Yes, this was paid for by Autozone and Harbor Freight...but the most realistic engine assembly episode that I've seen. This is real life accurate to 99% of us. Nicely done.
There's a mom-and-pop shop called Campbell Auto near me, I give them my business when I can, found their prices better than the chain stores. To each their own.
I think what this episode really did was to take those people who are watching and normally say "yeah, I don't have that tool", to say "Hey, I have that, or can buy it from the local parts store". In my neck of the woods, there's a 1 in 4 chance it's Autozone, and Harbor Freight is less than 20 minutes away, and there are 3 inside 30 minutes.
I see all these people online these days, have all the best tools, lifts, all the turbos and superchargers, 1,2,3 thousand hp... if I had a canopy and a place to break down a 250hp engine I could die a happy man.
I built my first engine, a '64 Chevy 327, on a piece of plywood in the backyard of our house when I was 15 years old. (1970) I put 11:1 pistons, a Duntov cam and an Edelbrock C3B intake on the engine. It had "double hump" heads and once it was together, I put it in my '50 Chevy Sedan Delivery. My first hot rod build that I drove to high school once I got my drivers license. Can't imagine doing that today but back then, throwing plastic over the engine kept most of the dirt and dust out of it. It was a darn good running engine that powered three of my cars before I started playing with big blocks.
That's awesome! I got lucky, when I built my first engine I had a nice shop. My family owns a tire shop here in Tucson and I worked there from the age of 15 until I got paralyzed at 25. For my 17th birthday my dad gave me my first car, a 1974 Dodge Challenger. I had been helping my older brother work on his 440 powered 73 Plymouth Barracuda streetcar for years so I learned a lot early! Before I turned 18 and got my license we found a Chrysler New Yorker which we bought the 440 and 727 transmission out of for $300. I bought a set of TRW 9:1 forged pistons, a 509/292 mopar purple shaft cam kit and a rebuild kit and sent the block, crank, rods and new pistons to the machine shop. All of the used parts got hot tanked, the block was bored 40 over, new cam bearings installed, main caps line honed, all new freeze plugs, the rods were resized and shot peened and the crankshaft was turned 10/10. My brother gave me his old Weiand tunnel ram that had 2 Holley 450's and was plumbed with a spray bar for nitrous. I found a 3.91 posi third member for the 8 3/4 rear end and bought a 3500 stall converter and a rebuild kit for the 727 Torqueflite. I built my first engine and transmission, I took the 318 engine and 904 transmission out and I installed the 440 and 727 and that was my first car. OH THE GOOD OLD DAYS! Later I took the engine and transmission out and put them into a 1968 Dodge Dart but unfortunately I sold the Challenger like a fool! It kills me to this day! I wish I had never sold either of those cars but especially the Challenger!
@@MrIgor1955 Well, it was quite a fun and exciting time! I remember I couldn't afford all of the machine work so my brother paid for it for me, it was almost $600 and I helped him with a few cars that he restored a little later to work off the debt. LOL! I helped him pull out a couple engines, we assembled one and also installed it and got it running and driving. I think I also swapped a couple different rear end center sections, changing the gear ratios around. I don't remember what all I did but it was fun learning and doing it all, that it was paying for all of the machine work on my 440 was just icing on the cake! You have at least 20 cars in mind that you wish you had kept? WOW... That's a lot! I only have a few. LOL! But then again, I've been paralyzed from the chest down since I was 25 and I was still racing my Dodge Dart at that time. I know one thing, I wish I knew then what I know now about building engines, my Dart would have been a lot faster! LOL!
@@krisjato Sucks about your spinal injury. I'm retired now but I was a Paramedic for over 34 years and dealt with many spine injured people over those decades. I picked up a friend who fractured his upper c-spine and ended up passing away a week later from complications. I can still hear him begging for me to help him as he laid motionless inside his car that was on its roof. That was probably 40+ years ago. Calls for family and friends take a toll on you. - Most of the cars I wish I had kept are Chevy's. All of them were GM cars. Sounds like you've made the best out of a life changing incident. Congratulations.
