0:00

welcome to the first installment of the

0:02
series on this iconic engine format with
0:05
a deep-rooted race heritage today I'll
0:08
tell you what it is the history of it
0:10
what I plan to do with it and we're
0:12
gonna tear it down to find out exactly
0:13
what was wrong with it almost 50 years
0:16
ago so be sure to stay tuned the 302
0:35
cubic inch GMC inline 6 was produced
0:39
from 1952 to 1960 when it was replaced
0:42
by the v6 it had a square board a stroke
0:45
ratio of 4x4 inch and was the largest
0:47
raised deck engine at the time it was
0:50
originally designed for the GMC military
0:52
two and a half ton trucks and up and was
0:54
paired with a hydra-matic transmission
0:56
they were quite specialized however the
0:59
engine was a sealed engine for
1:01
submersible use had an electronic fuel
1:04
pump and other features such as a deep
1:05
sump oil pan from 52 to 59 GMC
1:09
manufactured the civilian version which
1:12
was not sealed had a mechanical fuel
1:14
pump and used a standard sized ole pan
1:16
power listed in 59 was a hundred and
1:20
sixty horsepower and 268 foot-pounds of
1:22
torque at only 1600 rpm the engine was
1:26
very popular with hotrod enthusiasts
1:28
because it produced tremendous power for
1:31
an inline six at the time it's built
1:33
with a heavy cast block can take a
1:35
tremendous amount of abuse many of them
1:37
were pulled from fire trucks and dump
1:39
trucks finding one today is quite a
1:41
tough task most aren't aware that back
1:44
in the day GMC and Chevy were not the
1:46
same trucks they only shoot the only
1:48
shared item between this engine and a
1:50
Chevy is the rocker arm shaft the GMC
1:53
block was nearly indestructible capable
1:55
of being bored as much as a hundred and
1:57
twenty-five thousand ascend creases in
2:00
compression ratio it makes it a
2:02
fantastic format for a vintage hot rod
2:05
about 50 years ago this one was removed
2:08
from a fire truck in fact and it
2:10
belonged to the volunteer fire
2:12
department in Kentucky
2:13
and has sat in a fireman's basement
2:15
until I picked it up as I was told it
2:18
only has about 25,000 miles on it but it
2:20
dropped a cylinder fortunately it's not
2:23
locked up however I have no idea what I
2:25
will find once I tear it down so today
2:28
let's tear it down and find out
2:31
[Music]
4:00
here's a point where you can actually
4:01
get a lot of clues so here's a little
4:03
tech tip if you're thinking about buying
4:04
an old engine there's a lot of small
4:06
things that you can look for to kind of
4:08
give you an idea of what the internal
4:12
condition of it is of course if you can
4:13
turn it over by hand is one thing if
4:15
you've got a borescope you can look down
4:16
in the cylinders and get an idea there
4:18
but you still don't know all your freeze
4:20
plugs all the way down if you see a lot
4:22
of rust coming out of a particular area
4:24
here here here sometimes you can even
4:27
see if your block is cracked you'll see
4:31
an excessive amount of rust and drain
4:32
where antifreeze has discolored the
4:34
block all the freeze plugs are flush
4:37
with the side of the block which means
4:39
more than likely it hasn't frozen an
4:43
interesting thing about these engines it
4:44
took quite a gifted tuner to be able to
4:47
get these engines to run really really
4:48
well and it's because of how the
4:50
cylinder layout is done so if you notice
4:53
you'll have square port round port
4:56
square port round port square port round
4:58
port square port all right they have
5:00
what's called Siamese ports now for
5:03
example in this port here what you have
5:06
is an exhaust port here you have an
5:09
intake port that's actually split okay
5:13
so you have two intake valves here then
5:15
you have two exhaust valves here two
5:18
intake valves two exhaust valves two
5:21
intake valves and one exhaust valve so
5:24
in in the tuning aspect of it and
5:26
especially with a single carburetor
5:27
layout like all of these came with you
5:29
know the carburetor was mounted here so
5:31
typically what would happen that a bit
5:33
because of the firing order is this
5:35
cylinder would be rich these cylinders
5:37
here and here would be lean because
5:41
again it's having two split cylinder now
5:43
some old drag race tricks back in the
5:45
