Hi All,

New here to the forum and just purchased a 94 crew cab 350 XLT with ZF5 transmission. It is a mid 94 so not a power stroker. The engine has been partially disassembled and from what I can tell (looking from the front of the pickup and into the engine bay) a lot of the parts on the top of the engine have been removed including the left head. The closest piston to the firewall is heavily damaged on top from a valve breaking off and lodging sideways in the valve seat. I have a receipt from the previous owner of this engine being rebuilt 5 years ago by a shop. The longblock was $3995 according to the receipt and the engine now has approximately 40K miles but I do not know how hard it was driven and abused. The purchase included another longblock 7.3 with the heads removed but included. This engine has some micro cracks on the top of some of the pistons. My inclination is to remove the oil pan from the engine that is currently in the pickup, remove the rod and piston, hone the cylinder. Replace the rod, piston, and rings with a good piston from the extra engine and use new bearings and rings on the used rod and piston. Then I would clean up the left side head from the extra engine and just clean up the valve train and do a leak check. I would then assemble the engine and try to get it running. I assume that as long as I have good compression in all the cylinders at that point, I would be good to go. I am not looking to keep this engine, I just want to get it going so I can use the pickup until I can rebuild the spare engine up. Any sound advise would be greatly appreciated. Also, keep in mind that I am trying to keep this as low cost as possible and I am capable of doing all the work myself or with a little help from friends.

In addition, I will be looking for a full engine rebuild kit for the spare 7.3 engine soon. Please let me know of one that is reasonably good quality and does not cost a fortune. Just looking for rings, gaskets, and bearings.

Thanks,

Alex

 

well if you can get the oil pan out, good luck. not alot of room to work with it in the truck. i jad a similar story with mine, but with a peice of glow plug. i pulled the motor, and did a whole rebuild. not bad

 

I've done those kinds of repairs before, I say go for it! I was going to suggest new rod bearing on that piston, but you got that covered. It's possible the carnage upstairs smashed the bearing some.

If the engine's been rebuilt before you may need oversize rings and bearings. In fact if that's the case you'll probably need a piston if it's not running standard size and the other engine is.

 

I got a complete rebuild kit from Grumpy's out of oregon for my 6.9 for around $1200.00 about 2 years ago they are on E bay.