Just finished a mild refurb on a 78, 4 speed, I found two years ago at a small garage in another state. Replaced every bushing, brake/fuel lines, dropped tank, most of the wiring, twelve coats of paint, 10 clear. etc,etc.etc ( kept putting it on till I ran out.)  Everything works on the car, even has orginal power antenna. Will be able to buff this thing for a millenium without going thru the clear. Had a mid 70's chevelle motor in it orginally that was pretty tired. Came with a L-82 best I can figure, no vin on car anywhere, looked at all three places it may be. Has l-82 tach and correct console label, emblems on hood, all orginal. Took dash out to change to change printed circuit and dash had never been out. Not concerned about matching numbers. I bought a rebuilt L-82 ( CMR) from a guy who builds motors and had all the build sheets. Looked good, dropped it in, and had a ticking noise from the start. Did all the rechecks, took it to  good local shop that suspected a tranny noise, took it to tranny shop who "thought" it might be a tang on the pressure plate bent,. Not so after we got into it. Minumum charge at tranny shop. Good guy. I pulled pan off and found right bank rods installed backwards, ( Pistons facing correct) , #1 rod bearings grooved bad, mains okay, #7 cyclinder has unrepairable dip just below ridge line. Cyclinders were bored .30 so no fix there. Pulled heads, turned rods., changed bearings, hone cyclinders. Hoping i could get a summer out of it. Motor has about 50 miles on it. No luck. My question to the experts are: can I use the L-82 guts out of this and drop them in another SMC. Machine shop checked all the rods and pistons, pressure checked heads, etc when I had them out and said there in good shape. I'm thinking of starting from scatch with any good SMC but would like to use the good parts if I can. Just a street machine. Sorry for the long into. Thanks.................

  What a bummer. Let us know what ya find out. I think I would go back to the builder and twist his arm around, and see if he can work with it that way. He MAY want to help you out.

I'll post what I end up doing with the replacement engine. I did e-mail the builder and let him know about the problems. I did so to inform him that someone ( builder or machine shop) had a lack of attention or lack of knowledge so it doesn't happen to someone  else.  I'm not sure who put the block together. I'm not after money, just explanation. I usually build my own. It happens when you buy a pig in the poke. My wife will get a L-82 coffee table for Christmas...

The "guts" will fit into another +.030" 350 block with no problems. I would be sure to get a 4 bolt main block, if that's the route you take.
Sux when stuff like this happens. I took some pistons/rods to a machine shop years ago for them to install the pistons on the rods for me, since I dint have a tool for the press to do it at the time. I specifically instructed them to NOT heat the rods to install the pins....but they did anyway...along with putting the pistons on backwards on a couple of them. That's when they told me they dint have the press tool, either.....WHAT?!?!?
Long story short, after fixing the two they had on backwards, the engine lasted about a week before the rods bent and twisted....I was only slightly pd...
I also bought my own pin press after that....

Everything will fit the 2 bolt main block fine. The L-82s used a 4 bolt block...supposedly. May not be 100% true, but that's the way they were intended.

You need to check the crank journals where the rods go carefully. Sometimes, if the rod is on backward, it can damage the radius of the crank, depending on how long the engine was run like that, and how hard. Other than that, you should be good to go.

If you are not looking for 500hp . but a more modest 350 to 400 I would spend the money and get a crate engine from GM performance. My 1980 has the ZZ4 motor and it runs , idles and performs perfectly. 

The 302 was a 327 block with a large journal 283 crank. The block itself will take the 350 guts, but...IF what you have is indeed a genuine DZ block, I would sell that to one of the Camaro freaks....that would probably give you enough cash to either buy a crate engine, or build whatever you want. Original, genuine DZ Z/28 engines are like gold to the Camaro crowd....

|UPDATED|7/5/2012 9:41:27 AM (AZT)|/UPDATED|