Thanks for the information, I will lean towards finding someone to rebuild my motor. but I feel that is also a toss up when you don't know the reputations of the shops in the towns around me. but hey! that's what researching is all about
It seems that so many of the super experienced/sage machinists are retiring,
that it's becoming ever harder to find the good guys. Personally I've found
word-of-mouth will identify the local wizards vs the shops that overpromise
and underdeliver.
But since I'm in upstate NY and you are in Big Sky country I'm afraid I'm poorly
positioned to give you a regional reference. On the other hand, I've been watching
a father/son team putting out videos of their machine work on YouTube.
Not only I do enjoy watching their problem solving skills, the sheer beauty of one
of their finished cylinder bores or the finish of their machined cylinder heads or
block decks borders on senseless beauty. Even so, they come across as the salt
of the earth, in the best possible way.
Anyway, in your travels, if you walk into a shop and they can take an old 350 right
out of a GMT400 and end up with engine like this, I'd consider giving them your
business. Thanks to their careful prep and intelligent parts choices, they extracted
an impressive amount of no-nonsense power out of this SBC:
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If you are interested, here's the link to this video: (
530hp / 525 ft lbs of a wide/flat torque curve 383 SBC)
From a previous cross-country trip I know that Montana is a big state, but out of curiosity
I googled the distance from Billings, MT to Ft. Collins, Co. The distance came out to 496 miles,
which tickled my big block funny bone. Foodies discuss various destination restaurants. Are we
living in an era where destination machine shops are becoming part of the old truck lexicon? :0)
Best of luck finding the right machinist to fastidiously machine the next 25+ years of life into your big block.