day if you built a manifold then you
5:47
could go in and actually inside the
5:49
intake manifold split it off and almost
5:52
run a split runner intake now another
5:55
trick is to actually come in here and
5:57
put a small hump inside there to help
5:59
split that fuel up all right another way
6:02
to do it is when you make a manifold is
6:04
to not run dual
6:06
herbs actually run triples like some you
6:08
know Stromberg's side draft levers
6:10
something like that and what you would
6:12
do with your manifold is run an
6:14
independent carb for each one of these
6:17
and that allows you to manage your front
6:20
and rear and get the the power balance
6:22
done really well now I'm still curious
6:25
as to what we're going to find because
6:26
I've seen a lot of great things on the
6:28
inside of the parts that I've taken off
6:30
that make me feel pretty good so one
6:31
example was I looked at the the drive
6:34
lobe on the fuel pump and it looks clean
6:36
it doesn't look worn doesn't look gouged
6:38
when I pulled the distributor I looked
6:40
at the drive gear on the distributor for
6:42
the oil pump and also the gear for the
6:45
cam
6:45
and it did not look worn it hardly
6:48
looked mourn at all hardly looks scarred
6:49
so so far we might get lucky and
6:52
actually have a pretty good cam in this
6:54
thing now trying to get some clues also
6:57
along the way I don't see any signs
6:59
along here that we've had a leaking head
7:02
gasket of course we see some oil and
7:04
things everywhere but again I don't see
7:06
an excessive amount of anything
7:08
irregular as I work my way all the way
7:09
around the head so hopefully our deck
7:12
surface is good here on both the head
7:14
and the block one clue that I do have
7:17
looking at each exhaust and intake valve
7:20
remember we all we think we know about
7:22
this engine is that it dropped a
7:23
cylinder all right looking at the
7:25
condition of each valve and the valve
7:27
stem each one of them has exactly the
7:31
same coloration you know comparing
7:33
intake to exhaust except for one the one
7:38
back here in the back I'm gonna get a
7:39
close up for you in a second our exhaust
7:42
valve back here in the back has is
7:45
essentially white now remembering that
7:48
this engine came out of a fire truck
7:49
fire trucks spend an enormous amount of
7:51
time idling the other thing we have to
7:54
remember is that our water pump is here
7:55
and how all of that is goes through the
7:58
block this is going to be our hottest
8:01
cylinder so my prediction is that the
8:04
only thing wrong with this engine is a
8:07
burnt exhaust valve in the rear so let's
8:11
keep our fingers crossed all the stuff
8:13
is off now we get down to the belly of
8:15
the beast
8:15
so hang in there with me
8:18
[Music]
10:05
okay the head is off let's flip it over
10:09
see what we find just looking at the top
10:11
looking at each each of the valve stems
10:14
and they hardly have any wear on them at
10:16
all I don't see any problems at all with
10:18
the retainers I don't see any broken
10:20
Springs whatsoever I'm going to show you
10:22
the inside the engine case here in just
10:23
a second man I just don't see anything
10:26
here I don't see any signs of cracks I
10:29
don't see you know any antifreeze or
10:31
anything like that so let's let's spin
10:33
her over and have a look now we're gonna
10:41
take a very close look at the head
10:44
gasket man I don't see any carbon
10:50
tracking between the cylinders at all
10:55
but look at this valve
11:00
the valve is
11:05
the valve is off the seat slightly down
11:09
here in the bottom corner I'm still
11:14
going to hold to my same prediction
11:15
we're going to take a look at the block
11:16
take a look at the Pistons cylinder
11:19
skirt condition looking at this I
11:21
believe we've got a burnt valve right
11:23
here in this corner I believe that's our
11:27
problem folks if we pull the pull the
11:30
head gasket I still I don't see any
11:34
carbon tracking whatsoever between the
11:36
cylinders we had a good head gasket seal
11:38
I don't see any signs of coolant man
11:44
awesome awesome awesome I think that is
11:47
our problem right there let's take a
11:49
look at the let's take a look at the
11:50
block okay as I said before you know
11:54
these are four inch stroke four inch
11:55
