When I bought my car 2 years ago, I thought the 340 was a worn out stock engine, since the oil was very dark, smelled burnt, and when I hit the pedal the oilpressure dipped, so the light came on. It was also leaking oil everywhere (on the headers while driving) and headers leaked also, so it really had a clunker feel to it. Previous owner did not know much about the engine he said.
Taking it out and apart now, I find that it has TRW 10:1 forged pistons, a forged crank (maybe someone can confirm this with the picts?) A Crane camshaft HMV 278-2 NC, a pretty mild street camshaft I think. An Edelbrock aluminium intake. The heads are the later 360 model with the small intake valves though. Seems to me that the engine is pretty good except for the heads, called around today and to fix those heads with larger valves and a regular valve job for unleaded gas is around $800-1000. For just a bit more cash I can get Edelbrock heads. Is that a better option for me?
The camshaft chain needs to be replaced, seems a bit loose. Cam and lifters looks good, cam bearings looks good, have not checked the other bearings yet. Should I take the pistons out and replace rings and bearings anyways? I have no idea how many miles is on this engine, but since the cam chain is kinda loose... and the oil is dark, also lots of black oil residue on top of the pistons. (see pict, but I wiped off some to see the numbers.