@@MrIgor1955 Thank you, it's the hand of being dealt. Man, I'm sure you seen some terrible situations and I'm sure you've saved many lives, God bless you! I'm so sorry about your friend, that's terrible! I'm sure it wasn't easy picking up your friends, I'm sorry you had to deal with that! All of them were GM cars? To each their own, right? LOL! I've always been a Mopar fan, mainly because of my older brother, he's 11 years older than me and has always been a Mopar guy. He had the 1973 Plymouth Barracuda street/strip car when I was growing up and he still has it along with three other Barracudas and a Roadrunner. The only two I had was my 74 Challenger and the 68 Dart that replaced it. Working on, driving and racing my car are some of the things that I miss doing the most! Thank you so much, I've tried my best to make the best of a bad situation. I still have one of the same hobbies that I've always had, my RC cars. I'm very thankful to have such a wonderful family and friends, I couldn't do it without them!
Ex-Mobile mechanic here as well I have a shop now thank the lord. Saw an ad on Facebook about a kid wanting to be a mobile mechanic said he can do about anything. I need the trans put in my drag car so I figured I would give him a chance. Kid showed up when he said he was going to and I helped him put it in and gave him a bunch of pointers. Awesome kid. He told me $600 with mileage so I got $1000 to help him and he said “sir I’ve learned more from you today then I learned in a year at college, I’m not taking your money” I was helping him clean up and hid that money in his toolbox🤣
@@Punkfool18 little advice, get a truck. Or better yet a one and a half car garage. That unloading and loading tools will cause you physical harm latter in life.
This was a great video! Reminded me of when we put together my brother's 1973 350 Z28 in our garage...we started a Saturday morning and fired up the engine Sunday morning...what an awesome weekend 😎...miss my brother RIP 🙏
Now it time to hook it up to the dyno!. let's see what kind of numbers that 600hp "3/4 race cam Corvette roller motor" can pull. 😆 That was an awesome episode. it looked like many of my builds, but you cheated by having a tent and asphalt. Next episode is a transmission swap in a gravel driveway, right?
Hahaha I love when the gravel digs into my back and the transmission falls of the car jack nearly taking my head off because the carjack didn’t come with4x4.
This was one of my favorite episodes. Love the satire and real world feel. I really like when they show the building and the camera crew. Any closer to real life and a few buddies would be over with beers in hand. Cheers guys 🍻🇺🇸
I did a LS swap in a parking lot over a weekend. Thanks to an engine shop putting the reluctor wheel on backwards causing the engine to be 180 out. It wasn't all that fun.
Brings back memories of my first engine build in High School in my uncles garage. No fancy tools, but his knowledge and my elbow grease got it done in a day.
Under a tent at the track also, I've seen an entire build at Bowling Green from the first hook in a class just to have that truck come back at hook40 and win!
This reminds my days as a mechanic, rebuilding complete engines in the great outdoors, Quite fun and interesting thing to get busy and greasy, but fun after all, the satisfaction to get the engine alive and running is priceless
This is a real world experience of how most of us do a rebuild. Brought back many memories of my youth with some great people who are no longer with us.
Love that you show you don't need million dollar equipment to be effective just clean and simple know how and attention to detail is what counts the most
That’s how we built an engine in the 80’s at a buddy’s house or in Vocational Auto Mechanics. Way to go guy’s, this episode brought back a lot of memories. Thanks
100%... this was very similar my first engine building experience. Great content. Rumor has it, a nearby Waffle House was visited by a couple of ravenous engine builders at the end of this episode.
I love it I'm in my garage now. Will this build continue to be a backyard / garage series when it goes into a car that may need paint interior that can be done cheaply in a guy's garage?
I think yall should have mentioned that yall have a 4 bolt main tbi meaning it was from a 3/4 ton and up truck. I got an 89 tbi from a 1/2 ton and mine was a 2 bolt main. Just a little fun fact!
Been watching these shows since it was hot rod tv way back when. This is one of my favorite episodes. More directed to your average guy or a young kid wanting to do a rebuild. Shows them that it can be done without fancy tools.
Not really "Poor Mans" as a rebuild costs plenty. It's a matter of principle and knowing it was done right compared to some shop that can rip you off and not give you everything specified.
this was a FANTASTIC idea. So much better than watching crate engines dropped in mustangs over and over. The parking lot approach forced these guys to return to their roots and in the process the rest of us learn quite a bit. This is MUCH more applicable to most of our builds and so much more useful. Thanks and hope you'll follow this approach more often 'inside'.
Nice episode. The thing with all those “loaner” tool programs though, every time I try and borrow, the set has been abused and is useless. Missing parts, threads all jacked up. Nobody at the store really checks them in right, and catches tool sets returned broken
I worked at one of those big stores for a short period of time. By the time I left all of the tools had been replaced with new ones. Most of the time they can have a brand new one the next day, just ask the manager to swap them out.
Yes that is true one time I needed a inch pound torque meter I borrow it from autozone and in the first use I stripped a bolt the person that used before me left the torque at 80 inch pounds and messed up the torque and another time I borrow a brake caliper tool it was one with the 2 piston caliper and I liked so I keep it I told the guy from auto zone how much for the tool he said well you paid for it you can keep it it was brand new so I kept it I did not know you can do that
Always check for cylinder head valve spring coil bind in this type of scenario, before firing it up. Also make sure valve seals are unmolested during full lift of rocker, again before firing.
They not only showed us they can do it, they showed how to get sponsored, paid and on our phones while they're having a good time. They win. Bravo fellas.
Agree. Could have taken another 20 sec to show it on the dyno and flash over to the dyno sheet/ numbers. Decent intake and cam but those 193 swirl port heads kill it. Still better than the 190 SAE net HP with full accessories at 205* it was rated from the factory. Blind guess with EWP, no accessories it would make a solid 240HP/ 270TQ at 5200/ 3200RPM, respectively.
@@robertbryant7771 - more like 250 HP at 4500 and 350 torque at 3600 at flywheel... If they started with a TBI Vortec 350 and used flat top pistons around 420 HP and 400 torque...
@BuzzLOLOL yeah I probably lowballed the torque number but those are the godawful 12.3cc low compression dish pistons too. A nice 6.7cc 4 valve relief piston like the L31s got would make a decent difference but no getting past those heads.
@@BuzzLOLOL vortec heads aren't bad. You can make some good power with them. You're better off going aftermarket today though, by the time you machine them (they cant handle a lot of lift) and have them checked for cracks, you're spending a fair bit. I actually just gave a pair away to someone i know.
Love this episode! Like everyone else is saying, it brings me back to when I worked on my ‘72 nova and working on my 350. Good job guys show how you can do it with minimal tools and patience. Thank you
And pizza completes the job!! This video was great, when I was a much younger version of myself this is pretty much how my friends and I rebuilt out engines. They were good times, now I work like a gentleman in a heated well equipped home shop
My oil filter wrench! Got mine at NAPA 40 years ago. I saw a guy pull out a crankshaft and rub each journal with valve lap compound, put it back in and tighten it. Spun it with an impact gun. Put in a .020 bearings and was done. No way that would work. He drove the old rust bucket every day. Just rings and bearings. My favorite episode. Good work guys.
Just a tech tip if those are stock swirl port heads. Max lift is approx .500 if you don't machine the valve seats and/or change the springs from stock. Always check for coil bind before hitting the starter.
really great job , I did the same work in my back garden may time , i even work in cold weather some time until 2 am , thank you for bringing back some old memory's . love you all
I normally give a engine refresh a full weekend to complete. If the heads are really dirty I use a storage bucket and CLR straight for 6 10 hours before the final cleaning . Running a 400 Ford I built that way with almost 100,000 miles on it now.
@@BuzzLOLOL I'm not looking to make a lot of power. I just want a simple and stout V8 to replace the 4.3 V6 in my stick shift pickup. Flat top pistons and headers are about the only modifications I'm doing.
@@BuzzLOLOL Oh, it'll be plenty. Had a stock 350 TBI in my 1988 K5 Blazer and my butt dyno tells me it could outrun my pickup with the 4.3 without trying and that Blazer is way heavier. The biggest thing I care about is the sound a V8 makes anyway.
I think this is your best video It’s fun to see all of the high up builds with high end parts. But that is just out of reach for most of us I think that most of us build engines just like this. And on a shoestring budget. Great video great job
I like videos like this I mean its still built for tv and edited, like id like to see the out takes of that broken stud remover, but still there is something humbling about a backyard build, that you remember for ever..
This is how I did it many many times..Rain Shine or even snow with tarps over us. I am jealous you have that nice driveway we had gravel. So glad to be indoors now. Lol