same here Jim. i have everything out in the shop to tighten that truck rite up, but i am 2800 miles away on the other coast.

 

I hear you, you’d have to find a place to do it. Some places have a shop space you can rent for a weekend, or a friends garage, etc.

There’s a range of prices on car-part.com, $300-1,000. I bet if you were at a junkyard with cash in hand, they’d make a deal rather than let you walk away. I bought one, 30 day warranty, pulled and loaded on my trailer for $360 usd 2 or 3 yrs ago, and I live in no man’s land. No to your question, I mean just a regular junkyard, pick n pull, salvage yard, recyclers - who ever has one for sale. I doubt any do it anymore, but some yrs ago would help you swap it out right there, I think those days are long gone. But worth asking around.

As far as technical resources (how to) YouTube can be a help, lots here will help you through it, I wouldn’t worry about that part. Haynes manual probably has everything you need in it. Might make a fun project for you and your girl.

Might even find a backyard mechanic that can do it for you on weekends and evenings in his garage, and you helping. Try asking in your California FTE chapter. You never know, someone may know of a cheap engine and help you get it going again.

As above, if I were closer I’d help out too. Good luck with it.

 

Wading in here late in the game.

That noise sounds valve train related. It seems to be about 1/2 crank speed, and rises and falls with RPM.

The lighter oil didn't cause it.

A bit of a tear down might reveal it and it might be fixable.

But--can you park it until you get the job and money situation figured out?

OP is in CA, so an engine change will require things to be put back exactly as it sits so it will smog and not throw any flags for the smoggy.

No sense trying to do half fixes or shortcut it--better to sell it as a lame duck.

Good luck.

 

good advice, is that tear down including taking the engine out? It is parked in the driveway, I have an another car, that’s why I was willing to buy an older truck I always had other means of transport.

Might be a dumb question but if I do take the engine out, it has to be stored inside if I open it up right?

 

Really appreciate you guys offering the help. It makes me smile having people be so willing. It seems like she’s frozen until I get the ***** to open it up,and I source a welder to get that crack fixed.

I sourced some flat stock that I’m going to bend and cut to fit for the future.

one last thing if anyone might know but I’ll drill the ends of the crack, fill it, how big should the plate be to be safe? Is there a recommended way to repair and reinforce it

 

Valve covers first. Check for anything funny.

Front cover next. See what is happening with the timing gears and chain, and maybe take a peek into the oil pan. If you have one of those inspection cameras you can see more.

Intake. That will expose the cam and lifters to a great degree.

You should cover and "seal" any open engine. Remove all coolant and debris.

You may find the issue or be on to full engine removal.

 

I haven’t heard the video, so can not comment.

If it can be repaired without removing as suggested above, you can do it in your driveway. Get a tent, or tarp and rig up a cover above you. Just needs to be enough to keep the elements off. You can cover up the open engine itself with another smaller tarp and bungees for the night. Set up a cheap camping tent in front of the truck to work in if necessary. Even a garden shed to work in if you remove the engine.


As far as structural repairs, you’ll have to get access to it and see what it takes. From the look of it, it looks like the crack extends over the top of the cross member, I can’t see in your pic where it travels to. If it is the same as a 250, the cross member is welded to the frame as well as riveted.

It will be difficult to access the top of the cross member from inside the bottom of it, especially with the drop bracket in place.

Good luck with it, maybe you’ll get lucky with a bad timing chain or rocker etc.

 

So the noise is gone, I know it’s probably still done but any reason it would be gone and turned into a new weird tinny noise? Very thin sounding, thin tink noise
heres a video: Link

 

sounds like something was loose in the engine, and fell into the oil pan.
i would run it and see if it stays quiet.

 

Not sure if it’s bad to revive posts but I’m looking for some more help, I ended up taking it to a shop for a run down. They said they removed the belt and the sound went away my engine sounds “great”, I didn’t know you could take the belt off and run it so that’s knowledge for next time.

anyways they called me and said it was my water pump, limped the truck back home, read the papers and noticed it said my air injection pump. So I called back, but this they time they doubled down on the air pump, so I was very confused because I googled the water pump on the phone with the mechanic and told them not to install since they wanted $900 for a part that was $70…

long story short I bought the stupid 300$ smog pump(thanks cali). Did not fix the sound.
my water pump is leaking already, should I just replace it anyways and see what happens?

 

Pick up a mechanic stethoscope. They are not expensive. It should come with a long metal rod. Listen to each component as it is running. Just be very careful working around the belt driven accessories and fan, remember you can’t see the fan when the engine is running.

Ive had bad bearings go in an out of balance in the past, meaning the noise could be intermittent, or only at certain rpm. You might need a helper to run the throttle.

For all you know, the new air pump could be bad right out of the box. Diagnose the issue is before spending any more on it. Pictures and you tube video would be a lot more helpful.

 

if the water pump is leaking ,replace it. a leaking pump will only cause more issues later when least expected.

 

Picked up a stethoscope, I poked everything I could reach and think of, couldn’t find the noise while it was quite loudly knocking, both the new smog pump and old water pump has a little whirring is all. Does that mean the shop was dumb and it’s internal? I poked what I thought was every pulley accessory, when I did my trip around the block I noticed it kicks in when uphill/load on the engine if it helps

 

Pull the belt off yourself, run the engine (for a short time only) this way you can confirm for yourself whether the noise is internal or accessory related.

The engine will be fine if you do this.

 

will it be ok hot for a sec, it seems like it doesn’t make much noise until I pull out of the drive way


I’ve read they recommend stone cold engine for belt off