bore cylinders now I decided to go
11:59
through and measure each cylinder and
12:01
each one is slightly different for it
12:04
and of course I'm not using a dial bore
12:06
gauge there's no need
12:07
remember that I'd mentioned that these
12:09
blocks could be bored up to 125,000
12:12
Sauveur so as long as I'm considerably
12:14
less than that I'm fine so I'm not
12:16
hooking up a table or gauge or anything
12:17
like that so just using a dial caliper
12:21
here I'm at four inch twelfth ow plus or
12:24
minus a little because of some carbon
12:26
buildup I'm at $20,000 size there 20,000
12:41
carbon buildup because these blocks back
12:44
you know back when these things were
12:45
cast the castings were not all that
12:47
great as far you know precision anyway
12:50
so it wasn't uncommon for blocks to come
12:53
out of the factory oversized 10,000
12:57
what I'm finding interesting though is
12:59
that while this block is is on average
13:02
twenty thousand ER typically what you
13:06
would find if the block came out of the
13:08
factory
13:11
oversized before the there's an int that
13:14
is a number on the side of the engine
13:16
and the first three digits are the
13:18
engine displacement which would be 302
13:19
if the engine were oversized from the
13:23
factory for the bore size that would be
13:25
an indication before the 302 a letter
13:28
designation telling you that it was
13:30
oversized
13:32
also I do know that from the factory the
13:35
mains and rod bearings are larger than
13:39
original spec because also on that
13:41
original number stamped on the side of
13:43
the block there's an e designation from
13:45
memory I believe that means that the rod
13:49
bearings are 10,000 the main bearings
13:54
are standard I would have to look at my
13:57
chart on that it's been a long time
13:59
since I've messed with one of these but
14:01
anyway it does have that designation at
14:03
the end so if any of you guys watching
14:05
or into these 302s you remember what
14:08
that a means if you could help me out
14:09
put in the comments below there what
14:11
that is but I'm pretty certain e as in
14:15
Edward is either under sized main
14:18
bearings rod bearings or a variation of
14:21
the two it does turn over nicely but
14:24
with the Pistons being at about feels
14:27
roughly about five thousands below deck
14:30
that's and then these are I have to say
14:34
obviously stock Pistons so if with it
14:37
being 5,000 other--in dication that that
14:41
the block has has never been decked but
14:43
when I look at the top of the deck
14:45
I still see great things I see no traces
14:49
of any type of head gasket leak here up
14:51
here at all either through either
14:53
through compression from one cylinder to
14:55
the other I I don't see any signs of any
14:58
coolant getting into the cylinder and
15:00
when I rotate the engine over it rotates
15:02
over
15:03
incredibly easily i I don't hear any
15:06
type of knocking noise or anything like
15:08
that so let's let's give let's spin it
15:12
over here
15:14
so it's pens over nicely I'm very
15:18
pleased to see that the cylinder walls
15:20
are in fantastic condition this engine
15:24
has never been locked up
15:26
I'm still at considering its age and how
15:29
long it's been sitting astounded at how
15:32
great the cylinders look there's also no
15:36
indication on the top of the cylinders
15:38
that that one cylinder was running
15:41
excessively lean compared to the other
15:44
they also have similar carbon buildup on
15:48
top of the Pistons the top of the
15:50
Pistons underneath the carbon here look
15:53
great there's no metal missing there's
15:55
no pitting so that tells me there wasn't
15:56
a tremendous amount of detonation or
15:58
anything in this engine that's going to
15:59
sum it up for the first installment of
16:02
the rebuild of this 302 inline six GMC
16:06
engine next time we come back for this
16:10
series we're going to pull the old pan
16:12
we're gonna pull the cam cover pull the
16:15
cams we're gonna pull the Pistons pull
16:17
the crank measure the mains and rod
16:19
bearings and at that point we'll know
16:21
the overall condition of this engine but
16:23
so far I am thrilled and excited so
16:26
please like subscribe if you are
16:27
interested thank you very much for
16:29
watching and I hope you guys have a
16:31
great day