Grrr!!!! I just spent like a half hour typing all this out and it friggin hiccupped and I lost it!!!! ARGH!!!!!
Anyways, let's try this AGAIN.
I have the timing cover if you want it.
I did the same thing for my Impala, pretty much. I learned there is no such thing as a
super cheap build. But I did alright. I got all my stuff from Karl for pretty much the same build. He's out of the game now, but he sold all his stuff to Nab. You could email him and see what he may have left.
You could also get the stuff from Summit or Jegs. Use a Melling HV55 oil pump with a bolt on pick-up tube for like 75-80 bucks. Rings are 100 bucks. Bearings are cheap, $20 for the rods, $40 for the mains, IIRC. Gaskets are about $300 if you go with the Felpro lower and upper sets. But you can probably get away with head gaskets, intake set, and timing cover set, if you can re-use your valve cover and oil pan gaskets. If you replace the oil cooler lines, I think they come with the gasket you need. Or if you delete it to run the big filter, you don't need one there. Don't forget good header gaskets. I like the Percy's multi-layer aluminum ones. The effin rawk for 40 bucks!
You can usually get a cheap used cam for about 100 bucks. Gotta love the roller lifter motors!!!!
You're looking at about 300 clams if you can't find a used one though. I may be interested in getting rid of my GM846 cam next year, and it'd work pretty well in your lighter Banana boat...
Rockers? Tom Sr has a set of Comp Roller Rockers for sale too, and at a good price IIRC. I scored a set for like 160 on eBay from a company clearing out old stock just last month. So deals on RR's are out there to be found. You'll want them to help out your top end.
You will want to gasket match and clean up your F-body heads with a dremel or the like. It'll be fine for what you're doing without having them flow tested.
You may or may not want machine work on your block. This is your call. If your cylinders look good, you could probably get away with just re-ringing and bearing'ing it and be gtg. Or you could re-hone it on your own. But if you want a shop to do it, have them check the block, hot tank it, and re-hone it. They'll have to replace the cam bearings at that point, too. I also had Golen hot tank an intake for me, and I think that was all well below $300.
So what are we looking at for a minimum?
$100 rings
$60 Bearings
$150 gaskets
$80 oil pump and pickup
$150 used cam
$200 roller rockers
----------
$740
And add another $280 or so if you want machine work.
So your cheap-o, BUDGET build is going to be $1020 with machine work. Is it still
budget enough???
Still want that timing cover?
EDIT: Oh yeah, almost forgot... You'll want another set of head bolts, like 40 bucks for the stock ones, or 80 bucks for ARP's and I'd upgrade to ARP rocker studs, too. Those are around 40 bucks also. You can add that up on your own.
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