suggest reading other stories on engine building, and buying books on building a small-block Chevy. The books can go into much more detail than we can in this story, and it’s the details that will make your engine buildup completely successful. We’ve covered the major points here that, if overlooked, can cause engine failure. We did not go into detail on starting the engine for the first time, but this is a critical part as well.

For starters, always pre-lube the engine. You can build a pre-luber out of an old distributor body and shaft. Also make sure the ignition timing is set at about 12-degrees BTDC and the carb is primed. That way the engine should only have to turn over once or twice before it fires. Then immediately bring the engine up to 2,000 to 2,500 rpm, varying the rpm for the first 15 minutes. Monitor the coolant temperature and oil pressure and you’re on your way.

So cruise through this how-to-build-it story and start planning your next engine. Then you can proudly claim, “Yeah, I built this myself” when the cruisin’ spectators ask, “Who built the engine?” It’s a great feeling of accomplishment.

Assembly

A clean engine is a happy engine and you can’t get the engine too clean. Moroso, Mr. Gasket, and others sell engine-cleaning brushes that can scrub internal oil galleys and bolt holes to flush out metal chips left over from machining. Use hot water and laundry detergent and then blow-dry the engine immediately to prevent the formation of surface rust. Clean every internal engine component, including rods and pistons, crank, oil pan, heads (unless they are already assembled), cam, and timing-chain cover. Don’t use cloth shop rags or towels because they leave lint that will plug up an oil filter. Finally, we’ve found that cleaning the cylinder walls with paper towels soaked with automatic transmission fluid deep-cleans the last residual junk out of the cylinder walls. Keep wiping until the paper towel remains clean.