Ugh. This hurts.
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So I bought my C10 2 years ago. She had spent 15-20 years sitting in a neighbor’s backyard, slowly sinking into the dirt. The engine rotated over by hand with good compression, so when I bought her, I pulled the plugs and filled the cylinders with a mix of ATF and MMO, then I put the plugs back in and let it sit for a week. After that, I pulled the old plugs back out and cranked the engine to blow the fluid out. Then I put in new plugs, dropped a fuel hose from the pump to a gas can, and filled the carb bowls with TruFuel, then turned the key. I kid you not that she fired right up on the first try and idled.
I did a few other things to it (brakes, bearings) and I got too busy to continue — plus it was 110+ outside for like a month straight and I was
not working on my back on hot concrete. That was about 1.5 years ago that work stopped.
Fast forward to today. I decided that there were two ugly jobs I didn’t want to do holding up the truck from returning to the road: the clutch/ flywheel that needed replaced, and all the brake lines needed done. I decided I needed a shop to do those for me.
I just got the truck back today, and when I fired her up, she had a
LOUD knock that wasn’t there when I last ran her. The tech thinks it’s a rod, a friend thinks it’s lifters, I think it’s bad news.
The friend who thinks it’s lifters thinks it just needs to run for a few minutes to build up oil pressure, and the noise should go away. I’m nervous that running it may end up with a hole in the side of my block.
So I need help. I’m just getting to know Chevy small blocks (she’s a 350) and my buddy doesn’t know them at all.
My plan was to bring it home and do an oil change right away. She still has Bush Administration oil in her. Part of that oil change was going to involve Lucas oil treatment to help her out. I believe she has somewhere between 70-80,000 original miles, so I know tolerances are starting to widen, and a bit of honey in the oil will help.
The shop is 1.5 miles away. I was hoping to drive it home.
1) Should I let her warm up and see if the knock goes away without a thunk?
2) Do I need to look into a bottom end rebuild and is that something I can do with the engine in the truck?
3) If the engine is toast, will a late 80s or 90s 350 bolt in? And will that engine accept the OE intake and exhaust manifolds? I don’t have the time, money, or expertise to start messing with FI swaps and I have a brand new Holley Q-jet carb for her.
4) Thoughts? I don’t really know if there are questions I don’t know to ask…
