In-Car Rebuild

Posted by JeromeSolberg On 2020/6/21 14:22:15

Dear Folks,

My 1953 Cavalier has 82,000 miles on it, and the engine is a little tired. Still fine for driving around town, but it does use a little bit of oil, and there is a bit of blue smoke - not a lot, but enough to notice. If you drive it at high speed for an hour you may be a 1/2 quart or more low, and at the end of that time at idle the oil light may blink on and off a bit (but not just above idle).

Above idle it seems to run fine, but it does have a bit of lumpy idle. It has an Ultramatic, which works well. Otherwise the body and chassis is in good condition.

I did a compression test. With Cylinder 1 being at the front of the car.

Cylinder Dry Compression/Compression with a Squirt of Oil

1 120/130
2 120/130
3 145
4 130
5 130
6 98/98
7 115/115
8 75/115

So it seems like it is due for BOTH a valve job and a ring job. I was using 10w-30 oil in it, and have plans to change that to 15w-40 Delo 400 diesel oil - maybe that will help the oil pressure situation after a high-speed run, as well as perhaps the ring situation.

My thoughts are that it might be above my time and facilities to take the engine out and rebuild the engine myself (I don't really have a proper garage), and probably above my current funds situation to just have someone else do it (I have heard numbers starting around $5k).

I understand folks in the "old days" at this kind of mileage would do an "in-car" rebuild, basically doing a valve job, replacing the rings and honing the cylinders. What else would be replaced at the same time? Oil pump? Timing chain? Crankshaft/rod bearings?

What would be the advisability of trying to do an in-car rebuild? Or maybe i should simply try to take the engine out and figure out how to get it into my basement for what would probably be a drawn-out rebuild process by myself? Or would it make more sense just to change the oil to a heavier grade as I'm planning to do and wait for better days?

Finally, if I was going to send the engine/block out to someone, would there be a machine shop in the S.F. Bay Area one would recommend?

Thanks for your consideration,

Jerome