The engine for $350 is a good deal if the owner knows the mileage on it. the 22r's are usually bullet proof when taken care of i.e. general maintenance.

If your current crank and block needs work, and you bought the truck to use daily, not as a project, I would go ahead and pick up the engine for $350 and install it, then do a performance rebuild on the old block at your leisure.

I believe he said 160k but there could be something wrong with it as well. You cant trust anyone nowadays!

Ive got most of everything unhooked. I got the radiator removed, I believe I like 3 bolts that hold the tranny and engine together, and just the exhaust, both motor mounts are loose. Anything else I should know, or be prepared for? Do I still have to lower the front differential or pull the whole engine out with a cherry picker?

I forgot to add, I have a 87 truck, the motor that is for sale is an 83, will everything work with my truck the same?

You'll need the exhaust manifold from the 83; read:

20R22R History

You also CANNOT swap head/block between the 83 and 87, due to the difference in deck heights. The TC chain is also 3 links different, so keep that in mind for future scrapping. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

got ya, thanks for the quick response.

If you are in a state that has smog checks, you can't use an earlier engine in a later vehicle, the engine must be from the same year or later.

Seems like there is one bolt on the top of the tranny/engine bellhousing that is a real pain to access, you may have done it already... but it seems like I ended up removing the mounts and lowering the motor a bit (onto the differential) to make reaching it easier.

So far I have only removed 3 bolts from the tranny they were the only easy ones. How many more are there? Isnt there a bolt that goes inside the bell housing or something that is a pain?

Take a look at the FSMs posted here in the forum, they should have blow-ups of all the bolts around teh tranny. Hell it should have complete step-by-step instructions for removing the motor. I know my '88 paper-based one does.

I think there are maybe 7 or so. Seems like one of the starter "bolts" is actually threaded into the tranny, so it must come out, and the other is a stud sticking out from the tranny.
There are 2 or 3 that are studs coming from the tranny side.
Can't recall if they are all the same size... seems like tehre were 1-2 oddballs (like the starter stud).