By: Eldon Triggs

                                                        My 1955 265 CID Chevrolet V8 Rebuild

             This article will cover my purchase, tear-down, machining, and rebuild of a 1955 265 CID engine.  I hope that the article will provide assistance to those who are planning a similar rebuild and that they can use this information to save some time and money.  I will include pictures and scans of actual receipts whenever possible. 

             My name is Eldon Triggs and I own a 1957 Chevrolet Belair 4 door Hardtop, otherwise known as a “Sport Sedan.”  I spoke to a fellow Trifive.com member in regard to the motor that was listed in the classifieds on the website.  I purchased the engine in Florida on January 20, 2008 and brought it home to Alabama.  It is a 1955 style casting, but it has a cast date of January 16, 1957.  This was a warranty replacement casting as there are no VIN numbers stamped on the pad. 

The engine was complete minus the distributor and air cleaner.  I started that very night disassembling the motor to see what I had.  From the initial overview, the motor looked to be in good shape.  It did need some serious work on the crankshaft as the bearings were pretty bad.  I pulled the heads and found that one head was a replacement (casting # 3703523) with a cast date of September 1, 1954.  The other head (casting # 3837064) was cast on June 14, 1957.  I took the block, heads, and crank to Benning Auto Parts and Machine (www.benningautoparts.com) later that week.  Here is a list of work that was done to it:

This is what I paid for the machine work and parts in the long block.  I did all of the assembly myself in terms of the rotating assembly.  I had the shop assemble the pistons, rods, and rings.  This did not include the exterior parts.  I will list them next.  As for the part numbers of the items listed above, I will include them at the end of the article in a list. 

I had the machine shop connect the oil galley holes in the rear cam bearing area to provide “full-flow” oiling.  This allowed me to use a '57 and newer distributor.  Here is a picture of what it looks like:

The oil slinger is an optional item and I left it out.  It is the circular metal piece that fits over the crank snout under the timing chain cover.  Here is a list of the items that I have purchased for my engine.  Remember that this is quasi-stock in the sense that it is rebuilt, but I did not buy date-coded items.  That will drive the price up a lot.  This is a list of the major parts you will need.  Feel free to contact me for other parts that are not listed below and I can tell you where to get them.  Some were ordered by my shop and I have no idea where they got them, but you can take these numbers to your shop and they should have a listing of where to get them. 

 Parts List

Part                      Part Number              Location                        Notes/Price

 This is what the engine looks like now.