My truck didn't fare well moving from UT to PA last year. It was fully loaded with furnishings in the bed, and was towing my car on a trailer behind it...for almost 2200 miles!! To make a long story short, I blew a head gasket on the trip and didn't catch it 'til I was about 300 miles from my destination. I had no other choice than to keep putting oil and coolant in her, and hope for the best. She made the trip, but without the ability to go any further than her new home...where she siezed up and died.

I located another truck for parts, and am happy to report that she is now at a mechanic's house, having the engines swapped out.

I plan on pulling a few other parts off of the donor truck such as the roof visor, seat and side glass...but there isn't much left worth anything. Perhaps the tranny and transfer case, but that's about it.

Hopefully, by this time next week, she'll be back up and running. I have a side business opportunity that she'll be put to work for, hauling junk out of foreclosed properties for different realty companies.

I'm stoked to get her back on the road!!!

 

The replacement engine is supposedly a low mile Jasper 302. If this one doesn't last, I'll look for another. The guy is charging me $300 to do the work, and is swapping all the new parts off the old engine over. I just had to supply the oil and coolant for him.

His wife just called and told me that the donor truck is ready to be picked up and taken to the junkyard. That means that my truck should be done by the end of the weekend!

He's going to swap the tranny in my Lincoln for $150...I like the prices. I usually do my own work, but I don't have a garage where I moved to...yet. I'm in negotiations to buy the garage across the street from my house for $17k. It would cost me $20k plus to be able to build what I really want.

 

I just got the call...she'll be done by 6pm tomorrow. I'm really happy about this!

 

Well...her release had been delayed, but it's looking like tomorrow or Saturday to get the old girl back. We had to source a new exhaust manifold, since one of them was cracked, and the ones that were still connected to the old engine weren't in much better shape.

I was able to locate a pair locally, and had them cleaned up and ready to go on for less than $30, counting gaskets.