busted block

I have a 327 and a 350. this will be my first 4bolt main 350 rebuild,  And being only 17 I hurried while taking out the soft plugs on the engine.  All of them came out fine, except for the one at the rear of the block, which covers the rear cam bearing.  While taking it out I hit the bearing and caused it to "bur".  I tried fitting the cam back in, but it was short by a 1/4".  I was wondering if this could  be machined and would still be worth the rebuild, or should I junk it and try not to make the same mistake on the 327?  

NO... don't toss that block! If you are taking the freeze plugs out to clean the engine, your cam bearings will be no good anyway. I would suggest taking it to a recommended machine shop where they will remove the cam bearings and "dip" your block. Buy a new set of cam bearings (about $20) and the shop will install them. After all this, if your cam still will not go into the block smoothly, the shop may not have installed the bearings perfectly straight (happened to me). I LOVE to rebuild engines myself, so If you have any other questions, please post here, or email me directly at lotsokids@netzero.net. We all have a lot to learn, but you definately have a jump on it starting at 17.

Today's trivia: Did you know that the 350 and 327 share the same block? Both had casting #3970010 with 4-inch bores. The 327's stroke was shorter.

Thanks for the heads up.  I have another question that involves the head from my 327 out of a 65 C20.  I was talking to a guy that said placing the 327 heads on to the 350 block would give me more horsepower and torque.  I am planting the negine into an off-road truck, and wondered what you thought?  Also, do you know where I could find a place to find the numbers on my block that would tell me how much HP and stuff it had at stock.  thanks  

I could see how the 327 heads would give you more torque down low(where I would think you would need it for off-roading) becasue of the smaller runners and chamber for the smaller cubes it was meant for.  I wouldn't hink that it would give you bigger hp numbers because, being a smaller head and with the extra cubes of a 350, it will end up choking the engine around 5000 or so.  You might want to do some more investigating with flow numbers and intake runner size and stuff to see if this is true, though, just a thought on my part.