Engine rebuild

[Scullboy19]

Hey everyone, have to unfortunately rebuild my 304 engine pretty much. So I have to replace the piston rings on my engine as they're rooted, which is to be expected for an engine with 408xxxkm but just wanted to ask some questions about bolts and maybe recommended gasket kits and stuff and what I'd need to take off bare minimum to change the piston rings.
So to start off with, would I need to get new conrod bolts or are they reusable and with head gasket bolts would I also need to get new ones, I'm assuming I do but would just want to make sure as I'm not familiar all that well with 304 bolts and torque specs and patterns or anything.
Also the engine actually runs quite well, no noises nothing, it's just losing way too much oil plus I've got a leaky sump as well which doesn't help but it's not that bad, so it has to be the piston rings.
I'm also gonna get new performance conrod bearings as well while I'm there so I don't have to worry about them as well.
Any help would be appreciated thanks

 

[losh1971]

Likely has a leaking rear main. While the engine is out it would be a good idea to have that done too. Pay to measure your piston clearances too. With those miles it might be time for rebore and not just a hone and rings.

 

[vc commodore]

With the kays on that motor, good chance you'll be up for a rebore, so that's new pistons and rings.

Not sure on bolts, whether they are re-useable, but others on here will chime in for sure

Torque settings will be available online with some google searching, or searching on this forum

 

[Scullboy19]

With the kays on that motor, good chance you'll be up for a rebore, so that's new pistons and rings.

Not sure on bolts, whether they are re-useable, but others on here will chime in for sure

Torque settings will be available online with some google searching, or searching on this forum

God I hope not, but if so, guess I'll have to bite the bullet and just do it as it is my daily but it should be good,fingers crossed. Really just trying to budget this as best as possible honestly, so keep keep costs to a minimal hence why I asked bare minimum to take apart to change the rings but if I have to I'll just buy a good gasket kit as I'd like to only have to do this once and if you're going to do it may as well be done right. Hopefully I can just get bare essentials like sump, head and valley gaskets and probs one or 2 more I can't think of that I might need to take off for gaskets. Also while ik I might be able to reuse conrod bearings, I'm just going the extra mile and getting better then factory ones so hopefully it can make it another 400 thousand lol

 

[losh1971]

Bearings are cheap.

 

[Deuce]

Do a proper compression test, and leak down test.
Hopefully it's valve guide seals and not rings (because that is way easier to sort).

Does it blow blue smoke on start-up? Or only under heavy load?
How much oil used between services?

Head bolts are re-usable I'm sure.

 

[losh1971]

Don't bother trying to reuse head bolts, the savings will be minimal. If you are going to all the trouble of removing the engine, stripping it all down then do yourself a favour and do it right, either that or buy a SH engine and drop that in. I've seen whole VR's with factory V8s been advertised at $10k or less. Rebuilding a Holden V8 using standard parts is not going to set you back huge money compared to the V6, well back when I bought V6 parts V8 standard parts were quite a bit cheaper.

You need to decide if rebuilding the engine is worth it, heads alone will set you back around a $1000 for a grind and shave. Not sure what your budget is but by the sounds of it, it won't be enough, especially if your are trying to save $60 or so on a set of head bolts.

 

[chrisp]

Do a proper compression test, and leak down test.
Hopefully it's valve guide seals and not rings (because that is way easier to sort).

Does it blow blue smoke on start-up? Or only under heavy load?
How much oil used between services?

Head bolts are re-usable I'm sure.

^^^^^ this.

High oil use can be valve stem seals, which are relatively easy and cheap to replace. So, as suggested by @Deuce, investigate further before assuming that it is indeed an (expensive) issue with the rings

 

[Scullboy19]

Do a proper compression test, and leak down test.
Hopefully it's valve guide seals and not rings (because that is way easier to sort).

Does it blow blue smoke on start-up? Or only under heavy load?
How much oil used between services?

Head bolts are re-usable I'm sure.

Might give that a go first, but yeah, it leaves black mark on the ground on start up as I have the end of the exhaust bent towards the ground and when I floor it, it leaves a pretty decent amount of smoke

 

[someguy360]

Head bolts are re-usable I'm sure.

Don't bother trying to reuse head bolts, the savings will be minimal.

Head bolts are completely reusable on these engines, unlike LS's etc, unless they have corrosion or pitting theres no problem reusing them.

They aren't TTY etc, just clean the threads up and make sure you use good quality thread sealant on them as even though the bolt holes should be blind some castings were worse than others and there can be some slight coolant weaps through those bolt passages.