Chevy 355 Value

[Matt Weltz]

This past year in high school, my senior year, I rebuild a chevy 350. It is a 2-bolt main 350 block out of a '71 chevelle. Block was bored .030" over and boiled. Heads were boiled and rebuilt with all new valves, valve seats, valve guides, and valve springs. Here is a list of the new parts: Fel-Pro gasket set, Federal Mogul Speed-Pro cam (.420 & .443 lift), Accel Performance plug wire set (8mm), GM aluminum intake manifold, Auto-Lite spark plugs, Diamond-turned Badger Pistons (minimum bore 4.0300), Federal Mogul Sealed Power piston rings, lifters, pushrods, cam-rod-main bearings, Edelbrock Perfomer-Link True Roller timing chain set, Expand-Tite expansion plug set, vaccuum port plug, thermostat, chrome oil dipstick-valve covers-air filter.

Computer dyno shows 350 horsepower and 425 ft. lbs. of torque. Wondering what it would be worth??? I was thinking around $1,500 but am not sure. Thank you!!!

 

[Anonymous-0]

Price is what you can get for it,Killer is the 2 bolt mains. 4 bolt mains you can name your own price within reason. We always looked for 4 bolt mains when looking for an aged block to work into our engine program running a late model ASA and Artgo Camaro in the 1980's.

 

[Allan in NE]

About a hundred dollars.

No matter what you've done to it, no matter how much chrome you've spent your money on, it is still just another ol' Chevy motor.

They are out there by the millions.

Allan

 

[Mike (WA)]

The other problem is reputation of the rebuilder (ie, who did it). Please don't take this wrong, because this may be your first of 40 years of successful rebuilds, culminating in your name being right up there with the best in the business, but right now, you're a high school kid who rebuilt a motor in shop class. And people are gonna figure it will grenade as soon as you put your foot in it. I'd ask what I thought was fair, but figure on keeping it for a future project if you can't get your price. YOU know its good, and there's no point in giving it away.

 

[Peabo]

Congratulations on seeing a project to the end
and doing something productive with your time. Sounds like you did good job. We need a lot more H.S seniors like that.

Somebody will give you more than a hundred dollars but probably not what you got in it parts and time. I second the idea for saving the motor for a future project. Like others have said, people looking for a hot motor will either build it themselves or with their buddies, or buy it from Summit, Jegs, GM, etc. You might get lucky though. You got a buddy with a hotrod that needs a motor? Could be alot of fun. Take it easy!!

Peabo

 

[Ross]

I thought the thing to do with the 2 bolt main smallblocks was to have a machine shop add the second set of bolts as there is actually more "meat in the 2 bolt blocks than the 4 bolts. I seemed to remember reading that in Car Craft magazine. I could be mistaken though.

 

[Moline_guy]

Like the other guys said if you can't get what you got into it, keep it, you can find those mid eighties firebirds and camaroes fairly cheap and cheaper yet if they got blown engines, ditch all the electronic nonsense wire up a standard HEI ignition, slip in your engine and your ready to lay some rubber. Picked up a 83 firebird two years ago for 900 bucks it had a carburated 350 engine and trans in it and just needed to be sanded and painted. A few nights of sanding and grinding, and then had a guy throw some paint at it and a few hundered bucks later had a cool saturday night car, makes me feel like a kid again. take care.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I've put together a good many Chevy small blocks and big blocks over the years. Always have heard the hub bub about 4 bolt mains. Many engines I've done were 2 bolt mains and they dyno as well as any comparable 4 bolt and held together just as well. One thing I've always had done was have the block align bored and checked for core shift. If core shift is noted, the block was put aside for "granny builds". Otherwise unless the engine is to be supered, turboed or nitrused, I'd trust a 2 bolt main with new bolts.

 

[Tim...OK]

Ross,
that is the only way to go on a 400 small block,the factory 4-bolts are prone to cracking around the outside 2 bolts..the 2-bolt block have more meat there and when machined for 4 bolt caps makes a much stronger setup..the 350 4-bolt blocks are fine as is..

Tim