I am wondering how to drain all the collant out of my engine block? I have the engine currently out of the car right now on an engine stand and cant find out how to drain it. It is a 69’ Camaro RS with a 307 original engine. we read your postings in class every day in my automotive class at the career center and help would be great.
There should be a pipe plug screwed into the side of the engine block to drain the block of coolant.
Tester
what side would that be on? If i were standing in front of the engine
Now would be a great time to replace all the freeze plugs. With the freeze plugs out and a bit of block rotation you will certainly get all the old coolant out. May I ask why the engine is out of the car?
There should be a plug on both sides. They may have four sided holes that you can put a ratchet extension into. There may be a six sided hole for an Allen apex. when the plug is removed, you may have to break through the thin wall of iron with a screwdriver to get through to the water jacket.
Thanks for the help will try when I get home. It’s out because I’m restoring the engine the last guy that built it did not do a good job at all.
If you can’t get the two coolant plugs out (due to being seized), you might want to knock out the freeze plugs and flush out those openings with a garden hose. That should get you a similar cleaning.
Also do u have any tips or advice on what new parts to put in the engine?
The 307 was never really a performance engine to begin with and to be honest, I would not invest in trying to make this engine into something that it’s not.
If performance is not the issue then I’d just build it back stock and you need to clarify what you mean by what new parts to put in there.
If performance IS the issue then I would save the 307 engine, put it into storage, and then drop in a built up 327 or 350. If the car were mine it would probably get a 454 or something of that nature but that’s just me; overkill.
Since the '69 RS is a desireable model you would want to retain the 307 for any future conversion back to factory original.
Yeah I plan on keeping it stock not building it up. Just wondering what are the basic parts to do this. I am 16 and don’t have a lot of money
The 327 is one of my all time favorite engines. Very very durable…can be modified to put out a lot of HP…But even stock with the Rochester quadrajet and the 2-speed power glide…it’s got a lot of power.
The 307 is a durable engine…but you’re not going to get a lot of HP out of it.
I had a .030 over 283 in a 57 Bel Air with a 4-speed that won many a race in the early 70’s. All the small blocks had good performance potential. A friend had a 307 Nova with a 3 speed auto that was a real hoot to drive, you can still have a good ride with your 307.
Yeah I love the 307 and wouldn’t change it just looking to clean it up like new.
Yeah I love the 307 and wouldn’t change it just looking to clean it up like new.
The 307 is actually a small block Oldsmobile engine and except for the straight 6 was the least desirable engine option.
The basic parts are eight pistons which come with wrist pins, a re-ring kit, camshaft and lifters, freeze plugs and main bearings. You have to measure the main and rod journals to determine if any of them need undersize bearings. You don’t want to find out by getting low oil pressure. You may save some dollars by asking for a reground camshaft. Oil pump.
On an old engine, change the rocker arms before they break. Old valve springs are no good unless tested, then they are still no good. Change all exhaust valves if old.
If a ten ton press won’t get a wrist pin out, throw the piston and rod in the trash and get a new rod. A ten ton is adequate for a 307. If a rod won’t touch a piston skirt, a new piston is required.
I wouldnt put a big block in it. Stick with the 327 or 350
Since you have a desireable car and if it’s straight and original, I’d probably leave the 307 in there although it’s not one of my favorite motors due to it being somewhat anemic in comparison to others.
There is no way of knowing what this motor may or may not need as we do not know anything about the engine. Any noises/knocks, flashing oil light, any smoking, compression figures, etc.
You may be interested to hear a story about the 69 Camaros. Back in 1969 the Chevy dealer here put up a new store on the west side of town on the four lane. The area was not too heavily built up at the time.
One Monday morning they opened up and discovered that someone had pulled the motors/transmissions out of 2 '69 Camaro Z-28s along with taking all of the wheels and leaving both cars on blocks. The kicker was that they did this on the lot underneath the mercury vapor lighting. The engines were the 302 DZ motors and the thieves were never caught.
Now that took some intestinal fortitude to pull off.
Wow that’s pretty crazy and really nice to hear about the history of these cars.
But actually what’s wrong with it is the engine was burning oil really bad. And after finally getting it all tore apart last night I have found that in the bearings to the crank from all the pistons and front and rear mains had groves pretty bad.
This is not good, you’re talking about grooves worn into the crankshaft, right? Not the oil distribution groove in the bearing? If so, then the cam bearings may also be shot. And for it to be burning oil the rings/cylinders sound like they’re in bad shape. Doesn’t sound like any kind of a rebuild was done on it, or the oil pump failed. Go to a bookstore or Amazon or the library and find books on engine rebuilding, or google it. You’ve got quite a project on your hands, you’ll learn a lot!
Also, the 307 was a Chevy small block, ‘a 327 crank in a 283 block’ according to one Camaro web site. A few years later there was an Olds 307, but this isn’t it.