Resurrecting Clifford the big red 87 R3500

[DoubleDingo]

A lift gate would be very nice. A friend of mine has done a dump bed conversion on one of his trucks. That could come in handy too.

 

[Georgeb]

It is except the stupid PO loaded all sorts of too heavy of stuff in there and then proceeded to let engines and trannys roll around. So a rot free box is all beat to hell. Its so bad the bolts for the bottom of the bulkhead are ripped through and it was pressed up tight against the back of the cab. I pulled it back with a chain hoist so it wouldn't rub for now. I think I will need to just coat it with POR and then drop a plastic liner into it since it is a pain to shovel anything out of it's so wash-boarded!

 

[Georgeb]

Playing catchup here. I ordered all the parts I needed to replace my rear brakes about two weeks ago and finally finished up the work. Other than the front parking brake cable and reattaching the pedel assembly to the firewall. The PO just stomped on it hard enough to rip the nuts though the firewall. I also replaced the brake line to the rears and all the hoses. The rear line failed a few blocks from home with the boat in tow. Good thing it didnt happen at the boatlaunch. Of course all the jerking around the fuel lines resulted in a repair to the pressure line as it sprung a leak while I was there. I planned on replacing all three when I have the box off for body work anyway.

 

[Georgeb]

So while chasing my coolant usage issue I found this. It wasn't washed like it was leaking but it is certainly a crack! Anybody ever seen a crack like this that wasnt leaking?

 

[MadOgre]

Did you build the motor? Is it sleeved ?

 

[Georgeb]

No, I have no history on this motor at all. I know someone had the intake off at some point and while it wasnt "washed" cleanly there were some old gunky puddles of coolant in the valley. It was using coolant very slowly and not burning it. The rockers are rusty and gunky and it has the yellow green snot residue in the valve covers. No water visible in the oil or on the stick. I don't know if it's sleeved. I am going to assume it is leaking coolant there but not very quickly. I will also put up some pics of the valvetrain. Basicly this motor is sick and going on the books to be replaced. It ran good enough to put back together for now and move on the the body work I guess.

 

[Georgeb]

Yummy!

 

[Georgeb]

Ok, so its back together and running again. I am not sure if that crack was actualy leaking or not but that motor is sure gunked up. Not sure what I want to do about it yet. I am tempted to buy a gm long block but I don't see one listed for a truck with a 9800 gvwr. I think the heavier trucks had a lower compression engine other than that I don't see why it wouldn't work. I did come across this if it's still available.
http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/pts/5038859274.html

On a differentt note. The idle hunting during warmup didn't change so I guess it's component related somehow. I got my adapter for connecting with tunerpro so I will putz with that a bit tomorrow.

 

[Georgeb]

I made my cable and am connected to the ECM logging data! This is sweet!

 

[Georgeb]

here is my $10.00 cable.

 

[MadOgre]

Ok, so its back together and running again. I am not sure if that crack was actualy leaking or not but that motor is sure gunked up. Not sure what I want to do about it yet. I am tempted to buy a gm long block but I don't see one listed for a truck with a 9800 gvwr. I think the heavier trucks had a lower compression engine other than that I don't see why it wouldn't work. I did come across this if it's still available.
http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/pts/5038859274.html

On a differentt note. The idle hunting during warmup didn't change so I guess it's component related somehow. I got my adapter for connecting with tunerpro so I will putz with that a bit tomorrow.

I guess $500 is ok for a working engine/transmission combo. But it looks like is well used.

You can probably clean the heads up nice from your current motor and install on a new short block?

And yes that block is just scrap metal

 

[Georgeb]

Yesterdays $25.00 score!

 

[Georgeb]

I guess $500 is ok for a working engine/transmission combo. But it looks like is well used.

You can probably clean the heads up nice from your current motor and install on a new short block?

And yes that block is just scrap metal

Yup I figured. I think since I can do engine work any time of year I will move on to the body work. I was thinking about just running this one until it gets worse or fails or I get around to doing something like a long block. Any suggestions regarding a good long block source? I have a buddy at a GM stealership so I thought I would check with him......

 

[MadOgre]

Check the wreckers first I found a brand new engine once that buddy ran into a pole! the truck was toast but the engine was still new! Im still running that engine

 

[HotRodPC]

So while chasing my coolant usage issue I found this. It wasn't washed like it was leaking but it is certainly a crack! Anybody ever seen a crack like this that wasnt leaking?

Where is this crack? Can you get another backed up pic so we can see where it's at? I see a pushrod I believe. So does this mean it's in the valley of the block?