As a bit of a progress update, the severe deep freeze that western Canada was locked into...finally broke. That said, I did finally manage to haul the DZ302 up to the machine shop on Wednesday. The bores will be measured to see it we can rebuild it at .030 which looks like a really good possibility right now. I bought this block from Larry Christensen and he honed the cylinders at .030 because there was no ridge wear. It looked by all means to be rebuildable at .030 over with a simple hone, bearings and a new set of rings.
I have since picked up some .030 forged pistons from Steve Shauger that look like new so we will measure them up to see if we can use them with this build. I suspect the clearance will be fine but if need be, I can always ceramic coat the pistons. The 1178 crank is actually cut & polished at 10/10 so my error on the earlier stated condition of the crank being standard. It looks good to go and if the pistons match up with the bores, the rotating assembly will be balanced and blueprinted for this engine once the block goes through a thorough cleaning and a few tests.
The short block will now be washed, inspected for cracks, bores measured and machined if necessary, main cap alignment checked and all the oil galleries will be thoroughly chased. It'll then be hot tanked and jet washed for a second time before going together with new frost plugs and a set of cam bearings. Once ready for the assembly to drop in, it'll receive a full set of Clevite "H" bearings and the bottom end will be buttoned up. Next, we'll add a Nostalgia plus 30/30 camshaft, Cloyes true roller chain and a new Melling oil pump with factory windage tray. When ready for paint, it'll see an original Z/28 oil pan and an AOR 8" timing cover w/ original 7708 balancer.
I did have to put myself in check this week and not choose a bigger camshaft than needed for this engine and that's hard for me to do (lol). Choosing a smaller cam allows us to clean up the 186 heads, run fresh 1.250 Z/28 springs with screw in studs & guides...and call it a day. I'll now need to find some decent lifters and measure up the pushrods before adding the 472 intake and a set of NOS long slot rockers with stock valve covers. Once finished, the upgraded components should help this motor run stable to 7000 rpm.
More when it's all back from the machine shop.
