New (old) 440 block...is it garbage?

[killer8man]

So I bought an old 440 from a guy that was selling his on craigslist. He said that it came out of a 71 Satellite, but the date stamp on the block says it was cast in 1967. The casting # is 2536430, so that jives, I just have my doubts at to weather it was the Satellite's original engine. Anyway, that's not my real question. What I really want to know is if the block is any good. The reason it came out of the Satellite was due to a thrown connecting rod, which was obvious looking at the bottom side with no oil pan (the way it was presented to me). The engine had obviously been sitting a while as it had some surface rust, but the cylinders still looked pretty good and everything still seemed to be in tact. My main concerns come from where the connecting rod impacted the bottom of the cylinder and the rust that I found when I started pulling the freeze plugs on the side of the block. There is a gouge right on the the edge of the bottom of the cylinder that I'm hoping can be fixed with good bore. The rust, however, is...how should I say...very apparent. There was a lot of orange on the floor of the garage by the time I was done and it was very flaky and all through the inside of the engine. That being said, I'm taking it to a machine shop tomorrow to get their opinion, but I wanted to use you guys as a sounding board. Thoughts? Thanks for the help.

And by the way...I'm planning on building a 512 stroker out of the engine to put in my 71 Charger along with a 5 sp manual from Hurst Driveline conversions, a Dana 60 rear, and (hopefully), Hotchkis suspension and some fat wheels and tires. All of which I'm planning on posting on this forum as I go. I'll try to get some pics of the engine in it's current state for all of you to see.

- Adam

[Cooter]

I once had a '68 "HP" 440 bottom end given to me that was locked up so tight we tried hot tanking the entire engine to free the pistons about 3 times to no avail...We then had to cut the rods to get the crank out of it as I figured the block was so rusted (Pitting in cylinder walls) that it was surely junk.....Took it down to the machine shop and to my surprize, it cleaned up at .030 over. Now, I'm not saying this is the case with ALL 440's, but what looks like junk, just might not be in the end....You will know more when you get it bored and checked at the machine shop...

[TylerCharger69]

If it broke a connecting rod.....have the machine shop examine it carefully for damage....pieces broken off, cracking, etc....

[John_Kunkel]

Find a shop that "cooks" the block to clean it rather than a hot tank, it will come out so clean it will look like it just left the foundry.

[killer8man]

Uploading pics on this website is incredibly frustrating!

[killer8man]

More pics...

[FLG]

Looks to be far enough down in the bore that the rings are never going to touch it.

[green69rt]

Find a shop that "cooks" the block to clean it rather than a hot tank, it will come out so clean it will look like it just left the foundry.

What do you mean by "cook"?  Got any details?  Hot tanking uses some hot chemical solution to degrease the block and it usually ends up taking off all the paint, oil, old gaskets but I don't know about the level of rust I see on this block.

[Cooter]

Rust is only a cleaning away at the pressure washer...I would be more concerned with the possibility of a crack in the cylinder, needing a possible sleeving...But even then, I'd still save that block before I bought another one to roll the dice on....

[alcusswhen]

If it cracked the cylinder have it sleeved. If it didn't just grind where the rod hit to relieve stress and its good to go.
The water jacket rust is not that bad. Strangely enough the layer of  rust coating in a dry water jacket cuts off the air and stops further rust.

[super_dave]

Uploading pics on this website is incredibly frustrating!

I use ifranview, free viewer you can download.  Does batch conversion to jpeg's and sets standard file size, works like a charm, and is easy....look it up!

[John_Kunkel]

What do you mean by "cook"?  Got any details?

The technical term is "thermal cleaning", the block is placed in a very high temp oven and most of the rust, carbon, etc. is vaporized, it's them placed in a shot blast cabinet for the final cleaning. Much more environment friendly than a hot tank and it does a better job.

Here's a video of the process:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paUTGRdctpE