[Josue]

....and not even engine "building", just reassembly of everything from the long block up...

I bought a used 350 to go in my car, and I was going to try and get by for a few more years just installing it as-is and keeping my fingers crossed that it was a good motor. (budget issues) After tearing it down for inspection though, I realized how much of a pain it would be to regasket what I could, spend hours and hours cleaning and painting it, install, only to find out that the motor should have been rebuilt in the first place. So I had a local engine shop throw a stock-ish rebuild/freshening up. I had them install a Summit 2800 cam too.

Now that it's time to throw everything back together, I'm getting a bit nervous! Mostly because I've gotten burned in the past by things I/we (dad included) didn't know we didn't know. Couple examples; had a cam installed in the mid 2000's in the original 350, told the salesman at Summit what our goals were, and he sold us a cam and lifters. Had them installed by a friend's dad who was a GM mechanic and a old school guy, and the car drove like crap for the better part of a decade. Overheated, wouldn't stay running, trans clunked into gear, etc. Turns out, nobody along the way told us we should have upped our torque converter!! Similarly, nobody told us that we should be running different oil, or at least have a zinc additive for the flat tappet cam....so it wiped a lobe out last season after a few thousand miles.

Those 2 issues are directly related, but that was done at a time where I wasn't even aware of the plethora of forums and information the internet really had to offer, or else I definitely would have done my research and discovered those were necessary steps to take to avoid the situation we were in all those years. Which brings me to today. It was fine and dandy to strip down a carb to pan motor to have it rebuilt, but I don't want to miss anything in the reassembly process that will burn me in the end! Up to but not including....

-any torque specs that need to be adhered to?
-should I get a new balancer bolt? or reuse the original?
-any weird "make sure you don't forget this little guy..." gaskets or seals?
-can the flywheel go on any direction? or does it need to be "clocked" with the crank in any way?
-I've never installed a distributor, any tricks there? Or just down the hole, and throw the bracket and bolt on?
-looks like the gasket kit the engine shop sent home is all cork and rope seals, is there a better kit? I've never messed with rope seals before. How much gasket maker is needed here, and where?

Sorry if these seem like silly questions. I'm sure 98% of this forum can throw an engine together in their sleep, but again, I just want to make sure I don't NOT do something because I simply didn't know. Come to the forums with a problem later this year, and have you guys go..."Oh geeze, you didn't do THIS?? EVERYONE knows that, dummy!!" lol

Are there any good books available on this? Or am I just overthinking this whole topic, and I should just throw everything back on as I took it apart?