Usually I get to pick the project but this time, it picked me.
My daily driver (well, almost daily) 71 Cheyenne 20 pickup developed a good sized oil leak. I've been chasing it for a few days now and found it was dripping from the back of the oil pan. I figured it was probably just oil pan gasket/seals so I spent 2 days lying on the driveway replacing it. WRONG! Leaks just as bad after all of that. (this is the most irritating part! I hate wasting time)
My best guess is probably the rear main seal. ??? The engine served me well but it's time to move on, not worth tearing it down to replace a main seal so my first thought is to yank this one and toss in a good used 350 I've been saving for just such an emergency. Then, build a nice new 350 over the winter for it. That is until I discovered a crate engine at Summit:
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/nal-10067353/overview/make/chevrolet
This truck is a work horse. It has the sm465 4 speed so it's no racer by any means. It currently has a 305 from a 1984 camaro I got from a junkyard. (was a rebuilt unit and fresh at that time) I'm only looking for reliability and not high performance so the crate engine sounds like the best choice for this truck. Agree???
This way, I can do the R&R once and avoid all the hassle of magna fluxing, machine work, heads, etc. (although I wouldn't mind putting another one together, I'm weird I guess but I have fun doing things like that)
So unless someone has something better I should consider, I may go this route. I like to seek the wisdom of "my people" on things like this first. ( you have until tomorrow to talk me into or out of this!)
My daily driver (well, almost daily) 71 Cheyenne 20 pickup developed a good sized oil leak. I've been chasing it for a few days now and found it was dripping from the back of the oil pan. I figured it was probably just oil pan gasket/seals so I spent 2 days lying on the driveway replacing it. WRONG! Leaks just as bad after all of that. (this is the most irritating part! I hate wasting time)
My best guess is probably the rear main seal. ??? The engine served me well but it's time to move on, not worth tearing it down to replace a main seal so my first thought is to yank this one and toss in a good used 350 I've been saving for just such an emergency. Then, build a nice new 350 over the winter for it. That is until I discovered a crate engine at Summit:
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/nal-10067353/overview/make/chevrolet
This truck is a work horse. It has the sm465 4 speed so it's no racer by any means. It currently has a 305 from a 1984 camaro I got from a junkyard. (was a rebuilt unit and fresh at that time) I'm only looking for reliability and not high performance so the crate engine sounds like the best choice for this truck. Agree???
This way, I can do the R&R once and avoid all the hassle of magna fluxing, machine work, heads, etc. (although I wouldn't mind putting another one together, I'm weird I guess but I have fun doing things like that)
So unless someone has something better I should consider, I may go this route. I like to seek the wisdom of "my people" on things like this first. ( you have until tomorrow to talk me into or out of this!)