Is it over for this engine?

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Joined
Jan 28, 2025
Threads
4
Messages
12
Location
Utah
Is my engine beyond saving? I bought a bore scope to look in my cylinders and things look pretty grim. Sorry for the poor picture quality my phone has trouble taking a clear picture of the screen. It looks like the previous owner may have left a rag or something in a cylinder while rebuilding it? Is my situation with this engine hopeless? What do people think my next steps should be?

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Um I can see a rag/paper towel other than that your pic's suck for diagnoses purposes. I say pull the head and see what's up' How much ridge at the top of the cylinder? What do the valves look like? Maybe you can scuff the bores clean with a ball hone, do the valve lap job and run for a while, perhaps years for the price of a few gaskets.

Did anyone run a dry/wet compression test. Maybe a leak down test? How is/was the oil pressure?

Before I dumped a ton of money in the tractor motor, I'd consider doing the chevy V8. I like the 283, but 350 are everywhere
 
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Did it ever run? I could see a rag bending a rod or something. I think it would have run badly and probably made noise.
 
I'd run it. Fish that rag out, change the oil, send it.
 
The rag is an issue, I remember and industrial repair where a millwright left a rag in an industrial air compressor, broke the head. As mentioned, pull the head, fish out the rag, and inspect.

The attached picture is a cylender bore with about 10k. This was #5 with a single score on one side. The worst of the six. Basically, this is what it should look like (without the score)

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Um I can see a rag/paper towel other than that your pic's suck for diagnoses purposes. I say pull the head and see what's up' How much ridge at the top of the cylinder? What do the valves look like? Maybe you can scuff the bores clean with a ball hone, do the valve lap job and run for a while, perhaps years for the price of a few gaskets.

Did anyone run a dry/wet compression test. Maybe a leak down test? How is/was the oil pressure?

Before I dumped a ton of money in the tractor motor, I'd consider doing the chevy V8. I like the 283, but 350 are everywhere
Yeah, it's hard to get any decent pictures, we ran a compression and leak down test, and the valves are probably stuck open. I was just wondering if my cylinders are beyond repair.
 
How much is a head and manifold gasket? $150 ought to do that. That's less than a hour of shop rate. Or You could pull the spark plugs, fish out that rag, then add a big dose of marvel's mystery oil to each jug. Let it soak for a day, use the starter to spin the engine over - that should free up the rings if stuck and polish the bores some. Check the compression. If low, you can strike the valves with a mallet (at TDC compression) in the line of action while someone spins over the motor - this might dislodge any crap on the valve seats by using the compression.
 
I was just wondering if my cylinders are beyond repair.
Probably not. You can bore these out pretty big, it's a sturdy chunk of iron, too stupid to die from what I've heard. They are designed and meant to be rebuilt. They are meant to have a valve job now and then and you might as well do that now. Pull the head, assess the cylinder walls and then post pics and ask again.
How much is a head and manifold gasket? $150 ought to do that.
You priced head gaskets lately? After seeing the OEM gasket I'm never using anything else.

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Surely your borescope has a provision to save the pictures to another device?
 
cant tell if it's real damage or just some carbon at the top of the cyl. Compression test, if the compression test is bad then do a leak down test. that will tell you alot.
 
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