Engine advice—How screwed am I (pics)

Erik the Awful said:

Also, it's absolutely worth it to upgrade to a roller cam. Hopefully your block already has roller cam provisions. Get all the bits from a junkyard L31 and it becomes a cheap upgrade.

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cj8scrambld said:

I can see the block has provisions for the roller (bosses), they even drilled/tapped.

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mayvillain said:

I do agree an engine replacement is optimal, however spending $1k to have a truck that runs around town vs $5k+ for a new motor is a better scenario for me at the moment (just had our first kid, literally yesterday).

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mayvillain said:

Thank you so much for the reply! I'm overwhelmed with the support in this community, but I want to follow up with your response as this sounds like my situation.

After closer inspection, both head gaskets are blown out in the exact spots you indicated. After reading this, my goal is to continue with my cylinder head job (I am also replacing the radiator, water pump, and timing chain).

A few other things I wanted to respond to in the "Was it a smooth running truck?" line of questions:

1. Oil pressure: I think the gauge was broke when I bought the truck ~2 years ago; it just kinda fluctuates all crazy, off the charts, etc. I will fix that.

2. Oil burning: About 1 quart every 3,000 miles.

3. Overheating: About 5 months ago, my idler tension pulley burnt out on the freeway, kicked the serpentine belt off, and my truck overheated. I replaced all the parts, but I'm wondering if this was the start of my problem...

4. Smooth operation: The truck runs great overall, the ONLY thing I can think of is that at very low RPM (like coasting through a parking lot on cold start) sometimes the truck will 'lug' or 'lurch', almost like you're about to stall a manual transmission (the truck is auto). It's noticeable because it will jolt you a little bit.

I do agree an engine replacement is optimal, however spending $1k to have a truck that runs around town vs $5k+ for a new motor is a better scenario for me at the moment (just had our first kid, literally yesterday).

Thank you again for the advice. I will vacuum out all the gasket debris in the cylinders, examine the cylinder walls, clean the pistons (not sure with what yet), and proceed with my cylinder head project (valves, etc.)

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Twin_Flyer said:

Rebuilding the heads will likely put more load on the bottom end and any small issues now (1 quart/3000 miles) will get worse and didn't want any warranty headaches. In fact, they wouldn't do an engine swap unless I bought a crate engine. Again, not worth their time they said.

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Erik the Awful said:

Rebuilding the heads will not put any more load on the bottom end than it was designed to handle. Sure, if the bottom end is weak, this might break it, but bottom end failure is not tied that strongly to head gasket failure. They're making excuses.

If they make you aware of that the bottom end is not warrantied, there's no headache. If your bottom end fails soon after, you'll know your engine was wore out. Take your lumps and move on.

Not worth their time? They can f* off. An engine swap is a nuts and bolts problem; long, but easy. In my opinion a head gasket replacement requires more skill from a tech. He has to have his eye on everything to ensure there aren't any other underlying problems. It pays less, but can be accomplished quicker. They're just pressing the easy button and hoping you go with it.

Congratulations on the new kiddo!

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