how hard is it?

i want to drop a 350 into my 91 toyota. im not too familiar with building engines and such, but i want to learn. i was thinking about buying a block from jegs and picking and choosing my parts and installing them myself. so for you who have the know how and/or have built your own, how hard is it to build an engine with little to no expierience?

if you havent done it before i would suggest getting a crate motor that is already built. you would have a hard time knowing what parts to pick if you havent done it much. because all of it has to work together. the cam, heads, vavletrain, intake, carb/FI, exhaust. its a system. you wouldnt setup an air system with a tiny compressor, huge valves, tiny lines and a big tank. because it wouldnt work as well.

yeah i see what your saying. i bought a crate motor and a 671 blower for my other project from jegs and the tech guys were real cool on telling me whcih motor to go with and what cam to use and other little questions i had. i was thinking i could keep all the specs on the block and parts that i buy and when i place my order, tell them what i have so far, what i want to achieve, and ask them to help lead me in the right direction. ive turned a few wrenches in my day, and i watch the powerblock all the time, and they dont make assembly look so tuff. in fact i think assembly would be the easy part, and picking out the parts would harder. so ill rephrase the question, if i already have the parts i need to make a great engine that will run right, how hard is it to assemble?

its pretty tough, there are alot of little tricks and tips to it... alot of things that have to be torqued just right in a certain way and pattern... i watched my dad build mine and i still dont know everything to building a motor

yeah i always hear the guys on powerblock saying to lube this and torque that. its probably just as cheap to buy a 400 hp motor as it is to build one. ill do some research and compare prices. thanks for the help. any other info is greatly accepted as well, so keep adding.

In response to the title of this thread... Thats what she said, lol.

As far as your question goes, if you want to give it a whirl yourself try and make friends with someone who knows motors and see if you can watch them assemble a one. There are alot of really good step by step articles aimed at the beginer in mags like Hot Rod and Car Craft etc. Search the web for them and see what you can come up with. I built a 350 when I was 16 that did almost 300 horses at the flywheel with my only previous experience building engines being with Briggs and Stratons. The 350 goes together fairly easily, give it a shot.

To really get the experience, you should go find a stock motor. Check CraisgList, you can pick up a 350 for under $200 thats complete. Then you need to make friends with someone who is familiar with engines, and their assembly. Pull it apart and inspect stuff, number the pistons and rods so they go back in the same place, and have the block hot tanked and checked out by a machine shop. If the block is good, have it bored, have the crank turned down if it needs it, and get a full rebuild kit. Ask the machine shop for magnaflux, and have your friend help you put it together.

Also look on eBay for a 70s Chevy service manual. One of the 5" thick ones. It will come in handy. It will tell you just about everything you need to know about the 350 and the other motors in its family. They 70s books are more detailed with the engine build than the newer ones once computers and OBD systems got introduced.

thanks for the info and wise words. I may go ahead and search craigslist and start from there. I'll start researching and prodding and see what I can find.

so i found a block for 250 on craigslist thats been machined and had a little professional work done to it. also i found a few manuels on jegs that talk about complete rebuild, tear down, and build up of 350's. ive been looking at parts as well on jegs and it doesnt look like it will cost that much to get this going. ill keep updates as far as what my plans are and how it goes. thanks to everyone for all the help.

Thats cool you are going to do it yourself. SBC's have to be one of the best motors to build/learn on. You will have a good time, good luck on your build.