A little more info about this journey, since most of us have more ‘free’ time than usual. As I said before, this is a 348 rebuilt in 1998 that I bought a couple years ago from a guy that bought if from a guy. As I mentioned before, 9.5:1 pistons and heads are 379 and 256. On visual inspection it looked good, even with a scope in the cylinders, and I spoke with the builder.
Here are some interesting things I found along the way: The stock distributor shaft didn’t seem to contact the oil pump drive shaft, so I pulled it apart and found the shaft was for a SBC. Apparently the pumps are the same, but as most of you know (and now me), not the drive rods. I replaced with the correct rod. A ruined engine averted!. Then, I degreed the cam and found it to be a 425 hp 409 cam (roughly .520 lift, etc). I replaced it with an Elgin 0902 cam from Show Cars (basically the solid lifter 348 350 hp cam, .413, .415 lift, etc.). Likely another ruined engine averted! At that point I pulled the heads to see what else might be lurking. No problems found, but I did see the stock 1.94 inch intake valves had been replaced with 2.06 valves. I’m not sure it will be a benefit in this low-compression engine, but I’ll take it. I added assembly lube wherever I could (though the original lube was still there), and pre-lubed the engine prior to firing it.
After all that I was able to get it started last summer and it seems to run great, though it’s still only in a rolling chassis and has yet to hit the road. This has been great fun for me and I’ve learned quite a bit about this 348 along the way. I’ll drive it some time this summer. ‘31 Model A, maybe 2000 lbs?, 700R4, 4.11 gears, 6-inch wide rear tires. Watch out.
Stay safe.