Thanks for scaring me with the pic's. You know the look that Curley of the Three Stooges would get when he saw somthing disturbing. Thats the look I got. I think I will be doing a cooling system flush in the near future.

I hear ya Bill, that amazed me too. He's smart and modest...

Eddy, I'm thinking along those lines. I've replaced the lifters before, but I'm going to do it again. I've got 2 new sets now, 1 made in Korea and 1 made J apan. Guess which I'll be using. I've got a Fel-pro head set; sufficient? Or should I get a couple head gaskets from OE? The machinist will be doing a valve lap/grind with alot of new stuff in the head, just for good meaure and parts are cheap for me. I may come get you to help me prep the decks, ok? What was that Costa Rican concoction you were inclined to imbibe in, again?

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Thank you for being so succinct, Jim...

Larry, I got the whole "head set" from the dealer when i did mine. Do you want me to get you the part number? If I remember correctly, I spent ~$250 (worth it for all the trouble it is to get to all these gaskets). Let me know if you want me to look through my stuff.

I was just shocked. She was purring when I last seen her a few weeks back. What did you do to her?

I think I sold my spare 3.0L heads - not sure yet. But I do have my block left over from the scrapped 89. I had it hot tanked and new freeze plugs put in. Nothing else. Still bare. If you need it. Still have the crank, lower end and most of upper end left too.

Keep me in mind. I can still piggyback freight into my Buford work sporadically.

Best of luck to you though.

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Jon, thanks for the thought. I talked to Eddy last nite and he said he saw nothing wrong with the Felpro gasket. I've already been comped a full set and a head set. I may be comped all the other stuff, but that rep's out for a couple weeks and can't be reached right now.

Thanks for the offer Jim. I may take you up on the block one of these days. I'd like to put one on a stand and take my time doing the rebuild myself. Frank's offered to do it for me, and that's probably better quality than doing it myself. But, it still ain't ME doing it. And I feel like it'd be a labor of love, being Dad's truck and all...

More pics in a minute that should be less fuzzy. Mainly for Eddy's benefit, because he's watching from home. Really bummed I couldn't come get you man. It just wasn't the day for it....

Frank, I looked real close at the edges on the ring on the head and saw no chunks missing, guess that was an optical illusion. I've lost motivation to do anything on it today as it's hot and I'm a wuss. It apparently skipped spring and jump straight into summer... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/baby.gif" alt="" />

My main desktop PC at home is down, so when I looked at your pictures on the laptop, it looked like a chunk was missing. On the office PC, I can see it was a stain and not a missing piece.

Those heads sure look nasty..... the good news is the valves look ok.

You can probably get some more life from the engine, but here's my case for a full rebuild:

1) You have already done a lot of the work required to completely remove the engine.
2) You have already decided to take the truck out of commission for a while.
3) You already have at least an oil pan leak and it's not easy to fix that without dang near pulling the engine.
4) The engine has - what - 225,000 miles?
5) You get the parts cheap.
6) A machinist owes you a favor.
7) It would be a shame to rework the heads, put it all back together and have to take it down again any time soon.... and do much of the same work over again.

If you decide on a rebuild, I'll be happy to help by assembling the engine - but - you can do the rebuild yourself and would probably feel great about it when you finish. We can walk/talk you through it step-by-step..... it ain't rocket science..... just requires some attention to detail.

One suggestion before you get too far, though. If you decide to do a rebuild yourself, clean one piston top and the deck area around that piston before you disassemble the engine - then measure how far the piston rises above the deck at TDC. It helps to use a piston stop and a dial readout, but you can get close with a straightedge across the piston and feeler gauges between the straightedge and the deck. You may need to know that number later.

Frank

Maybe they will have an April freeze with snow up in the mountains like last year? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I'll be watching this thread, the Gen1 LWB I'm picking up has a blow head gasket and 183k miles...maybe time for a turbo swap or rebuild and timing belt? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />