Dec. 28th, 2002. The motor has been pulled and stored since October 2002.  My 383 is in and running.  Only thing I've done to the 350 since then is to check the valve spring pressure.  They are at 80 lb seat pressure and the cam requires 110 lb seat pressure.  Springs have gone a bit weak over the years.  Today I simply removed the heads so that I can take them to Terry Samakow for new springs.  Inspect the full sized photos of the motor and heads below.  I think the motor looks pretty clean for having spent years on the highway and at the 1/4 mile track.

I already have the intake off because I borrowed it for a few days to use on my 383 with iron heads.  The 1.6 crane rollers are off because I used them on the 383 for a while too.  You might notice that one lifer valley vent is missing.  That was found broken off and laying in the back oil drain hole.  No-harm-no-foul.

Here is the left head off and posing for the photo above the left cylinders.  Good looking pistons accept maybe #7 is darker than the rest.  #7 exhaust port on the head is oily.  Must be a valve oil seal leak?

This is the right head and right bank.  All looks super good here.

UPDATE: MAY 2003
I spent about 2 hours removing the crank, cam, pistons and rods.  The plan is to have the machine shop clean the block and install new cam bearings.  I want a very light cylinder hone too.  I'll re-install the same pistons and rods but I may get some ARP rod bolts.  New main and rod bearings of course.  I guess I'll get new GM rings for the pistons although they were doing a very good job up to the day I pulled the motor. Below are medium file sized photos with captions.

UPDATE: JUNE 2003
Reassembly time. The machine shop installed new cam bearings and polished the crank shaft.  I also had them check the rods and of course they were good.  I found the rings and pistons in good shape.  The same rings, rods and pistons will go back in the motor.  Via Summit, I purchased new FM main and rod bearings.  I took photos of the crank and piston-rod install but for some reason they ended up out of focus - and thus deleted. 

Some measurements:  
Cylinder taper, 0.0001 <--measured with my new dial-bore gauge (spec 0.0005 max)
As found ring gap, 0.019 top ring <--was 0.019 4 years ago (spec 0.019 - 0.035)
Crank end play, 0.003 (spec 0.001 - 0.007)

UPDATE: JULY 2003
More assembly:  Reusing the same stock rod bolts, (since adding new bolts would require a rebalance and Samakow said all were in good shape). Torqued to 20ft-lb and then turned about 55deg. more.  I installed the ARP head studs and cylinder heads on top of stock impala SS head gaskets.
I forgot to detail the head parts for you.  Comp 929-16 springs installed at 140lb seat, Comp 732-16 Titanium retainers, "Race Comp Valve Job", PC seals, shims, grand total $636 bucks. (Terry Samakow Racing Engines).  Terry is the same guy that did such an awesome job on my LT4 heads on the 383LT1.
I examined the Crane 227 cam closely and most of the lobes look OK but some look a little too close to "the beginning" of wearing out.  I'm not going to put this cam back in, (although it could probably last another year).  What cam should I get?

UPDATE: August 2003
I purchased the Crane 109831cam, (AKA GM846).  It is installed and checked via degree wheel.  The cam should be a bit better than the Crane "227" cam.  No photos of the cam install or degree procedure.  I'm reusing the standard LT4 timing set but a new chain has been installed due to too much slack in the old chain.  The Cloyes Hex-Adjust timing set was a mistake.  The cam sprocket doesn't have clearance for the cam retainer bolts.

The big news here is that I just received a new product from Crane. It's their Shaft-Mount Rocker Arms, part number CRN-11809-1, (for Vortec heads).  $555.21 via Summit Racing. For now I've gone through the checking fixture procedure to see if I have to mill the stud bosses down or add lash caps to the valves.  There is supposed to be 0.030" gap between the fixture tip and the valve tip.  I have a whopping .260" of gap.  So that means I should either install taller valves, mill the stud bosses, or add lash caps. I mocked up one intake-exhaust pair just for photo purposes.  Looks like this system only works after major head modifications.

UPDATE: OCTOBER 2003 (Crane shaft rockers go back on the shelf)
Since the Crane shaft rockers require a large amount of stud boss milling, (looks like you can only mill about .125" on the LT1 heads so I would certainly need longer valves to make up the rest of the geometry gap), I made a wild impulse purchase.  I bought the T&D machine shaft rocker system, (guaranteed to work on LT1 heads).  These actually did fit.  The LT1 aluminum heads needed to be milled .125" at the rocker stud boss.  This milling is for perfect rocker tip to valve tip geometry and that is determined by the provided checking fixture.  The T&D system also came with an adjustable pushrod for determination of exact pushrod length.  My machine shop, (Samakow), charged 1 hour labor for the machining.  I still had to hand clearance the underside of the rocker shaft base just a little bit so that the base would clear the cylinder head stud bolts and washers. Check out the thumbnail photos and click for larger image.

 

UPDATE: January 2004, Installed the 350 with GM846 cam
The engine is painted with POR-15 Chevy red.  The camera makes it look a little more purple than in real life.
See some of the things I found that makes the install somewhat easier.

1.  I installed the right side headers before installing the engine.
2.  I test fitted the motor mount brackets to make sure I had them on the correct side of the engine.
3.  I didn't forget to install the flex-plate.
4.  I installed the pushrods and lashed the valves just prior to installing the engine.
5.  If you desire, most of these low color thumbnail photos will link to a larger photo.






You should always put the rear main seal in PRIOR to installing the tranny and PRIOR to test running the engine.  D*OH!