Last October, I bought a 1980 buick v6 with approx 50k miles that had been built to put out approx 250hp. The engine details included:  "9.1 Compression, Hypereutectic Pistons, Balanced, 288 Duration Cam, Head is Ported with 174-150 Stainless Valves, Aluminum Edelbrock Performer Intake 4 Barrel, Holley Aluminum Valve Covers,High Volume Oil Pump".  Those are the kind of v6 specs I wanted, so it sounded ideal.

The guy I purchased it from (off craigslist of course) said it would likely need new rings and cam bearings, but everything else should be good to go.  So, I've been looking forward to the engine rebuild as I figured it would be pretty straight forward.

So, yesterday I started taking apart the engine.  Everything looked as expected until I pulled off the heads.  Inside number 1 & 2 chambers were some rust, thick carbon deposits and dust (see upper right pick — it's not horrible, but dirtier than I expected).  At that point, I decided the entire engine needed an inspection, so I pulled everything out.  When I got to the crankshaft, I could see there was definitely some wear — I would need to take it to a machine shop and have them review it.

This morning, I did just that.  First we discovered it had already been turned 010 and, after pulling out his micrometer, he determined that we'd have to go at least to 030, but he wasn't sure there was enough metal left to make that work.

So, I'm on the hunt for a cheap v6 with a good crank, or find a crank by itself (perhaps at a junkyard?), or buy a new one — approx $500 that I didn't intend to spend.

Stay tuned …